Air Fried Falafel

Most cultures have one thing in common, their street food. Middle Eastern food is no exception. Probably the most famous street food in the Middle East is the falafel. In some countries in the Middle East, falafel stands are everywhere like hot dog stands in major American cities.

If you are not familiar with falafels, you might be surprised to learn that they are a vegetarian dish. They don’t look vegetarian though. At first glance you might thing you were eating meatballs.

The falafel is actually chick peas and seasoning that is ground into a puree, shaped into balls and fried in a fryer. After the fryer three of four balls are put on pita bread and covered with tahini sauce, cucumber and other vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes and even pickles.

Some years ago, before I lost my weight, I tried to make my own falafels in the deep fryer, but they didn’t turn out too well. They had a tendency to fall apart. When I decided I wanted to make air fried falafels because I could see they would be a healthy food for my new lifestyle I did some research and learned why they fell apart.

The key to making a good falafel is to never use canned chick peas. Always use dry chick peas. The reason you never use canned chick peas is because the canning process alters the chick peas. The bonding agent that holds a falafel together is boiled out of the chick pea when they are canned.

To make great falafels, buy a pound of dried chick peas and put them in a large bowl of water. Make sure there is plenty of water in the container because the beans will soak up a lot of water. Leave the beans in the container, in the refrigerator, for at least 24 hours for maximum softness. My last batch, I actually left them in the fridge for 3 days.

Once the beans are ready, then you can start making your falafels.

Falafel ball Ingredients

1 pound dry chick peas

1 medium onion

3 teaspoons minced garlic

2 teaspoons parsley seasoning

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Red pepper flakes to taste

Directions:

Drain the chickpeas in a colander while you gather the other ingredients.

Chop the onion

Place chick peas, onions and all the other ingredients in a large bowl. Mix everything together.

If you have a food processor, place ingredients in it and mix it until everything has becomes a smooth paste. To mix mine, I used a Cuisinart Smart stick which blended everything wonderfully.

Once you have worked everything into a paste the fun begins. Cover the tray in your air fryer with aluminum foil and spray some olive oil on the foil to prevent the balls from sticking.

Now it’s time to make the balls. I found the easiest way to make balls consistently the same size was to use a one tablespoon measuring spoon and pat it on the top to form a ball, then drop it onto the tray.

I could get 12 balls on a tray in my air fryer. The total number of falafel balls I got out of this recipe was 33.

Turn the air fryer on to 375 degrees for ten minutes. Turn the balls over and put back in the fryer for another five minutes and they are done.

I didn’t have any tahini sauce so I improvised and came up with something of my own. Tahini sauce is normally made with Greek yogurt, but I didn’t have any of that either. Instead I used light mayonnaise and it worked just fine.

Falafel sauce Ingredients:

3 tablespoons light mayonnaise

1 cucumber chopped

2 tablespoons concentrated lemon juice

1 teaspoon dill seasoning

Mix the ingredients together.

Take either a pita bread or a tortilla, place 3 balls on it and cover with the sauce. Wrap bread around it and enjoy.

Nutrition for the Falafel balls

Portion: per ball

Calories - 20

Total fat – 0.4g

Carb – 2.1g

Protein – 1.1g

Nutrition for the Falafel sauce

1 serving

19 calories

Fat – 1.4g

Carb – 1.3g

Protein – 0.1g