Falafel is not a dish you make from a tin. Soaking dried chickpeas overnight and processing them raw gives you balls that hold their shape in hot oil and stay moist and crumbly inside. No flour, no egg, no breadcrumbs needed as a binder.
We have been making falafel for years. At a street market in Tel Aviv we watched them being deep-fried fresh and handed over the counter in seconds. That texture can only be reproduced at home with dried chickpeas, and that single point is what makes or breaks the whole recipe.
Falafel with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 10 ✓
- 250 g dried chickpeas
- 1 onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
- 1/4 bunch coriander
- 1/2 lemon
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp baking powder
Instructions 0 / 6
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1
Soak the chickpeas in a bowl of water for at least 12 hours. Change the water once during soaking.
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2
Drain the chickpeas into a sieve, rinse well and leave to drain. Heat the deep-fryer.
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3
Peel and halve the onion, peel the garlic, wash the parsley and coriander, shake dry and pick off the leaves. Place the onion, garlic, parsley and coriander into the mixing bowl and chop for 4 sec / speed 6.
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4
Add the chickpeas to the mixing bowl. Squeeze the lemon into the mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix for 40 sec / speed 6.
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5
Dampen your hands and shape the mixture into 20 balls.
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6
Deep-fry the balls until golden brown, drain on kitchen paper and serve.
Tip: If you are short on time, use tinned chickpeas. The texture will not be quite as firm, but the result is still very good 😉
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why dried chickpeas instead of tinned
The 250 g of dried chickpeas roughly double in weight in water. They absorb moisture but remain raw. That raw, soaked texture is exactly right: firm enough to chop, grainy enough to bind. With tinned chickpeas the opposite happens. Tinned chickpeas are already cooked, so they are soft, and in the Thermomix® they turn into hummus rather than falafel mixture. Without flour, egg, or breadcrumbs they will fall apart during frying. We soak the chickpeas for at least 12 hours, change the water once after about 6 hours, and plan the soaking the evening before.
Reaching for a tin for convenience is fine for a quick recipe. We explicitly allow it in the Notes section of the recipe card. The texture will be more crumbly, the binding will suffer, and the flavour will be rounder rather than nutty. If you have the choice, go with dried.
The 8-second rule in the mixing bowl
The correct blending time is the trickiest part of the recipe. We chop the onion, garlic, parsley, and coriander first for 4 seconds at speed 6. Then we add the drained chickpeas, the juice of half a lemon, salt, pepper, ground cumin, and the baking powder. The Thermomix® then mixes for 40 seconds at speed 6 and brings everything together into a moist, grainy mixture.
Blending the chickpeas for longer or at a higher speed produces a hummus consistency: too smooth, too fine, too little structure. When frying, balls made like that absorb fat and fall apart. We check the mixture with a spoon before shaping: it should be loose, hold together lightly when pressed between your fingers, and still show small pieces of chickpea. If the mixture looks too dry, add a splash of water and nothing else. If it looks too wet, rest it in the fridge for 10 minutes so the baking powder and chickpeas absorb the moisture.
175 C in the frying oil, no hotter
We fry in a deep-fryer or a tall saucepan with vegetable oil at exactly 175 C. At 180 C or above the balls brown too quickly on the outside while the centre is still raw and floury. Below 165 C they absorb too much oil and become heavy and greasy. 175 C is the point at which the crust sets golden brown in 3 to 4 minutes while the centre cooks through at the same time.
With damp hands we shape the mixture into 20 balls, each roughly the size of a walnut. If you cannot measure the oil temperature, test with a wooden skewer: if small bubbles rise immediately, the temperature is right. We always fry just 5 to 6 balls at a time, because adding more causes the oil temperature to drop too far and everything becomes soggy at once. Drain on kitchen paper and serve straight away. Reheated falafel lose the contrast between the crispy shell and the soft centre.
Oven or air fryer as an alternative
If you do not have a deep-fryer, there are two options. Oven: 200 C top and bottom heat, place the balls on baking paper, brush with a little oil, bake for 20 minutes and turn after 12 minutes. The crust will be less crispy, but the inside stays light. Air fryer: 180 C, 12 to 15 minutes, spray the balls with a little oil. This method comes closest to deep-frying, but still requires a firm mixture and damp hands for shaping. With tinned chickpeas, neither the oven nor the air fryer works, because the balls fall apart without enough binding.
What to serve alongside falafel
Falafel on their own are tasty, but they really become a complete meal with the right accompaniments. We classically serve the balls with our Hummus with the Thermomix®, a cooling yoghurt and mint dip, and a warm flatbread or spiced flatbreads. The Thermomix® makes it easy to work in parallel: while the chickpeas are soaking, you can pre-bake the flatbread the day before, and the hummus is done in 5 minutes.
Fresh tomatoes, cucumber slices, pickled red onions, and a few lettuce leaves complete the plate. For an authentic touch, drizzle over a tahini sauce made from sesame paste, lemon, and water. Tahini cuts through the fat of the falafel and brings out the nutty flavour of the chickpeas.
Preparing ahead and using up leftovers
The raw falafel mixture keeps in the fridge for up to 24 hours, covered with cling film pressed directly onto the surface to prevent it drying out. We pre-freeze already shaped but uncooked balls on a tray, then transfer them to a freezer bag and fry them later straight from frozen. This works very well because the balls cook through quickly in the hot oil without the crust burning. Already fried falafel keep in the fridge for 2 days, but lose all their crispiness. To reheat, use an air fryer at 170 C for 4 minutes. The microwave makes them soft and rubbery, so that does not work.
We turn leftover falafel into a salad the next day: halve the balls and toss with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, and a lemon and olive oil dressing. This turns the previous day’s meal into a stand-alone lunch without missing the original texture.
The sesame trick from Middle Eastern cooking
One detail that most Thermomix® recipes leave out: we fold 2 tablespoons of unhulled sesame seeds into the finished mixture in the last 5 seconds at speed 4. At markets in Israel and Jordan the balls are often rolled in sesame on the outside as well, but at home that only works with frying oil you are prepared to change completely afterwards, because the loose seeds burn. Mixing the sesame in avoids that, adds nutty depth, and gives a pleasant crunch with every bite. Leave it out if you need to consider allergies. With the sesame, the falafel taste noticeably more authentic, without the kitchen smelling of deep-frying.
Levantine falafel: chickpeas instead of beans
Goes well with: Tzatziki.
Our tip: White Coconut Almonds with the Thermomix®.
In Egypt, falafel are called ta’amiya and are made from broad beans or field beans. In Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, chickpeas take centre stage, often combined with broad beans. We stick with the pure chickpea version because it gives the most reliable texture in the Thermomix® and the flavour is nuttier. The freshness of the herbs is crucial: 50 g of flat-leaf parsley and a quarter bunch of coriander are not decoration but provide the characteristic green cross-section and the slightly bitter aroma that falafel from a dry powder mix never achieve. If you dislike coriander, replace it with fresh mint. Never use dried herbs.
