How to make it: John Gregory-Smith's falafel recipe
Avoid dry and crumbly falafels with this failsafe recipe
The key is to use dried chickpeas which have been soaked overnight. These hold together when frying and don't dry out. I learned this simple recipe when I was in Ramallah in the Palestinian territories, and find it's best served with chilli sauce, hummus and salad.
Serves: 4 Takes: 20 mins, plus overnight soaking
Ingredients
6 garlic cloves
2 tbsp coriander leaves
300g chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained
3 tbsp gram flour
2 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp baking powder
approx. 650ml vegetable oil
Method
1 Put the garlic and coriander leaves into a food processor and blend until fine.
2 Add the chickpeas, gram flour, cumin, baking powder and a pinch of salt.
3 Blend into a course paste and roll into 20 walnut-sized falafels. If the mix starts to break up when you are rolling, just squeeze it back together.
4 Heat the oil for deep-frying in a medium-sized saucepan over a medium-high heat. You need a good few inches of oil to completely cover the falafel.
5 Fry the falafel in 4-5 batches for 1-2 mins until golden and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Serve immediately.
As featured in Issue 3 of National Geographic Traveller Food.