Baked falafel bowl with tahini sauce
55 min · 18 g protein · 428 cals / serving
Herb-green falafel made the proper way, from soaked dried chickpeas rather than canned, then baked until crisp outside and fluffy inside. They sit on a big chopped salad of cucumber, tomato, lettuce and red onion with pink pickled turnips, and a lemony tahini sauce goes over everything.
Ingredients
Falafel
- 1 1/4 cups dried chickpeas chickpeas, soaked overnight in plenty of cold water, drained; not cooked
- 1 small onion, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 cup leaves fresh parsley
- 1 cup leaves fresh cilantro
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp chickpea flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp olive oil, for brushing
Tahini sauce
- 3 tbsp tahini
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 small clove garlic, grated
- 1/4 cup water, cold
- a pinch salt
Salad
- 1 small head romaine lettuce, chopped
- 1 cucumber, diced
- 2 large tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
To serve
- 1/2 cup pickled turnips, sliced
Steps
- Heat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Put the soaked, drained chickpeas in a food processor with the onion, garlic, parsley, cilantro, cumin, coriander, pepper flakes and salt. Pulse, scraping down the sides, until finely chopped and it looks like coarse, green sand. Do not purée it smooth.
- Sprinkle over the chickpea flour and baking powder and pulse a few more times. Squeeze a little in your hand: it should hold together. If it crumbles, pulse a few seconds more.
- Shape into about 20 small, slightly flattened balls, about 2 tablespoons each, and set them on the baking sheet. Brush all over with the oil. Bake for 25–30 minutes, turning once halfway, until deep golden and crisp outside.
- While they bake, whisk the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt; it will seize and thicken at first. Whisk in the cold water a spoonful at a time until the sauce is smooth and pourable.
- Toss the lettuce, cucumber, tomato and red onion with the lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Divide into bowls, add five falafel to each with the pickled turnips, and spoon the tahini sauce over the top.
Good to know
Why dried chickpeas, not canned?
Canned chickpeas are already cooked and too wet, so the falafel turn mushy and fall apart. Soaked raw chickpeas cook inside the falafel as they bake and give the classic fluffy, green center.
Air fryer?
Yes: brush or spray the falafel with oil and air-fry at 375°F for 12–15 minutes, shaking the basket halfway.
Rather have a wrap?
Tuck four falafel into a warm whole-wheat pita or flatbread with a handful of the salad, the turnips and plenty of tahini sauce.
Per
- Calories
- 110
- Protein
- (18%)
- 5 g
- Fat
- (35%)
- 4 g
- Carbohydrates
- (47%)
- 14 g
- of which sugar
- 4 g
- Fiber
- 4 g
- Sodium
- 317 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1712 kcal goes into the pot and 1438 g of ingredients comes out as about 1560 g of food: 110 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.