If you've never had Oil-Free Falafels - you're really missing out on a treat. Crispy on the outside and creamy in the middle, these little chickpea patties never tasted so good!
Falafels are a popular Middle Eastern street food. While we have hot dogs, tacos, and pizza.....they have Falafels.
And Falafels are definitely the better choice......much better.
Not just because they're Vegan (which they are), but because if you make them at home...they can be completely oil-free. Better for your waistline and MUCH better for your heart.
If this recipe looks ridiculously easy - that's because IT IS. All you need is basically a blender and a food processor. The sauce literally comes together in minutes, and there's hardly any prep to make the falafels.
All you need is some canned chickpeas, fresh veggies, my tasty tzatziki sauce, and something to wrap it all up in
Oil-Free Baked Falafels
Tzatziki sauce
Cut a 14oz block of extra-firm tofu into cubes and add to your blender. Then add all the other sauce ingredients and blend on high until it's smooth and creamy - you can adjust the salt to your own taste.
Note: Any plant-based yogurt will work but make sure it's plain unflavored yogurt. Foragers has a cashew yogurt that is in many stores.
The Falafels
Note: A food chopper or food processor is really handy to make the falafels. I tried using my Vitamix blender and ended up with hummus instead of falafel mix. Not good. This is the mini-chopper I used and it worked fine. I'll post my Amazon Affiliate Link and I do earn a little from each purchase but at no extra cost to you. Just remember we do NOT want to overmix our chickpeas or we'll end up with mush, not falafels.
Back to the recipe.
Add ¼ of an onion and 3 to 4 cloves of peeled garlic to a food chopper or food processor and mince them very finely. Then drain and rinse a 15oz can of chickpeas, pat them dry, and add them to your food processor as well.
IMPORTANT: ONLY PULSE THE CHICKPEAS 3-4 times, just until they form a very rough meal. We are NOT trying to make hummus here!
Empty the contents into a bowl.
Add the ½ cup of cilantro and/or parsley to your food processor and mince them as well. You can use a combination or all cilantro/parsley if you wish.
Add the minced herbs to your bowl of falafel mix, add the seasonings, and mix well. It will be a fairly WET mix.
So now we simply add the flour to firm the mixture and allow us to make our patties. I used ½ cup of oat flour but any flour should work fine.
Note: If you have an old coffee grinder you can easily add old-fashioned rolled oats and make your own oat flour.
To make the falafel patties I used a ¼ cup measuring cup, filling the cup completely and pressing the mixture down tightly. The patty should then easily slide out with a few taps on the bottom.
Place the patties on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 25 min at 400º F, flip, then bake an additional 5-10 minutes or until slightly browned.
The Wrap
Now all you have to do is make your wrap!
Pitas are a good choice or you can simply use whatever wrap or tortilla you have available. Many people add hummus to their falafels too - and if you need an oil-free hummus recipe - I got you covered.
Add 1 or 2 falafels, some fresh leaf lettuce, a few slices of English cucumber and tomato, and drizzle with your homemade Tzatziki sauce.
Oil-Free Falafels! Enjoy!
Oil-Free Baked Falafels
- Prep Time: 30 min
- Cook Time: 30 min
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 7 Falafel Patties 1x
- Category: Sandwiches
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Diet: Vegan
Description
If you've never had Oil-Free Falafels - you're really missing out on a treat. Crispy on the outside and creamy in the middle, these little chickpea patties never tasted so good!
Ingredients
Tzatziki Sauce
- 14 oz extra firm tofu
- 3 Tbs lemon juice
- 1 Tbs red wine vinegar
- 3-4 cloves minced garlic
- 1 English cucumber
- 1 Tbs fresh dill
- 6 oz non-dairy yogurt
- ½ tsp salt
Baked Falafels
- 15 oz can chickpeas - drained, rinsed, & patted dry
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- ¼ med onion
- ½ cup fresh parsley and/or cilantro
- 1 Tbs lemon juice
- ½ cup oat flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground cumin
Instructions
Tzatziki Sauce
- Drain and cube the tofu and add to your blender
- Add all the other sauce ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy
- Keep refrigerated until needed
Baked Falafels
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Finely mince the onion & garlic using a chopper or food processor
- Drain, rinse, and pat dry the chickpeas, then add them to the processor and only pulse 3-4 times
- Empty contents into a bowl
- Finely mince the parsley and/or cilantro and add that to the bowl
- Add seasonings and mix well
- Add up to ½ cup of oat flour and mix well
- Form into 7 patties approximately ¼ cup each
- Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 25 min
- Flip and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes
- Spread hummus (if desired) on a wrap, add 1-2 falafels, and top with lettuce, tomato, English cucumber, and Tzatziki sauce.
Mary Pomerantz
Hi Chuck. I plan on making this recipe sometime this week. I was wondering what you thought of using chickpea flour to replace the oat flour.
Thanks, Mary
Chuck Underwood
No, I wouldn't..... chickpea flour has a very weird taste...
Mary
Thanks, Chuck. This time I will use oat flour, but the time I will try chickpea flour and let you know how it turns out. We like the taste of chickpea flour.
Lisa
I am a fan of the original recipe so there was concern when it changed. Still a fan, the falafel are just as tasty. This recipe is very quick and easy to make. Makes enough for the two of us to have dinner and lunch the following day. The Tzatziki sauce recipe can be halved without compromising any flavor.
jeanie
how do these stick together without liquid?
Cathy
I don’t know jeanie and I wondered myself but I have made them twice with no trouble. The first time I made them bigger as Chuck suggests but tonight I made them smaller and they stuck together.
joan
Hi Chuck ,Re the falafel recipe So I am confused Spinach?? I wrote out the recipe printer not working, and I did not see spinach in the recipe I saw parsley that's green but not spinach. If i don't want salt in a recipe I simply exercise my right to not add it no worries about the too much salt . But the spinach really has me stumped.
thanks chuck for the recipe I will have it this week
Chuck Underwood
I updated the recipe this weekend, and removed the spinach.
Russell Kruska
There is alot of sodium in the recipe, almost 360mg per patty. Could I just use potassium chloride for some of all the salt content? Of course that 360mg assumes one will use 1/7th of the tziki sauce sodium too.
Russ
in2insight
I have the "old" version with fresh herbs and no onion, and have made it successfully many times.
The other day I made a wee bit of a change to make this low fodmap.
Replaced the chickpeas with canned lentils, the fresh garlic with 1/2 t of powder garlic and added 2T of chickpea flour.
They turned out great!
Thank you for sharing this recipe.
S
Can I just check please. Do you blend the pitas? Or are they for filling?
Amy
Oh my goodness!!! These falafels are amazingly delicious! I could eat them every day. My husband now thinks I’m a good cook, so thank you!! ?
Mars
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! It's already quite cold where I am so my fresh garden greens are limited. I subbed bishop's weed in for the spinach and it was delicious. More mild tasting than other greens. These also freeze well and are so good that they're now a staple in our kitchen.
Karen
Made these tonight. Made them in my vitamix. First mistake. I think the food processor would have helped make the batter into crumbles. I ended up with paste instead of crumbles. Next I made them in the air fryer. Cooked them too long, and they stuck to my rack. Everything that went wrong was my fault. They were yummy (so was the raw batter). They came out in crumbles. My daughter and I laughed a lot and promptly devoured the entire set before we put anything on the table. Luckily, there was enough batter (paste!) for a second set. Its in the air fryer right now. Can't wait to see if I fixed any of my oopses. Chuck, it was a delicious adventure.
Janet
Peel the cucumber? I'm going to assume that these can be made in advance and also that they freeze well. Let me know if I'm wrong about that!
Chuck Underwood
Never tried to freeze them.....let me know if you do!
StarMuse Cheryl Sort
2 things
1 If using kale i first massage it by rolling it like a snake between your palms. This makes tender enough to eat raw or cooked, it also cancels the harsher bitterness.
2. If you haven't yet tried it, Vegan lactic acid powder is AMAZING at pronounced dairy feel and taste to vegan non dairy products a better taste than vinegar tries for in our dishes. Also, think teaspoons instead of tablespoons. It's made from fermenting beets
Jessica S.
These are very tasty and hold together better than other recipes I've tried. I used 2C chickpeas, doubled the cumin, added 1/16 tsp ancho chili powder and added an additional Tbsp of lime juice to the falafel patties. I also increased the amount of dill in the sauce. The sauce tastes better if you let it sit for a while so you can't really taste the tofu. Thank you!
Cindy
Hi, first, thank you for publishing all of these great recipes! Second, I am hoping to make these today or tomorrow but I don't have any spinach, however, I do have kale. Do you think it would be an acceptable substitute if I chopped it fine?
Chuck Underwood
I'd sure give it a try..... Kale can be a bit stronger tasting so be careful, but yeah I'd try it.