This recipe is also another first for me. I am making these to serve with my Quinoa Tabbouleh. I am forgoing the pita, of course, since I have yet to find a vegan and gluten-free pita.
Original recipe came from AllRecipes.com here, and the Tahina recipe was from one of the comments on the recipe.
Falafels
Ingredients
- 1 lb dry garbanzo beans (chick peas)
- 1 onion, quartered
- 1 potato, peeled and quartered
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced (I omitted this obviously)
- ½ cup cilantro leaves, chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon flour (gluten-free, of course)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 cups canola oil, for frying
Instructions
- Rinse the chick peas in cold water and discard any bad ones. Place in a large pot, and cover with water. Let soak 24 hours, rinse again.
- Place the soaked beans, onion, and potato in food processor. Cover and process until finely chopped. Leave about 1 cup of bean mixture in food processor and put the rest in a bowl and set aside. To the 1 cup reserved in food processor add garlic, cilantro, coriander, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Process on low to blend thoroughly. Return the rest of the garbanzo bean mixture to the food pro and add lemon juice and olive oil. Process until the mixture turns into a coarse meal. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Once the mixture sits for 2 hours, stir the baking soda into the garbanzo bean mixture until evenly blended. Using damp hands, form the mixture into 1½ inch balls. (I am assuming at this point the flour gets mixed in, but the original recipe doesn’t mention it anywhere in the steps.)
- Pour the canola oil into a wok or deep pan to about 2 inches deep. Heat over med-hi heat. Cook falafel balls, turning so all sides are evenly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.
- (You can use 3 x 15 oz cans of chick peas in place of dried chick peas but apparently it won’t be the same.)
Tahina Sauce
- 1 small clove garlic, crushed
- 1/2 of a juicy lemon
- 1/4 cup tahina
- 1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1-2 tablespoon of room temp water
Whisk together, adding more water if needed until it is a drizzling consistency. Drizzle over falafel or use in falafel sandwiches.
real good falafel is falafapita.
gluten free falafel.
falafapita.com
Hey Sara,
Thanks for mentioning this product. I checked out their site and the ingredients sound a lot like what I make in this recipe. It’s always nice to have a quick alternative that is still healthy like this.
Hi Megan, ingridients maybe close, but trust me, quantities makes the difference.
try it and let me know, pls
i get it at ORGANICDIRECT.COM
They have it at sale prices.
Sara
I am confused. Why did you omit the garlic? Is there something about garlic that I don’t know?
Oh wow, this recipe was posted from when my husband Levi was avoiding garlic because he was having issues digesting it. We omitted garlic from most recipes for about 9 months and slowly started introducing it back with great success. Now we use garlic in everything again! This makes me very happy of course, because any good Italian loves garlic.
Oh, good! I was worried that there was yet another thing that I need to avoid eating that I didn’t know about.
I made these last night and they were great! I don’t usually fry things but went for it and am glad I did. Thanks for sharing. Now if I can just find a vegan, GF pita recipe…
I have had these big ideas of trying to make a gluten-free and vegan pita for nearly two years. I have yet to do it … or even attempt it. I think it’s about time to move that one to the top of the ‘must-make’ list. Glad you enjoyed the falafels.