This easy vegan falafel recipe is the most delicious falafel you’ll ever have. Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and spiced with the wonderful flavours of cumin and coriander. These falafel are great on top of a big bowl of veggies or stuffed into a pita sandwich with a big dollop of vegan tzatziki on top.
I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t love falafel and it’s pretty much the standard restaurant vegetarian option for uncreative chefs. I like to call falafel, hummus and baba ganoush “vegan 101” since they’re so simple to make and ubiquitous on the menus of practically every vegetarian restaurant in the city I live in.
Despite that, none of those restaurants make it better than this homemade vegan falafel recipe. It’s seriously the best falafel I’ve ever had, no joke. This trick is to plan ahead and use dried chickpeas soaked overnight. That’s what’s gonna give you the super crispy texture that’s light and not pasty on the inside.
I’m sure that one or many of you are going to ask me if you can substitute cooked/canned chickpeas for this recipe. The answer is no so don’t bother asking. Dried chickpeas are essential to the texture of this vegan falafel recipe. Yes, you can make falafel with canned chickpeas but please go find yourself another recipe for that!
When I was young, I used to make falafel with one of those packaged box mixes. It would seem like it’s more convenient but in actual fact the falafel “batter” is so easy to make that’s there’s really no excuse for not making it from scratch.
Simply toss chickpeas, herbs and seasonings into a food processor and blitz it up. You can get as creative as you like with the seasonings here (and I have seen some pretty creative falafel recipes!). Then you just need to roll it into balls and fry till golden and crispy. If they’re not sticking together well you can refrigerate the mix for an hour and that should do the trick!
In the meantime you can whip up a simple vegan tzatziki sauce. This is just a combination of soy or coconut yogurt, grated and drained cucumber, garlic, lemon, dill and salt. This vegan tzatziki is great with your falafel in a pita or with just the pita itself and some veggies for dipping!
Once you try this vegan falafel recipe you’ll never want to use the box mixes again!
Wanna see how easy it is to make this vegan falafel recipe with tzatziki? Watch the video and share it on Facebook:
This easy vegan falafel recipe is the most delicious falafel you’ll ever have. Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and served with a vegan tzatziki sauce. **Prep time does not include soaking the chickpeas overnight. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Vegan Falafel Recipe
Ingredients
For the falafel
For the vegan tzatziki
Instructions
Notes
Recommended Products
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4
Serving Size: 4 - 5 falafel
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 364Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gSodium: 940mgCarbohydrates: 61gFiber: 10gSugar: 19gProtein: 16g
Recipe adapted from Tori Avey
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8 Comments
Donna
October 29, 2017 at 5:52 pmThis is such a great recipe; I can’t wait to try it. My digestive system doesn’t do well with fried foods. Do you think this will fare well if I baked it . . . maybe at 350 for about 20 minutes? I’m just guessing here, I really don’t know about the temp and time. What do you think?
Melissa
November 1, 2017 at 3:51 pmYes, you can probably bake them though they’ll be a bit dryer in texture so you might want more sauce. Your time and temp guess-timate sounds good. give it a try!
Ricardo
November 4, 2017 at 4:39 amI just made this recipe baked. It turned out great! I did 40min at 350F and the only thing different I did was to use sprouted chickpeas that had in the fridge.
Thanks!
laurie
June 7, 2018 at 8:39 pmCan you sub something else for the chickpea flour? I dont even know where i would buy that. Thanks
Melissa
June 19, 2018 at 12:10 pmYes, regular white or whole wheat flour.
Ashleah
August 22, 2018 at 4:48 pmCan you freeze the mix in balls then cook them when needed
Melissa
August 22, 2018 at 7:46 pmI think that’d be ok.
Kristian Choate
September 3, 2020 at 11:46 pmGreat recipe!! 🙂