Healthy and delicious, vegan Baked Falafel is perfect for stuffing in pita pockets or creating scrumptious falafel bowls.  Super tasty and oh so yummy, they are sure to please everyone in the family, making oven-baked falafels a wonderful Whole Food Plant Based flavorful dish.  Vegan, oil free, gluten free, sugar free, no highly processed ingredients.     

Hi!  Ameera here!

I think I could eat falafel every day for the rest of my life.  I love them THAT much!  They are just so gosh-darn tasty.  We never ate falafel while I was growing up.  In fact, I didn’t even know falafel existed until I started my bellydance career.

(Me balancing a tiered candle tray)

Bellydancing

I officially started bellydancing at the age of 18.  I had played around with it earlier, but went all out once I turned 18 and actively started to seek out bellydance teachers.  Once I started, I instantly got hooked. I fell in love with this amazingly beautiful art form and never looked back.  Bellydancing is so much fun.  It is a lot harder than it looks.  You are literally using every muscle in your body trying to make it look beautifully effortless.

(Me with one of my favorite costumes created by Bella of Istanbul, Turkey)

Bellydancing as a career

There aren’t a ton of Middle Eastern restaurants in Ohio; however, once I started to take professional gigs, my career as a bellydancer started to blossom.  I have danced at Middle Eastern restaurants, weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, graduation parties, baptisms, festivals, colleges, high school proms, opened for concerts, and TV shows, you name it, I’ve danced it.  Bellydancing is the celebration of love and life!  You will often find a bellydancer ushering in the bride and groom at most Middle Eastern wedding receptions.

Bellydancing and falafel

Whenever I danced at various Middle Eastern restaurants, I couldn’t help but notice all the amazing food coming out of the kitchen.  I just had to try some of this delicious looking food, so I ordered a sampler platter.  OMGosh, it was so amazingly delicious that I instantly fell in love with the Middle Eastern cuisine.

I could go on and on about how delicious it is, but I will limit my focus to just falafel today lol.  Can I just say that falafel is like tender little golden patties of flavorful heaven!   I now consider myself a “falafel connoisseur.”  I have eaten enough falafel over the past 10 years to float away a battle ship as Mom would say.  HAH!

This post contains affiliate links, and I may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.

I have tasted so many falafels that I can pretty much discern exactly which ingredients and spice mixtures are used in them upon the first bite.  The best falafels use both fresh flat leaf parsley and cilantro as main ingredients (along with chickpeas, of course).  I love an occasional jalapeno pepper just to spice things up a tad; although jalapeno peppers are not necessarily a traditional falafel ingredient.  This is largely dependent upon the region’s cuisine.

Handy-Dandy Falafel Tool

I’m very lucky to have learned how to make traditional falafel from my father-in-law.  He gifted me with this super cool falafel making tool.  It really makes creating the falafel shapes so much easier.

Baked Falafel

Baked falafel is an art form. As we all know, falafel is traditionally deep fried resulting in a super crunchy exterior with a tender, moist interior.  I knew baking it would be a challenge.

In my quest for making the perfect oven baked falafel, I have made it several different ways, testing out different methods, and ingredients to find the perfect combination.  I have several different recipes up my sleeve and I am sharing this recipe first on our blog.

I’m excited for you to try it! And I hope you love it as much as we do 🙂

Robin here! 

Monkey first introduced me to falafel over 10 years ago.  I had never eaten falafel before and boy was I missing out.  I have since made up for lost time.  HAH!

They are so delicious.   TP109 scarfs them down like a dying man.  He loves them with tahini sauce.  I love them in a falafel bowl with oven-baked zaatar fries, tabbouleh and hummus.  I am in falafel bowl heaven when Monkey makes falafel.

Products used:

• Food processor
• 14 x 20 baking sheet

Baked Falafel

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• Author: Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 22-24 Falafel 1x
• Category: Dinner
• Cuisine: Middle Eastern

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Description

Healthy and delicious, vegan Baked Falafel is perfect for stuffing in pita pockets or creating scrumptious falafel bowls.  Super tasty and oh so yummy, they are sure to please everyone in the family, making oven-baked falafels a wonderful Whole Food Plant Based flavorful dish.  Vegan, oil free, gluten free,  sugar free, no highly processed ingredients.

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Ingredients

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Falafel Ingredients:

• 2 – 15 oz. cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, packed
• 1 cup fresh cilantro, packed
• 1 large white onion
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded
• 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 Tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (+/- to taste)
• ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked pepper (+/- to taste) 

Easy Tahini Sauce 

• ¼ cup tahini
• 2 – 3 Tablespoons water (as needed to thin it out)
• 1 Tablespoon hummus (See recipe here)
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• Dash sea salt

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Instructions

Falafel Instructions.

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Place the rinsed and drained chickpeas into a food process. Process thoroughly until the chickpeas are finely ground, but not mush.  Remove them and place them in a large bowl.
3. Next add the parsley and cilantro into the food processor. Process until finely ground, but do not over process as this will turn the parsley bitter.  Fine chop, but not overly processed.  Remove them and add them to the large bowl with the chickpeas.
4. Lastly add the onion (quartered) and jalapeno pepper (seeded) into the food processor and process until finely ground. Remove them and place them into the bowl with the ground chickpeas, parsley and cilantro.
5. Finally, add all the remaining falafel ingredients to the bowl. Mix well.
6. Line a 14 x 20 baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a cookie scoop and roll up the mixture into a ball of the mixture then place on the baking sheet.  The falafel mixture is wet so work carefully.  You will then flatten the mixture into a thick disk.  The disk dimensions are 2 inches in diameter by ½ to ¾ inch thick.
   • Note: If using a traditional falafel maker, scoop the mixture into the falafel maker, then make a very slight mound in the center, push on the lever and then slide the falafel off at an approx. 25-degree angle and drop onto the baking sheet. The disk dimensions are 2 inches in diameter by ½ to ¾ inch thick.  This recipe makes 22 to 24 falafel.
7. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, take the baking sheet out of the oven and carefully flip them all over.  Bake on the 2nd side for another 10 minutes until nicely browned.
8. After 10 minutes, remove from the oven. Serve warm on a salad, in a pita or with tahini sauce or hummus.

Easy Tahini Sauce Instructions.

1. Place all the Tahini Sauce ingredients into a small bowl, whisk well to combine.
2. Taste and adjust seasonings to your preference. Add more water if you would like a thinner constancy.

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Notes

*Falafel Maker:  We love our falafel maker.  It really helps making the perfect falafel patty.

Storage:  Store in the fridge and eat within one week.

AND, don’t forget to add a healthy vitamin packed and yummy tabbouleh salad to your falafel bowl!  It’s the perfect compliment to your falafel and zaatar fries.

Oil Free, Gluten Free, Tabbouleh

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• Author: Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 15 minutes
• Yield: 6 Servings 1x
• Category: Side
• Cuisine: Middle Eastern

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Description

This tabbouleh salad is fresh, light, and delicious.  Filled with parsley, mint,  tomatoes, green onions and a hint of  lemon juice making it a healthy and nutritious salad.  Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, oil free, sugar free, gluten free, and no processed ingredients.

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Ingredients

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• 3 bunches flat leaf parsley, leaves only, stems removed, finely chopped
• 7 to 10 fresh mint leaves, stems removed, finely chopped
• 3 tomatoes, seeded, fine dice
• 4 green onions, fine dice
• 2 Tablespoon lemon juice (+ to taste)
• ½ teaspoon sea salt (+/- to taste)
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper (+/- to taste)

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Instructions

1. Pull off all the parsley and mint leaves and discard the stems. Place in a salad spinner to remove as much water as possible, then finely chop and place in a bowl.
2. Seed 3 tomatoes, finely dice and place in the bowl.
3. Finely dice 4 green onions and place in the bowl.
4. Add the remaining ingredients. Taste test the flavor, adjust as needed.
5. Serve cold garnished with romaine lettuce.

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Notes

*Storage:  Refrigerate. Use within one week.

This post contains affiliate links, and I may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.