This recipe is quick and really easy to make. It is perfect as a last minute meal, because you can prepare the falafels with cooked chickpeas from a jar. The classic recipe for falafels uses soaked and raw chickpeas. And you know how beneficial it is to soak your legumes – if you don’t here’s an article about it – but sometimes life happens and you might be short on time.

Why baked?

Besides the fact that the recipe uses canned or jarred chickpeas, the falafels are also baked, not fried. I prefer baking, to reduce the amount of oil I use. Let’s face it, while falafels contain healthy ingredients, frying is not a healthy cooking method. The other benefit of baking your falafels is that you can do something else while they’re in the oven. Like making a creamy tahini sauce or preparing a fresh salad…

Baked falafels

• Time: 30min
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients

• 220g chickpeas (in a jar or can; feel free to soak raw chickpeas as well)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove
• 50g fresh or frozen parsley
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp chickpea flour (or any flour you have)

Directions

1. Add all ingredients except the flour and baking soda to a food processor and blend until crumbly. You don’t want to over-blend it, leave some pieces of chickpeas visible.
2. Add the flour and baking soda and mix well.
3. Preheat the over to 190 degrees and line and baking sheet with baking paper.
4. Use your clean hands to form small balls (about 12) by pressing the mixture tightly into your hands. Place them on the baking sheet.
5. Spray or brush with a little olive oil so the falafels get a little golden and crispy and bake for 12 minutes. Flip and bake for another 12 minutes.
6. Enjoy with tahini sauce, hummus, roasted cauliflower or anything else.