I cannot even explain to you all how much I love falafel…
This recipe came about by combining my favorite vegan fritter with my favorite hummus flavor. Ahhh, life is good, no?
Roasted Red Pepper & Garlic Falafel
makes about 20 falafel fritters
Ingredients:
- 1 red pepper
- 1 entire bulb of garlic
- 4 cups cooked chickpeas
- 1 cup of finely minced onion
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp chickpea flour
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Directions:
Before doing anything else, roast that pepper and that garlic bulb!
First, peel the outer layer of paper from the garlic bulb until the individual cloves can be seen, but are still connected. Chop off the pointy tops of the garlic bulbs and the bottom of the bulb so that garlic is exposed on both sides but all is still connected to the base…. then wrap loosely in foil. Confused? Here’s sort of what I did, except I broiled mine.
I stuck the garlic bulb wrapped in foil and the red pepper (not wrapped in anything) together on a baking sheet and broiled until the red pepper was fully blackened, turning the pepper as necessary. This post includes a quick rundown of how to roast a pepper if you’re not quite sure.
Once the red pepper was blackened on all sides, I removed both the garlic and pepper from the oven.
Next I peeled the outer layers off of the garlic bulb and left just the yummy roasted cloves.
Then I de-skinned/de-seeded the red pepper, chopped it up and set aside.
Okay, so once you’ve done all that, the rest is easy:
In food processor, combine roasted garlic cloves (I ended up with 8), canned chickpeas, minced onion, cumin, salt and baking powder. Pulse together until mixed, then scrape down sides. Repeat until all is combined into a thick hummus-like consistency. (You may need to add a touch of water to the mix to get it smooth enough).
Transfer chickpea mixture into a large bowl and stir in chickpea flour… making sure to only mix it just enough to combine. Fold in parsley, cilantro and chopped red pepper.
Chill mixture in freezer for a few minutes…or in the fridge if you have an extra hour or so. It needs to be chilled until workable. In the meantime, get your oil ready to go.
I used a deep fryer to cook mine, but a nice deep pot of oil would work well too- since I’m not too good with giant pots of hot oil, I’ll keep the directions to what I did with the deep fryer.
I heated my vegetable oil until it reached 360 °F. Once the oil was ready, I tested it by dropping a small amount of batter in the oil… once it rose to the top and started cooking I dropped in a tester falafel ball. This gave me a cooking time of about 8 minutes until perfect done-ness was achieved.
I made about 5 falafels at a time, and I fashioned them each like a stout patty. Mine were about 2″ x 1″ patties. Use a little extra chickpea flour to shape them if you find them to be sticky, but try not to “coat” the patties in it or it may give it a weird texture.
Cook falafel for about 8 minutes in your deep fryer. Transfer to absorbent paper bag/paper towel/ cloth and serve. Repeat the cooking process until all falafel batter has been used.
Serve hot!
I made a quick tofu tzitziki sauce to drizzle on mine. And ate it on a bed of leafy greens. Yummmm….
Here’s the recipe for the sauce:
- 1/2 block silken tofu ( you could probably sub out 8 oz plain vegan yogurt here… but they don’t sell it near me anywhere. gah!)
- 1 cucumber, peeled, de-seeded and chopped into cubes (about 1 cup)
- juice of half of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/2 clove garlic
- 1 tbsp cilantro chopped
Combine everything together in food processor and pulse until smooth.
Falafel!
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Ahhhhhhhh! I never imagined combining my favorite hummus flavor with sweet, sweet falafel. This is genius, and your photos are unbelievably beautiful. My stomach is growling, and it’s not lunchtime for another 2 hours!
<3
Wow, this is so mouthwatering. I haven’t had dinner yet and feel tempted to hop on a plane and knock on your door to beg for some food.
Oh yum, my husband loves falafel – I’m definitely going to be making this for him soon.
these look outstanding!
Falafal is on e of my absolute favorite things! Yours looks AMAZE!!!!
Oh my gosh – now you’ve gone and done it. I have a policy of no deep frying, but I think you’re going to make me break my policy – either that or I’m going to try the baked version of these. I haven’t had good falafel in soooo long.
Yum x 20 (falafels!) These look delicious and beautiful!
mmmmm those are some of my favorite flavors too! I will have to try this :)
That falafel looks great!
heck yah, these look great. i might try oven frying em, i wonder if the middles will get done that way? but, i love your addition of roasted garlic and red pepper.
yump.
xo
kittee
if you do it, and it works… lemme know! I was wondering the same thing about the middles <3
These look and sound amazing! I think falafel is the one thing I love the most! To eat, I mean.
HELL YEAH! Those look perfectly awesome – I’m so bookmarking this recipe, thank you so much for sharing.
:)
I have NOT attempted making my own falafel yet but it is on my list of to-make foods. This looks so yummy and stunning at the same time. :)
This looks amazing! I love falafel, but I always thought it would be too hard to make. Can I substitute chickpea flour with white or wheat flour? Or is that not a good idea?
Maybe? If anything, the color of the middle would be less yellow, but the texture of chickpea flour is so similar to AP flour (soft and fluffy), I doubt it would make too much of a difference. I could be waaay off here… but it may be worth a shot.
I also have seen some recipes for falafel that use no flour of any sort, just chickpeas… I went the extra safe route and added “extra” flour to mine, though… so I don’t know if all my added chickpea flour is even necessary. :)
These look so good. What a beautiful photo too…I love the color of the insides.
Drool! This sounds amazing!! I need to make this soon :) Thanks
These look so delish!!! I need to soak some chickpeas and try this!!
i can’t believe i’ve never thought of adding even more deliciousness to falafel. so awesome! they look absolutely delicious in every way, and i’m loving the tofu tzitziki sauce, too. w00t!
This is brilliant. I love roasted red pepper everything!
This is the kind of recipe that BELONGS in my belly!!!!!!
Falafel is probably my favorite food that isn’t dessert but I haven’t found the perfect recipe to make it yet.
Darn it!
Now I want a falafel with hummus and pita!!!!
OMG I love felalfel, this recipe looks so good, thanks for sharing.
Yum! Saving this one and making them very soon!!
Looks wonderful and so tasty!
These look amazing! I’m just beginning to try out vegan cooking and found your site to be easy for a newbe, yet interesting and varied for a food lover!
Thank you Linda!
Great idea combing the roasted red pepper and garlic in there! Plus I love love love the tofu tzatziki sauce! Thanks!
That is some tasty looking falafel!
I’m pretty set in my ways with falafel- I’ve worked out a couple of really solid recipes that I enjoy, and don’t deviate too much from them. These, however, look like they’d be worth a try. Roasted red pepper, what a novel thing to put in falafel! And that sauce is definitely going on my menu, no matter what. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!
Great idea! Those look awesome. They are now on my to-do list.
GORGEOUS!!
wow. they are beautifully perfect, and I love the idea of red pepper and roasted garlic in falafel. I’m considering making falafels sometime soon, since I’ve got a freezer full of chickpeas… but I’m afraid of deep frying, so maybe I’ll try baking them. I really love your blog, btw.
My partner and I made this on the weekend and it went very well.
We don’t have a deep fryer, so we used a small sauce pot and about 3/4 of an inch of oil. It’s hard to have consistent temperature this way, so the outsides were fantastically crispy, but the insides were a little too moist, I felt.
Also, if you don’t want to bother with the frying [and the flour], the chickpeas and everything else pulsed makes for a decent “hummus” [though careful of all that garlic].
This is will be revisited at a later date.
Also: altered for baking rather than frying? Suggestions/ideas?
Hey Chad…
Yep, I understand the undone-ness in the middles. Even deep frying them for less than the recommended time resulted in that for me too :(
Sounds like Dylan had success baking them at 350 for thirty minutes, so that’s a good sign! I think I’m going to give that a whirl and see how it turns out- also might help if they are flattened out a little more… but not sure if that still counts as a falafel? Maybe then it becomes a chickpea cutlet?
And yes on the hummus! I lost a few falafel that way alone!
Anyways, thank you so much for your input!
<3 allyson
just made this. Substituted red pepper for shredded zucchini and carrot, and baked for 30min at 350. So so tasty :)
awesome Dylan! Thanks so much for sharing your method!
yum! gluten free falafels – so making these!
Any recipe that starts with roasting a whole head of garlic has got to be good. Wondering if these would work well baked? I’ll give it a try!
Hi Lindsey!! Thanks so much! You know, since I posted this, I now actually prefer it baked! :) I usually put it in at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes on each side.. using a silpat mat or a touch of oil to prevent sticking. So glad you stopped by. <3
Wow these look fantastic! I will be making these this week. I think I will try the baked version though… Do you add a drizzle of olive oil or anything when you bake them?
Hi Nakita! Thanks! Yep, I usually put about 2 tbsp olive oil or so in a dish and brush both sides with a little before baking. They’re not quite as crispy as the fried version… but still super delicious. :)
Those look amazing! I love falafel and it is even better fresh than from a box! Thanks for sharing!
This sounds so awesome!! Have you tried just baking??
Yes, baking works beautifully! About 20 minutes each side at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, with a little oil brushed on each side. :)