Crispy Falafel
This crispy baked falafel recipe is so easy to make and tastes incredible! Serve your falafel in pita sandwiches or salads. Gluten free.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
Raise your hand if you love falafel! I’ve gone back into the archives to highlight my all-time favorite homemade falafel recipe. Making falafel at home can be tricky, but this recipe is easy.
Six reasons to love this healthy falafel recipe:
- These falafels are golden brown and crispy on the outside. The insides are tender, delicious, and full of fresh herbs.
- They’re baked instead of fried, so they contain significantly less fat than fried falafel. And your house won’t smell like fried food for days. Winning!
- Once your chickpeas are sufficiently soaked, the falafel mixture comes together in no time. If you have someone to help shape the patties, they’ll come together even faster.
- These falafels are gluten free and vegan, so they’re a great party appetizer.
- These falafels freeze well, so they’re a fantastic protein-rich option to keep on hand for future salads and pita sandwiches.
- On that note, this recipe is easily doubled! See recipe notes.
Are you convinced yet? Let’s make some falafel!
How to Make the Best Homemade Falafel
Bake it, don’t fry it. I say this because frying requires a lot of sizzling hot oil, and that scares me. I also don’t have a good vent over my oven to take the fried food smell far, far away. Plus, you can use a reasonably amount of heart-healthy olive oil in the baked version.
Coat your rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. That way, you get a fried effect in the oven, and you don’t have to brush the little falafels individually with olive oil. Winning!
Use dried chickpeas, not canned. Canned chickpeas do not work for falafel. They’re far too wet. If you try to use canned chickpeas instead of dried and soaked chickpeas, you’ll end up with sad falafel pancakes. Some recipes try to counteract the wetness by adding flour, which significantly dulls the flavor and makes the texture more doughy.
Soak the dried chickpeas for at least four hours. If your chickpeas aren’t sufficiently softened, you’ll have unpalatably tough pieces of chickpea in your falafel. There’s just no workaround here.
Choose your dried chickpeas wisely. Try to buy your dried chickpeas from a store with high turnover, because old chickpeas need longer to soften. If you have options, pick the chickpeas that are the smallest, since they’ll soften faster.
Watch How to Make Crispy Falafel
Falafel Serving Suggestions
Serve falafel as an appetizer, wrap it into a pita sandwich, or add it to salad for a protein-rich topping. Falafel goes great with any of the following ingredients:
- Pita bread, warmed or toasted (tear it up for pita “croutons”)
- Fresh greens (such as spring greens or chopped romaine)
- Tomatoes, sliced
- Bell peppers, cut into strips
- Cucumber, thinly sliced
- Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
- Raw red onion, thinly sliced, or quick-pickled onions
- Feta cheese, crumbled
- Sauce: Something creamy like tzatziki, hummus, or tahini sauce, and maybe a spicy sauce like zhoug or shatta, too
Here’s a tahini dressing recipe that goes great with this falafel, too:
- 1/4 cup tahini
- Zest and juice of 1 small lemon
- 1 tablespoon white miso
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed
- 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
- Pinch of cayenne
- 1/3 cup water
In a small food processor, combine all of the ingredients and blend well. You can also whisk the ingredients together by hand in a small bowl, just note that you’ll need to chop the fresh herbs and zest more finely than you would if you were using a food processor.
Please let me know how you like these falafel in the comments! I hope you love them as much as I do. ♥
Crispy Falafel
This homemade falafel recipe is absolutely delicious, and remarkably crispy! Be sure to allow 4 hours soaking time for the chickpeas, preferably overnight. Then, the falafel mixture is super easy to make in a food processor. Recipe yields 12 to 13 falafels (see notes on how to double).
Ingredients
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup dried (uncooked/raw) chickpeas, rinsed, picked over and soaked for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours in the refrigerator
- ½ cup roughly chopped red onion (about ½ small red onion)
- ½ cup packed fresh parsley (mostly leaves but small stems are ok)
- ½ cup packed fresh cilantro (mostly leaves but small stems are ok)
- 4 cloves garlic, quartered
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon (about 25 twists) freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- With an oven rack in the middle position, preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour ¼ cup of the olive oil into a large, rimmed baking sheet and turn until the pan is evenly coated.
- In a food processor, combine the soaked and drained chickpeas, onion, parsley, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Process until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Using your hands, scoop out about 2 tablespoons of the mixture at a time. Shape the falafel into small patties, about 2 inches wide and ½ inch thick. Place each falafel on your oiled pan.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, carefully flipping the falafels halfway through baking, until the falafels are deeply golden on both sides. These falafels keep well in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, or in the freezer for several months.
Notes
Adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook.
Make-ahead option: I haven’t tried this, but the original recipe notes that the uncooked falafel patties can be refrigerated on a parchment-lined baking sheet, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 2 hours before baking.
How to double this recipe: Preheat the oven with two oven racks near the center of the oven. Double all of the ingredients. If you have a large food processor (guessing 11+ cup capacity), you can mix all of the ingredients at once. Use two baking sheets, and swap their positions (top to bottom, bottom to top) when you flip the falafel halfway through baking.
Recommended equipment: I love my 11-cup food processor (affiliate link).
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
‘Za compromize: I used an herb combo simpler than yours, soaked the chickpeas overnight (they are hydrated enough to eat unprocessed after that, like off the bush), but added some whole wheat flour. Since I didn’t want to spend even the time to make patties, I just oiled my pan and flattened the whole mass like I do for pizza crust. (I kept the edge a little away from the pan rim.) The 30 minutes at 375 on turbo (Oster toaster oven) did fine to bake it. Not burned, not pasty. The bottom browned and the top got a little golden. This is definitely not crispy falafel, but it has a good taste for a high-protein bread-like dish. My son made tzaziki sauce.
Thanks for sharing, Laura.
Made these tonight with your tahini sauce recipe and it was delicious! Some of the best falafel I’ve had in a long time, better than the restaurant! And they are baked not fried!
It’s a keeper, will make it again! Thank you!
You’re welcome, Natalie!
Hi Could someone tell me if im meant to boil the chickpeas before using? or is it ok to just drain after soaking and blend?
it’s ok, I just saw your response to someone else who asked the same question! thanks x
Drain after soaking and then follow the process step. You will cook them once the patties are made. I hope this helps!
Thanks Kate! I made them today and they came out lush! thanks for the recipe!! xx
This was a win for our family! I was a bit nervous after reading several reviews having issues with dryness. I believe your beans must not have been soaked properly. The older and the larger the bean, the more time is required to completely hydrate the bean.
I decided to use the quick soak method. Put beans in a pot with lots of water. Bring to a boil and then immediately turn off the stove. Do not open the lid, just leave to soak for 2 hrs. I opted to leave them for 4 hours. My herbs were also damp after rinsing; just gave them a quick couple of shakes. Not sure if this was part of their success, but they were very soft and moist with an outer crunch!
So glad I doubled the recipe. The 4 of us ate 15 tonight. Also my baking sheet is naturally a bit warped and I noticed that the falafel that were not sitting in oil held together better. I would suggest just a light coating of oil, so the edges dry out a bit more
Thanks Kate! I am adding to my recipe box.
Just a curious question, I wonder why you opted to leave out the flour paste that is in the ATK version that you based this off of?
Hii I tried to make it and went completely flat:( followed all the steps..and I haven’t used canned chickpeas..
I was a little hesitant while making these for a few reasons. 1) I only let my chickpeas soak for like 7 hours, and I wasn’t sure that would be enough (I actually did boiling water first, then drained after a few hours, and boiling water again, to try and speed it up) and 2) after adding cinnamon, I thought it might be overpowering.
But, I can confirm these are the best falafel I’ve ever made, and some of the better ones I’ve ever had! The cinnamon is actually a really nice addition, but I would not go over 1/4 tsp and might even recommend halving that if you aren’t too into cinnamon.
I air fried half of the batch (370 for 13 minutes, spritz of oil) and pan fried half the batch in oil. They were both really good. The oily ones were, of course, a little tastier, but I think I’d air fry them all next time for the sake of keeping them healthy!
Next time, I may just add a flax egg to the mix to help hold it together, but I didn’t have any issues with them being dry as others have said. They were a bit tough to keep together before they were cooked but after that they were totally fine.
Will definitely be making these again, they were a huge hit (especially with homemade pita bread!). Thank you!
Well, I’m glad you made it! Thanks for sharing what worked for you, Christina.
Brilliant recipe. Worked like a dream. Doubled the ingredients and froze 18 unbaked separated with baking paper. We only use 6 at a time for the 2 of us so now i have plenty in hand whenever I need them! Best falafel recipe I have ever come across. Thanks!
You’re welcome, Rose! Thanks so much for your review.
Not sure if the scaling for printing recipes was there before and I missed it or not, but it’s a great addition!
Have made these several times and they have turned our families reaction from “Feel-awful” to “we LOVE falafel”
Thank you
I’m glad you like the update! Thanks for your review, L!
I tried these for dinner tonight and they were delicious!
Great to hear, Rebekah!
These are so good! I baked them without oil on a baking mat.
Thanks for sharing, Chris!
I love the flavour of these Falafel but, as others have mentioned, they always turn out quite dry needing longer than 30 minutes to brown on both sides.
We had a few left-overs which were soft the following day. At home, I would have stuck them under the grill for a while, but I was out and ate them as afternoon snack.
Most Falafel I have had were on the dry side needing to be served with a dressing. The Tahini dressing is very nice! I make a similar dressing as salad dressing.
Despite turning out quite dry, I keep making these Falafels as healthy snacks. May be, one day, I’ll get it right :)
I’m sorry it wasn’t perfect for you, Celia. I’m glad you ended up loving it with the tahini!
Good news, Kate :)
I had another go today. This time, I made the falafels smaller (one tablespoon which makes 19 – 20 Falafels), baked them for just 30 minutes and they turned out crisp on the outside and not dry at all on the inside. May be cooking times also depend on the type of oven and the kind of tray used. For me today, this recipe has reached 5 stars! :)
I sure am glad I have another bag of chickpeas in my pantry! I made these today after soaking my chickpeas for 3 days! Just didn’t make time to cook them. But I did drain and refill with water twice a day, and actually sprouted the chickpeas! :-) Anyway, today I made them and they have fantastic flavor. Oh, man, I could eat half the batch by myself, but I shared and saved some for tomorrow. And I do have that bag in the pantry.
Thanks for sharing, Leon! I’m happy it worked well for you.
Hi. I’m dying to try this recipe for my son who is vegetarian. It mentions being able to freeze them for a couple of months. Do I freeze them before or after cooking. If before, do I defrost before cooking. If after, how do I reheat them.
Hi Sue! You will want to freeze them after cooking. I hope this helps!
Made this recipe for the second time. So delicious on a salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and tahini dressing. My husband also has them for a quick bite, better than potato chips!
Thanks for sharing, Judy!
I know baking is healthier but can they be fried? I don’t have AC and baking anything right now is not an option. Just curious, thanks.
You could try it, although I don’t have specifics for you since I made this one to be baked.
Frying works—oil needs to be 350-375 and about5-7 minutes until nicely browned. I use candy thermometer to make sure oil hot enough. I fry in my wok. Works great. Will try baking again as it is healthier.
Kate—i made this recipe. I soaked 1 bag of chickpeas—maybe that was two much? They were dry. I will make them again as I’m searching for perfect falafel recipe. Any suggestions? I absolutely LOVE your cookbook—have made many recipes and love them. Bought your app today so will continue to follow and communicate with you. Thank you!
Hi Rose, you really want to make sure you measure this and use the right quantity. How much was in the bag?
1 pound. I really don’t want to deep fry, but they turn out better. Would love any suggestions and I would try again. They didn’t brown evenly either, although it could be my oven…
1 lb is two cups, so you used double the chickpeas than the recipe calls for..
Was doing some internet research the other day at work and the falafel doodle kept coming up, so I caved and this recipe was one of the top links. Decided to try it mostly because it was baked. Was really craving falafel after all that and 24 hours seemed eternity for the beans to soak! But so worth it! I’ve only ever had cold falafel from the grocery store deli or from a box mix and I don’t think I can do either of those ever again!
Mine were not dry! The second time I made these, I tried checking my garbanzo beans after only 12 hours soaking. They were still hard in the middle. So 24 hours it is.
Also, I’m just brainstorming here: I wonder if dryness had to with whether folks used enough greens? I really packed mine tight into the measuring cup.
Didn’t bother with the homemade sauce, just plopped some hummus on my plate that I had in the fridge. But these were so yummy, I hardly bothered!
I’m glad you thought it was worth the time, Janet! Thanks for sharing.
I have been looking for a good falafel recipe for many many years. I finally found one! Thank you so much Kate! I love all of your recipes!!
You’re welcome, Tina!
Please note, cilantro is not in felafel in the Middle East. The mix up came because coriander is in felafel. Coriander is the plant that has leaves (cilantro) and seed pods (coriander spice). Only the seed pods are used, not the leaves. So many recipes for felafel call for coriander and Americans mixed up the part of the coriander plant that the recipe calls for.
I know this because I lived in Palestine, visited Greece, Egypt, and Israel and none of those places ever made felafel with cilantro leaves. They all used fresh parsley and the ground coriander pods in the felafel along with the beans and garlic.
My sisters and I love how easy and quick these falafels are to make! They paired perfectly with your tzatziki recipe and hands down are the best home version of falafels we have ever made!
Great combination! Thanks for sharing, Mary.
Made for my daughter. She loved it! Didn’t use the olive oil on pan or in the falafel recipe. Put down parchment paper in pan and put a little of some leftover aquafaba cooking water instead of the oil. She put them over a chopped salad of romaine, tomato, red onion, cucumber with a tahini sauce with garlic and lemon recipe from Serious Eats. She said definitely a keeper. Thanks for great recipe!
Thank you for sharing, Marina! Sounds like a great combination.
Delicious recipe!!! Thanks for sharing such tasty snack recipes.
You’re welcome, Akhila!
Hi! Thank you!
I have to admit I always boiled the chick- peas before utilizing them. then added lots of gram flour and they still didn´t come out right! You sound so convincing – I´ll give it a try!
Let me know how it works for you!
I saw some comments about the falafel being dry before I made them, so I made some changes:
-I soaked the chickpeas for 20 hours
-I used half of a large red onion
-Added 1 tbsp olive oil + a splash of lemon juice
-Did not pat dry the parsley after washing
(I also doubled the parsley and cumin instead of using cinnamon and cilantro because I don’t like either of those in falafel, and used a nutribullet to process them)
The patties were slightly wetter then the ones shown above but they stayed together beautifully and the taste and texture after the came out of the oven is AMAZING.
Thank you for sharing, Elizabeth!
Oh Kate, I do love your recipes! This was my 1st time using dried beans as well as making falafel. I soaked the chick peas covered in the fridge for about 36 hours. Followed the recipe exactly. Made a double batch. Absolutely delicious. I actually think they were more moist then I’ve had in restaurants. I also made tzatziki sauce & a cucumber Greek salad. Fantastic homemade healthy meal. Thanks Kate! I’ll be making a double batch every month to freeze in individual servings.
Thank you for sharing, Lisa! I appreciate your review.
OMG these are delish!!!
Bought fresher dry chickpeas from Whole Foods bulk. Soaked overnight~20 hours.
Made the tahini sauce- I could drink that
Thanks for sharing your recipe❤️
You’re welcome, Cindi! Thank you for your review.
OMG these are devine!!! I swapped the onion (too strong for me) for chives, and added mint – a must for falafels for me. And I shallow fried them as I couldnt wait 30 min. Drizzled with tahini. Just so good that I I’m having them for dinner too.
PS I’ve been using a few of your recipes lately and loving them, so have just bought your cookbook!
Thanks for sharing, Judy! I hope you love my cookbook.
Would you freeze this before or after baking if you were doing a big batch?
I would freeze after making!
These were delicious. My blender and food processor struggled to get the garbanzo beans fine enough, but after baking them the small amount of bigger pieces were soft enough. I substituted the greens for spinach because I forgot to get parsley and cilantro (also my husband doesn’t like cilantro) and it tasted great. I see in other comments that they were too dry, and mine were very moist, probably because of the spinach, which is a very watery plant. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for sharing, Sarah!
Hello! I wanted to check and make sure I’m understanding this correctly. The chickpeas are soaked and then processed. They are not cooked before you form the falafels? Excited to try this! Thanks
Hi Amy, correct! They get cooked once you cook the patties. Does that make sense?
the falafel are in the oven right now. i doubled the recipe and was barely able to make 12 falafel!
How big did you make them? What did you think of them?
Mine looked like yours. They were (are) delish!! I didn’t use the oil-just parchment.
Thanks for sharing, Andrea!
This came it delicious. I thought I’d try to fry a few just to see the difference but I ended up only baking because the first batch was so yummy!
Thank you for sharing, Aimee!
I followed this recipe exactly. This turned into mush. It tasted great but did not hold together. Is it missing an egg or something?
So so delicious! Thank you so much!
Since I was making them for the first time, I shallow fried them. Will bake the next batch, keep you posted.
You’re welcome! I’m happy you really like them.
This was an incredible dish. So easy to make. Doubled the recipe (we are a family of 6). Followed directions except only put in normal cinnamon amt (didn’t double).
Chopped up tomatoes, olives, pickles, cucumbers and put with falafel in pita. Added hummus and tahini sauce.
Kids loved it and it had amazing flavor!
I’m happy it was such a hit, Michelle!
Loved this easy falafel recipe! I had to stop myself from eating too many. Really nice flavor!
Wonderful to hear, Jennifer!
This is an awesome receipe. My very picky teenager ssid “mom, you should make more of this”. Have never heard that before! It was just hard to blend to a smooth paste even after 24 hours of soaking..windering if I can cook lightly to soften it before blending.
I love it! Thanks for sharing, GS.
I don’t generally cook so wanted something easy, healthy and tasty to have a go at.
This was as perfect as it could be for me and so eays to experiment with ingedient mixes a little!
And everyone who has tried my falafels have said they were wonderful (especially the ones where I added a chilli).
Thanks for putting this together :)
You’re welcome, Russel!
Loved these! We’re doing WW so I left out the oil from the pan and just put the falafel on parchment and they were great. I did a 24 hr soak time and did not find these dry at all. I made the falafel mixture and then let it sit in the fridge for a few hours until I was ready to bake them, which didn’t seem to affect anything. They reheat well and crisp up in the air fryer. I served with tzatziki and will definitely be making again soon.
I’m glad it worked so well for you, Sarah! Thanks for your review.
I can see how this could be great, but I am a newbie, this was my first experience soaking beans and I needed more pictures or a short video on how to judge when the beans are soaked enough, and after processing exactly how the mix should look which would tell me how to know if bean water should be added. After 26 hours my bean insides were still quite hard so I quick soaked. I doubled the recipe. My first batch I added 1/3c bean water and it was entirely too wet, had to throw it out. My second batch had a little more than half the beans, I added no bean water and it was too dry. Some of that thankfully was edible on the first day and it tasted quite good! The next day it was all dry crumbles though. I plan to try again without doubling because I REALLY want this to work! I believe Kate has it down, but this girl needs remedial bean help.
Hi Kathy, I’m sorry you were disappointed by this recipe. They should have been soft enough to blend at the 26 hour mark.
Thanks Kate, I don’t have a good source of small fresh chickpeas around here, maybe that’s my problem…one falafel recipe I checked said the beans are done soaking when they are pretty easy to smoosh on outside but the core still has a little bite left in it. The center of my beans were still quite hard – does this sound soaked enough? Thanks. I want to try this again! Love your site, learning a lot and making reluctant family converts happy.
I think you should let them soak a little longer. It can vary by beans, unfortunately.
Very good! Excellent taste. Would not hold together so put back in food processor for another minute. They held together when flipping but cracked a little at the end of cooking. will make again and add a little liquid or more olive oil to the mix.
We make these all the time! We freeze the uncooked patties on a cookie sheet for 1 day. Then I put 8-12 patties in a ziplock bag and put back in the freezer. The night before I plan to make them, I move the ziplock bag to the refrigerator to thaw.
Delicious! As with other reviewers, I added a little water to the mixture. Otherwise, I made this exactly as written. Thank you for this easy and tasty recipe :)
This is the best falafel recipe I’ve made so far. Previous ones have been too dry, because I’ve had to add flour to make sure they form balls properly. Baking them is a really good idea, and I will only do this from now on. You don’t have to worry about the balls falling apart this way, as opposed to when you deep fry it. I used only coriander and no parsley, and a whole small red onion, and it still tasted great.
My wife and I made this recipe today. It was easy and the falafel came out of the oven crispy and delicious. We put lettuce, red onions olives, tomatoes (from our garden-yum!) on pita bread, then topped it with the falafel and a couple spoonfuls of the tahini sauce. I am still in a food coma. Thanks Kate for our newest keeper recipe!
Sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing, Kevin.
I used this recipe to make about 125 falafel for a friend’s wedding, and they came out SO GOOD!!! Thank you for this yummy recipe! I will be making it again. And again.
im gonna try today for lunch! thanks!!!
when you mentioned you can save them freezed, are they already baked or raw?
I made these tonight. Cant believe how well they turned out! Soaked my chickpeas before i left for work at 7 am and made them at 9 pm. crispy on the outside and so moist on the inside. My mum is already asking for a print out of the recipe
Hi Kate! I have a small question. The recipe calls for a cup of chickpeas, but is it a cup before or after it’s soaked? I ask this because if I measure a cup of chickpeas and then soak it, I will end up with more than one cup because it doubles in size after soaking. So… Is it a cup of dried chickpeas, or a cup of chickpeas when it’s already soaked? I hope I’ve made myself clear enough lol. Thank you! I am so excited to try this recipe.
Dried chickpeas and then soaked. Does that make sense?