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.
Kate, can you use a Silpat mat instead of the olive oil? We are trying to eliminate as much oil from our diet as possible.
BTW, I’ve tried several of your recipes and they were wonderful!
Hi Paula, you could try it. I’m doubtful they would be as crispy, but they should still be nice. I would not omit the oil that goes in with the chickpeas, or they might not be crispy at all.
Will this recipe work with canned beans?
You need dried beans for this recipe.
Hi there!
Love this recipe, 2nd time making it. I made a big batch and froze them for a potluck on Saturday! I’m wondering what you recommend for defrosting these? Bake them? Microwave them? Let them sit out first? Any guidance would be hugely appreciated!
Hi Ally! Let them defrost in the fridge and you can gently reheat however works best for you! I personally like the oven or stove, if I have time.
Hey Paula, to make this recipe a little healthier I used a sheet of parchment paper in place of the oiled pan. I baked them for around 15 minutes on each side and they turned out perfectly crispy. I think a silpat would work similarly. Hope this helps!
Hi Kate!
This recipe #2 I’ve completed from your blog. It was another victory for me! I absolutely love falafel but like you the whole frying thing does not appeal to me. So when I ran across your recipe I couldn’t wait to try it, especially since my last takeout falafel was terrible.
So I grabbed all the ingredients and gave it a shot. I prepared the recipe exactly as written. I used store brand, year old chickpeas. I couldn’t find any fresh chickpeas in the store. I gave them a 24 hour soak and went for it!! It came together beautifully!!! They are crispy on the outside tender on the inside!!! Falafel perfection!!! Ive just put more beans to soak and preparing another batch to freeze!!! Thank you!!!
I’ve made this recipe a few times and we really like it. I find the falafels have a difficult time sticking together in a patty shape when I take it out of the food processor before cooking. Any tips? What am I doing wrong?
Thanks@
Hi Christine! Glad to hear it. Sounds like your falafels aren’t quite moist enough. Are you processing the mixture long enough to sufficiently break apart the chickpeas? The herbs are to be packed, too—not enough could mean that you’re missing a little moisture there.
I just made these… I am absolutely thrilled! Delicious! And I made your hummus to go with, which is already a staple in my home. I didn’t have cilantro so just used a cup of parsley. I soaked my chickpeas over night and used half for hummus and half for falafel. You killed it thank you thank you!!!
These are awesome! A new family favourite
thanks for this great recipe! I made these, the tahini sauce, and your tabbouleh recipe as well, all 3 are really good! had to make a few substitutions, just based on what’s in stock at my grocery store right now, but they still turned out great :) I’m so stoked to have really good mediterranean lunches for the whole week!
I followed this recipe exactly, and the falafels turned out perfect. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. Full of aroma and freshness from the herbs, and so healthy as it’s not fried!
Delicious! It’s become a regular, but we always leave the cinnamon out. Pair with some homemade naan, and C+K hummus
Do you preheat your sheet pan with the olive oil before baking the patties? I’m afriad they would absorb the oil if it was not hot when they go into the oven. Thanks!!
Hi Mary! I haven’t found preheating the pan to be necessary. Hope you love the end result!
Hi there! My chickpeas have been soaking for about 15 hours and they are still too crunchy. Do I need to boil them to soften up before adding into the recipe or are they suppose to be somewhat hard still? Thanks!
Hi there! Sorry to hear it. You could try boiling them briefly. I’m afraid that if the chickpeas were very old/dried out (sometimes hard to know since you don’t know how long they were sitting at the store), they may never sufficiently soften. One of the few downsides of cooking with beans, unfortunately.
WAY too salty. Such a bummer.
I love the taste of this recipe so I keep making it. I have made it 4-5 times, but it never turns out quite right. They don’t stay in patties so we eat falafel “rice” Any suggestions? This is my first time working with soaked beans. I soak them for 24 hours, but they still seem a bit tough. Would this explain them not sticking into patties? Any help would be great. I want so badly for it to work!
Hi Jenessa! I’m sorry to hear you haven’t had a perfect result. Do you processes them until basically smooth in your food processor? I do know chickpeas can vary even after soaking. But, soaking 24 hours should do the trick.
Just made these they were so easy and tasted brilliant will never buy pre made again. Love Cookie and Kate site my go to for new recipes they are always consistently good thank you so much
I have tried to make falafel so many times, only to find the balls totally fallen apart in globs of oil. This was the first time I succeeded. They tasted great (even non-vegan complaining son finished them off.) and I’m so happy to eat less fat and have less grease to clean up!
I was not able to form the balls with my hands – but I used a trick from another recipe. I covered a 1/4 cup measuring spoon with Saran (Plastic) wrap and for each falafel patted down the mixture and then flipped it onto the cookie tray – which I lined with wax paper. I gently pressed each falafel down with a fork. It worked perfectly.
Thanks so much for this one. I made them together with your humus recipe for Israel’s Independence day celebration – of course inside picnic celebration this year.
Amazing recipe. One of the best falafels we never had. I will make it again for sure.
Exactly as promised! I will never make falafel from a mix again. They came together easily and baking them was a breeze. The family loved them, too. This is in the rotation!
Do the chickpeas have to be boiled after soaking or directly food processed ?
Directly processed, Krishna.
I love falafel, and I grew up eating it at Falafel’s Drive In located in San Jose, California. This place is absolutely delicious and was even on Food Network’s Dinners Drive-Ins and Dives, so I was a little bit worried that homemade baked falafel would not live up to what I was used to. Well, this recipe blew me and my family away. The falafel are crispy, flavorful, and go perfectly with cookie and kate’s tahini sauce. We all loved this recipe and will definitely be making it over and over again.
Wonderful to hear, Sara! Thanks so much for sharing.
A little too salty and cinnamony! Thanks for sharing though.
Absolutely love this recipe, it turns out perfect every time! I don’t have a food processor so I used my Nutribullet and it worked great. Served them with salad and tahini sauce and it was delish! I love the flavor the cumin and cinnamon add, you definitely need to make these!!
First time ever using dry beans and they turned out wonderfully!! Even picky-ish husband ate them up!
Wonderful, Lisa!
I made this today and OMG it was delicious! I’ve never really cooked this type of cuisine before, only ever eaten out but I recently stopped eating meat and thought I’d try something new. I was a little apprehensive once I’d blended everything together as it was still ‘sticky’ – not wet, but fairly moist. I was convinced they would end up
Like sad pancakes but how wrong was I! I followed the recipe to a T, using slightly less garlic and it was so good. I also made homemade tahini yogurt and served in a whole west tortilla with fresh mixed leaves, fried peppers, halloumi, fresh red chilli (I like heat!) and topped with fresh parsley and coriander. I wish I could upload pix to show you! I’ve tagged you on insta!
I am anxious to try these. Because of the stay at home orders from my 2 children I have to shop via order-on-line and curbside pick up. So, I don’t know if I can get the dried (uncooked/raw) chickpeas. Will canned chickpeas work if I rinse them?
Hi Donna, you really want to use dried for this. Sorry!
I was pretty sure I had to use dried garbanzos. Good news is I did find them when I was placing my online grocery order. YAH ! Plan on making a double batch to have them in the freezer. Always good to cook once and eat 2-3-4+ times.
Thank you for your quick response.
Well Kate, I made my first time Crispy Falafel. I think they came out great. Followed the recipe exactly except for one item. My hubby doesn’t like cilantro. So, I doubled the parsley. Your recipe says it yields 12 falafels. I ended up with 26. I thought I might be making them too small so I took out my ruler. No they were 2″ X 1/2″ thick.
I did over cook the first batch ~ 12 min of either side was to long. The second batch I did 10 min + 6 on the second side. They were much better. I did cover my baking sheet with foil. Do you think that might have made a difference in the baking time? Thank you again for this wonderful recipe. I try to make a meatless dinner at least once a week, and because I’m of Lebanese descent this caught my eye.
Hooray! Thank you for sharing. The foil for sure mattered, but it could also be how hot your oven cooks as they do vary. But I’m happy you found a solution that works for you!
Yes they work too
About to try this recipe. Just got my dry beans delivered this a.m. Will soaking for 8 hours be enough? Most of the comments I’ve read say they soaked for 24hours.thanks for the help . I have great success with your recipes.
Debi
Hi Debi! Since you’re using fresh dry beans, I think 8 hours will be enough! You can always go longer to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, sometimes beans that have been sitting on the shelf for a long time are so dried out that no amount of soaking will sufficiently soften them.
Thanks for yr speedy reply
Going to make this tonight!
I was so nervous to make this, because I am a novice in the kitchen, but these were so easy and AMAZING! Better than any falafel I would order from a restaurant. Even my boyfriend loved them, and he is not the healthiest eater. I used a blender instead of a food processor (I don’t own one) and while I was nervous about that, I think it came out just fine. I used slightly more olive oil to help things blend more. This will be a mainstay in my house!
I’m glad you loved them, Mandy! Thank you for sharing.
Just curious, why don’t the canned chickpeas work in this recipe? I do not have dried chickpeas on hand, so I haven’t made these yet.
Hi Karen! Fully cooked chickpeas contain too much moisture. To make them work, we’d have to add something unconventional (like flour) to absorb the excess moisture—but flour dilutes the flavor and makes the texture sort of gummy. This recipe produces an authentic falafel texture and flavor, so it’s really worth the effort.
Thanks for responding. I did find raw chickpeas, and the recipe turned out fantastic! I have liked everything I’ve made from your blog, especially Easy Red Sangria, so it shouldn’t surprise me :-).
I don’t have dried chickpeas but I have garbanzo bean flour. Can I substitute? if so, how much? Thank you!
Hi! Unfortunately, you need the actual chickpeas for this recipe.
I used “living” chickpeas this time instead of soaking dried ones and the falafels came out really watery. Do you have any advise next time. Should I use more chickpeas , should I use more parsley and cilantro? I like the living ones as they are easier. Curious if you have any thoughts
Hi Lauren! Were your chickpeas canned? I’m not familiar with “living” chickpeas but I assume they’ve been sprouted. This recipe really hinges upon soaking dried chickpeas. Canned chickpeas absolutely do not work.
I’ve made this recipe twice. With a bit of advance planning, it’s very easy. The first time I was skeptical about the patties holding together but once they start baking, they keep their shape and are easy to flip. I love falafel and I like that there is no deep frying involved. Oh, and did I mention, they’re delicious?
I’m so excited to hear that, Vicky! Thank you for making my falafels.
This is the best recipe for falafels out there. I have a overflow of cilantro so I didn’t use parsley this time. They came out as good as any other time I have made them. Your sauce is so simple and delicious, it will be making it from now on every time I make them from now on. I also added your Zhoug cilantro sauce and love it with the falafels. Thanks so much for sharing.
A tip if you also had trouble with making the falafels stick; you can add a bit of chickpea flour so they will hold their shapes and you won’t loose the flavor since the main base is chickpeas as well. Love this recipe BTW.
Good morning, I’m really looking forward to making this recipe. I put my dried chickpeas to soak last night to make them tonight but as it turns out, I have to wait until tomorrow night. Will the chickpeas still be ok to use if they’re soaking for nearly 48 hours? Or should I drain and refrigerate them until tomorrow’s dinner time? Thanks!
Hi Mary! That’s a good question. Certainly not soaking long enough can be problematic. I think soaking for 48 hours is ok (as long as they’ve been in the refrigerator!), but I haven’t tried to be sure. I think it’s been about 36 hours at this point, so if they’re still soaking, perhaps rinse and drain and refrigerate just to keep them more in line with the recipe. Hope your falafels turn out great!
These were delicious! Best falafel recipe I’ve tried and simple to make. You do need to purée them for a while in order to get them to form into patties that don’t fall apart, but the food processor does most of the work. Will definitely be making these again!
Thanks for sharing, Cindy!
Hi Kate! Love your recipes and so excited to try these! I forgot to measure my chickpeas before I soaked them (Oops, I just soaked the whole bag!) … Do you know how many cups of soaked chickpeas would be equivalent to the 1 cup of dried?
Thanks!!
Hi Jen! You could sure make a lot of falafel. :) Did the bag weigh one pound (16 ounces)? I’m not sure how much the chickpeas expand on average. I have in my notes that one 16 ounces dried chickpeas measures 2 1/3 cups, so I’d use just a bit less than half of the chickpeas to equal the original 1 cup. Hope that helps!
And, I will!! They were so delicious I am making a second batch today with the other half of the chickpeas. My one pound bag yielded exactly 5 cups, so I used 2 1/2 of the soaked chickpeas – they were perfect!
Second time I’ve made these and WOW! Soooo delicious. The flavours are amazing and I love the texture. Thanks so much for the great recipe. I will definitely be making these again :)
I made this tonight! The next time I make it, I’m going to put the oiled baking sheet in the oven to heat before I put the falafel on it. That way they don’t absorb the oil when you first set them on the baking sheet.
Hands down my favorite homemade falafel recipe that I’ve ever tried! I’ve made it three times now – each time added extra salt, garlic, cinnamon, and cumin and then served them with a greek salad! They reheat really well in the toaster to keep that outside nice and crispy!
This recipe is great! I love the cinnamon. Baking 15 mins each side turned out perfect. My patties stayed together very nicely. Thank you!
Made this recipe tonight! Amazing and tasty!
I’m so excited to make these tomorrow night! I started soaking the chickpeas around 2 pm today and will start assembling around 4:30 pm tomorrow, so just over 24 hours of soaking. How soft should the chickpeas be? I just checked on them and they are still quite firm (it’s only been 5 hours so still a long way to go but just want to confirm I know what to look for!)
Hey Lauren! About 24 hours of soaking should be good as long as your chickpeas aren’t very old (in which case, there’s no saving them). Hope yours turned out great. It’s ok if they’re still pretty firm before blending. I’m going to remake this recipe soon to offer cues for when they’re ready.
Hello first of all thanks for the recipe!
I was wondering if i could use soaked and cooked chickpeas instead of just soaked chickpeas?
Hi! You want soaked here as they will cook in the oven and that helps the patties form. Sorry!
I just made these tonight and we like them much better than another recipe I’ve tried. I’d like to make another batch for the freezer. When we’re ready to bake those, should I put the frozen patties on the oiled pan? Or defrost them first?
Hi! I would suggest making these all the way through, then freezing them. I’m not sure how the unbaked would hold up in the freezer then bake.
Too late! I froze the unbaked falafel before I saw your reply! I froze them in a single layer, then transferred them to a container when they were solid. When I took them out for another dinner a week or so later, they turned out really great! I couldn’t tell the difference. I put them on the oiled pan frozen and they went straight into the oven. Delicious!
I’m worried about not cooking the chickpeas ahead of time? I’ve made falafel before but have always cooked my chickpeas. Is this correct?
Hi! Yes, they cook when the patties are in the oven. Let me know how it turns out for you!
Just tried falafel recipe today…they did not bind and broke while flipping half way in the oven. Doesn’t taste good either. I did not like the recipe.
Took two attempts. First one failed because the chick peas were still hard in the center and didn’t whiz-up properly. They were tooth breaking hard in the falafel patties. And, of course, the patties didn’t hold together at all.
Letting the remainder of the bag of chick peas soak overnight, and firing up the 3D printer to produce a mold ring 2 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch high produced the perfect patty! These are delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
So…I don’t know what went wrong but my falafel would NOT stick together to make patties even though the mixture seemed thick enough. Not to fear though! I spread the mixture thinly on an cookie sheet and baked until lightly golden brown (mixing a few times as it cooked). I ended up with a crumbly mixture that tasted perfect! I might do this each time because it was quicker! Thanks for the recipe!
Kate,
I made these for dinner last night and they were a huge hit! The taste and texture of the falafel were spot on. I served them in a wrap, with Israeli salad, a green sauce and lettuce. The only problem I had was when I took them out of the oven to flip half way through, they had stuck to the pan. I had put tin foil on the pan before putting the oil on in attempts to make clean up easier. Would that have made a difference? After I unstuck them, I ended up cooking them by panfrying them on the stove. Will definitely make these again… do you think I need to skip the foil?
Hi Meera! Yes, I do believe the foil caused the problem. I’d skip that next time.
I’m just checking to be sure that I understand this aspect of the chickpeas used in this recipe.
They are soaked but never have to be cooked? Sounds counterintuitive, but if that is what you say, I am willing to give it a shot.
Hi! They cook while in the oven after you make the patties. I hope that helps!
Hi, I just made the falafels according to the recipe and they don’t keep together all fell apart. Have to say waste of ingredients and time.
Great recipe!! Just a little too salty for my taste. Next time I will try 1/2 or 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Great recipe. Thanks! I find freezing the patties can take a lot of room and they fall apart more easily. So, I freeze the “falafel dough” in yogurt containers, which I will defrost, shape, and bake at a later date. Yum!