Middle Eastern Falafel
I love falafel. It’s full of great texture, flavored with mint, parsley, nuts, and sesame seeds that add crunch and extra nutrition to the finished dish. With the principle ingredient in falafel being garbanzo beans, they are full of wonderful fiber, vitamins, minerals, and complex carbohydrates. This recipe for Middle Eastern Falafel combines all the different versions of this staple recipe, highlighting the flavors and how to design a vegetarian mainstay to be beer-friendly, tasty, and enhance the beer pairing possibilities. One can use this falafel in many different dishes. Try stuffing them into pita bread, to make a Falafel Sandwich. A riff off a sandwich, try stuffing them into a Homemade Pita Beer Bread, or rolling them in a Lavash Beer Bread | Cracker, breaking them apart, adding a few other ingredients and make a Shawarma, or serve as an appetizer alongside some Baba Ghanoush and Hummus. Add them to a mixed green salad, and serve with a drizzle of Tahini Orange Brown Ale Sauce, for a cool summer salad.
I suggest you use my Cooking Garbanzo Beans recipe that uses a Brown Ale as a cooking liquid. This cooking with beer recipe, adds extra depth with the melanoidin rich brew, adding depth and layers of flavor into the dried bean (chickpea). These cooked beans can be used in a salad, added to a stew, or used as a garnish on a Middle Eastern Platter, with a selection of cured olives, Cous Cous salad, and more.
This recipe can be either make fried falafel or baked falafel. Once the mixture is combined and shaped, how it is cooked is up to you.
Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine are wonderful year-round, yet fully enjoyable in hot weather, perfect for the late Summer months. This Middle Eastern Falafel recipe can be made in advance, pulled out at a moment’s notice, or packed up and brought to the beach, the park for a picnic, or a gathering with friends. Pair this recipe with Baba Ghanoush, Beer Hummus and you will have all the components for a zesty summer spread, simple dinner, or nutritious snack.
Makes: about 20 ping-pong-size falafel patties
Adapted from BeerAdvocate Magazine: Cuisine à la Bière | Jul 2013 | Issue #78
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 6 people | 10 minute |
| Cook Time |
| 5 - 25 minute |
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This recipe for Middle Eastern Falafel uses a mixture of seeds, nuts, garbanzo beans cooked in Beer, with mint, parsley, and coated in sesame seeds.
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- 3 each garlic, cloves peeled
- 1 cup nuts, such as pistachios, cashews or almonds, shelled and lightly toasted
- 1/2 cup onion, yellow, peeled and chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley, Italian Leaf or regular, stems removed and chopped
- 1/4 cup mint, spearmint, peppermint or other, leaves only
- 1 teaspoon cumin, ground
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt, kosher
- 2 cup beans, garbanzo, also called chickpeas, cooked, or canned and drained
- 3 tablespoon seeds, sesame, white,
- 3 tablespoon seeds, sesame, black,
- 3 tablespoon seeds, hemp,
- In the bowl of a food processor, add the garlic cloves, nuts of choice, onion, parsley, mint, cumin, baking powder, and salt. Pulse several times to mix and chop all the ingredients to a semi-fine meal, similar to very coarse sand. Add the cooked and cooled chickpeas, 1 tablespoon each of sesame seeds (white & black), and the hemp seeds. Measure the remaining seeds into a medium-size bowl, as they will be used to coat the outside of the falafel balls. Pulse several more times, until the mixture is the consistency of wet, coarse sand. Do not make the mixture into a paste, like hummus, or the final product will not have the right texture and mouthfeel.
- Using a medium-size ice cream scoop, falafel ball maker, or a soup spoon, make ping-pong-size balls.
- Place into the bowl of mixed seeds. One at a time, gently roll the ball, first in the seeds to coat, then in your palms to lightly press the seeds into the mixture. Be careful not to squish or compact the falafel, as that will result in a denser finished product. Place the finished ball onto a sheet tray (lined with either a silicone baking sheet or parchment paper) if baking, or onto a plate if frying.
- Baking the falafel results in a final product that is less greasy, but still crunchy. Preheat your oven to 400°F | 204°C. Place the sheet tray with the falafel balls into the oven and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until golden brown on the outside and cooked all the way through on the inside.
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