I love these delicious middle-eastern chickpea goodies, but I just hate to fry them. I never had a thing for deep frying and a pan loaded with hot oil in my kitchen. Lately, my husband was craving deep fried pakoras and vadas in these chili days of November. So, I decided to bake some falafels at home which are traditionally deep fried balls or patties made with ground chickpeas, herbs and spices. These baked falafels are still crunchy and brown from outside and soft and delicious from inside. 

Usually, Chickpeas are first soaked overnight and ground with spices and herbs along with few spoons of white flour for binding. Here we are using par-boiled chickpea with some roasted chickpea flour instead of white flour. Chickpea flour gives Indian dimension and also helps browning the surfaces when baked. We flavor these ground mixture with  onion, coriander seeds, cumin seed, peppercorns, cilantro and parsley. Serve it hot as snack with some tomato sauce or make pita sandwiches or assemble your own whole wheat burger like me for dinner.

Baked Falafel Patties

Ingredients:

Chickpeas: 2 cups, soaked overnight and parboiled

Chickpea flour: 2 tbsp, roasted

Onion: 1 medium, chopped roughly

Garlic: 2 -3

Coriander Seeds: 1 tbsp

Cumin Seeds: 1 tsp

Peppercorns: 1 tsp

Green chilies: 1 tsp, chopped

Cilantro/Coriander leaves: 1/2 cup

Parsley: 1/2 cup

Salt: 1 tsp

Lemon Juice: 2 tsp

Olive Oil: 2 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and grease a baking sheet with 1 tbsp of olive oil
2. Heat a small pan and roast the chickpea flour(besan) for two mins until the raw smell goes off and set aside
3. Then roast coriander seeds, cumin and peppercorns
4. In a blender add these roasted spices, garlic and green chilly and blend for a min
5. Add chickpeas and all the other ingredients (except chickpea flour) and blend to nice coarse mixture and transfer to a bowl
6. Add chickpea flour to the bowl and give a nice mix. You can add breadcrumbs if you feel the batter is very moist
7. Grease your hands and form 2 inch wide patties which are 1/2 inch deep and place on the baking sheet.
8. Spray or brush the top of the patties with oil and place middle rack of the oven
9. Bake for 30 min, flipping them when brown on one side

Note:

1. I served these patties for dinner with Whole Wheat Buns I made yesterday . Cut the buns, toast it on hot pan and arrange lettuce leaves, onions and tomoates and falafel with yogurt and coriander dip (made with 2 tbsp of yogurt, 1 tbsp on mustard sauce and 1 tsp of coriander chutney.)
2. Be creative with burger. Arrange plates of vegetable cut into slices and dips like yogurt dips or sauces and ask the guest to make their own burgers.