Falafel with Hummus & Tahini Sauce
Falafel is a Middle Eastern crispy, deep fried snack made using Chickpeas, herbs and spices. It is a popular street food served with dips like Hummus and Tahini Sauce.
Ingredients
For Falafel
- 1½ cups Dry Chickpeas
- 1 cup Fresh Coriander Leaves
- 1 cup Fresh Parsley Leaves
- ½ cup Fresh Mint
- 1 tbsp Roasted Cumin or Jeera Powder
- 1 tbsp Coriander or Dhaniya Powder
- 1 tbsp Paprika or Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
- 1 Onion roughly chopped
- 7-8 cloves Garlic
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- Salt to taste
- Oil for deep frying
For Tahini Paste
- 100 grams White Sesame Seeds preferably Nylon Sesame variety
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- Salte to taste
For Tahini Sauce
- ⅓ cup Tahini Paste
- 3 cloves Garlic
- Juice of 1 Lime
- ½ cup Water approx
- Fresh Parsley for garnishing
For Hummus
- ½ cup Dry Chickpeas
- 2 tbsp Tahini Paste
- 5 cloves Garlic
- Juice of 1 Lime
- 1 tbsp Roasted Cumin or Jeera Powder
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil + some more for drizzling on top
- 1 tsp Paprika or Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder for garnishing
- Salt to taste
For Falafel Sandwich
- 12 Pita Bread Halves
- Lettuce
- Sliced Tomatoes
- Diced Onions
- Chopped Cucumber
- Purple Cabbage
- Feta Cheese
- Hummus
- Tahini Sauce
Instructions
For making Falafel
- Soak 1.5 cups of chickpeas overnight. Drain the water completely.
- To a mixer jar, add the drained chickpeas, fresh coriander leaves, parsley and mint. If you do not have parsley, substitute with more coriander leaves.
- Add all the remaining ingredients except baking powder (onion, garlic, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder or Paprika, salt to taste)
- Pulse grind to a coarse paste. Do not add water while grinding and also do not grind it too fine. Coarse batter will yield crispy falafel.
- Refrigerate this batter for at least 1 hour as it will help firm up and easy to shape them.
- Just before frying the falafel, add 1 teaspoon of baking powder to make the Falafel light. Mix well.
- Shape the falafel in balls by rolling them between your palm.
- Prepare all the remaining falafel.
- Heat oil in a kadai. Once the oil is medium hot, drop the falafel into oil carefully.
- Make sure to keep the flame medium while frying the falafel. Turn and toss them intermittently.
- Drain them from oil once they are deep golden brown in colour. Make note to take bit earlier than the desired colour, as falafel continue to change colour even after taking it out of the oil. Continue frying the remaining Falafel.
For making the Tahini Paste
- Dry roast 100 grams of white sesame seeds in a pan on a low flame. It should just change colour and not turn brown. Cool the sesame seeds completely before grinding.
- Add the sesame seeds to a mixer jar and grind. Initially it would look powdery, but when you continue grinding, the natural oil in sesame seeds will turn it into a coarse paste.
- Now add salt and around 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Grind further to turn into a smooth paste.
- Transfer to a bowl. Tahini paste is ready and can be stored in refrigerator for 3 to 4 weeks easily.
For making Hummus
- Soak 0.5 cup of dry chickpeas overnight. Drain the water. Pressure cook the chickpeas with some salt and fresh water for around 8 to 9 whistles or till the chickpeas are soft.
- Remove the skin from the chickpea by rubbing it. This will make the Hummus smooth and creamy.
- Cool the chickpeas and then transfer to a mixer jar. Add some salt, garlic, cumin powder and 1 tablespoon olive oil, juice of 1 lime, 2 tablespoons of Tahini paste and grind.
- Add some of the reserved stock used to cook chickpeas and grind further to a smooth thick paste.
- Transfer the hummus to a shallow bowl and using the back of a spoon, create some swirls in it.
- Drizzle some olive oil on top of it. Sprinkle some paprika powder or kashmiri red chilli powder, and fresh chopped parsley or coriander. Hummus is ready.
For making Tahini Sauce
- Grind 3 cloves of garlic with some salt. Next add the Tahini paste, juice of 1 lime and some water.
- Once sauce type consistency is reached, transfer to a bowl and add fresh parsley or coriander to garnish. Tahini sauce is ready.
For assembling Falafel Sandwich
- Cut open Pita bread and in the pita pocket, add lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cucumber , 1 tablespoon of Hummus and crumble some feta cheese. Add couple of hot Falafel. Top with some Tahini sauce.
Video
Notes
- Make sure to drain the water from soaked chickpeas completely before grinding it. Also do not add any water while grinding it.
- Just pulse grind the chickpeas and make a coarse paste. Do not grind to a smooth paste. Coarse batter yields crispy falafel.
- If the batter is loose, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of besan or gram flour to adjust the consistency. Also refrigerating the batter for at least one hour helps to firm up the batter.
- Make sure to fry falafel in medium flame, so that it is cooked thoroughly from inside and also get a uniform colour.
- Falafel tastes best when served hot.
- While making the Tahini paste, be careful while roasting the sesame seeds. It is to be roasted on low flame till it just starts to change colour.
- Removing the skin from cooked chickpeas yields a smooth Hummus.