Falafels a La air fryer

Falafels, a popular bar food packed with a herbaceous punch and a garlicky finish. Hey ho sign me up!

inspired by Buckwheat Queen at Allresipes

Not going to go as far as to say that I will no longer be crumbling my falafel crumbles over everything I eat, no.

However now I will get the opportunity to actually do the crumbling rather than have them fall apart right out of the oven.

Call me a control freak but ima gonna take control over the crumbling thankyouverymuch!

You gotta try these.

what you need

Food processor
Air fryer

ingredients

1 cup DRY chick peas (not canned)
2 cups of fresh herbs (any combination of cilantro, parsley, basil or micro-greens)
1 small red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, halved

2 tbsp chick pea flour (all purpose is fine too)
1 TBSP coriander
1/2 TBSP cumin
1 TBSP sriracha or a deseeded jalapeño
1 TSP salt
1 TSP ground pepper

1 TSP baking soda

this is how we do it

SOAK chickpeas in water over night.

Water should be a couple inches over the chickpeas And the container should be able to hold at least twice the amount once the chickpeas expand.

Next day rinse chickpeas well and place in a single layer onto paper towel to dry while you prep the other ingredients.

In the food processor BLEND the chickpeas, fresh herbs,onion, and garlic.

You want a rough paste, consistency of wet sand.

Transfer to bowl.

ADD in the flour, coriander, cumin, Sriracha sauce and salt and pepper.

Also add in the baking soda and mix using your hands until it’s just combined Do not over mix!

Cover and let sit one hour in the fridge to set.

OK, now things get messy.

Using 2 heaping tablespoons of mixture, press into your palm to create a nugget form, squeezing out any juice.

It’s like art, what you see in the picture below is basically an imprint of my closed palm over a tablespoon of mixture.

Messy art. There are no food stylists here obviously.

Alternatively you can just roll them up into balls. Chefs choice!

Choose the Bake mode on your air fryer and preheat to 185 Celsius/365 F.

Place the Falafel’s gently into the air fryer and bake for 10 minutes.

You will be doing three rounds of this you don’t want to overcrowd them or have them touching.

Perfect wicked falafels ready to go!

Couple of side notes:

OIL: I like to use oil on both the falafel’s and on the rack, you do not have to. Use your discretion.

Fresh herbs: just use whatever it is that you have on hand, if you are not a big lover of cilantro replace it with micro greens.

Here I used radish micro greens and they came out with a little bit of a bite to them, rather nice.

But do try cilantro at least once, it is the traditional way. Basil also helps if you don’t have enough cilantro on hand. Main takeaway is really any combination of fresh herbs you might have works.

It’s a little bit of prep but very worth it.

The squishing into shape also takes some practice. Once you get that down make a double batch!

Serve in a wrap or pita with toppings like pickled Red Onion topper , Quick Pickling – cucumbers 🥒 , yogurt, hot sauce, hummus, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Skip the wrap and make into a falafel bowl served over rice.

And now I’m hungry!