Falafel

[art to choke hearts]

i BAKE mine,..
and i make my sauce out of vegan mayo,lemon juice, herbs, salt, GARLIC!! a little soyamilk and a dash of hemp or flaxseed oil.
delliiicccious,!

see, now i was thinking that falafel is not really that healthy. i never thought about baking it. but then again, i could use some cooking spray instead of oil....couldn't i?

[jemmyducks]

I think one of the advantages to frying in lots of oil or baking is that they help cook the chickpeas throughout the falafel. I don't know if spray oil would accomplish that. (?)

I'm down for baking though!

Jemmy

[art to choke hearts]

yes sir, i think baking would be my choice.

[spike]

yes sir, i think baking would be my choice.

do you brush them with oil for baking?

[art to choke hearts]

maybies. i have never baked them myself. i would probably bake them on one of those silicone mats so i would not have to use as much oil. or maybe a cast iron skillet. somehthing non stick.....

[bronco]

I seriously doubt the falafels will be good without oil. But I would be interested to hear success stories about flafel cooking without oil .

[art to choke hearts]

i would brush it with some oil for sure, but those silicon mats don't let things burn, and they always seem to keep other baked goods really moist, so it would be an interesting experiment none the less....

[fredrikw]

I agree with bronco here, deep frying falafels correctly you will quickly get a crust on the outside which will keep moist in (and the oil out). baking sounds like you're going to end up with something that is very dry since you basically are dehydrating them in a high temperature environment.

[art to choke hearts]

i've never even made falafel. what is the correct way to fry? deep fry? pan fry? special oil?

[fredrikw]

what I meant by correct is to deep fry in sufficient hot oil, if not the falafel (or whatever you're deep frying) will absorb too much oil and the results will just be oil marinated food

[art to choke hearts]

i see now. thanks!

[spike]

yeah, if the oil isn't hot enough they don't turn out great.
i reckon i'm gonna stick to my frying, much quicker than baking too.
I've had success shallow frying, just need to make them into flat shape, like little flying saucers, and turn em over.

[jemmyducks]

Well, tried the baked ones tonight. Didn't add enough garlic. They are dry, though not horrendously. And if you're drenching them in yoghurt sauce, I don't imagine that'd be too big of a problem.

I looked up some baked falafel recipes online though (after I had already done mine), and most of them use a pan to brown the falafel first, and then bake. Apparently that helps.....

Jemmy

[tracifish]

yeah, if the oil isn't hot enough they don't turn out great.
i reckon i'm gonna stick to my frying, much quicker than baking too.
I've had success shallow frying, just need to make them into flat shape, like little flying saucers, and turn em over.

Thank you for this tip! I don't have a deep-fryer and saucer-shaped is a good idea.

[Man On Bike.]

So I finally made some falafel today. OH MY GOD IT IS SO EASY!!! AND TASTY!!!

But... I've had to add heart-stopping amounts of salt (about five times more than Id feel comfortable putting in any food), tongue-searing amounts of extra hot chilli powder (eight times as much as I'd normally put in a curry) and sneezing fit-inducing amounts of black pepper (enought to make a man sneeze for a month) too, to stop them tasting bland as.... Quite a lot of turmeric and paprika too. I only wish I had more garlic. I would have added two bulbs if I had that much - but I only had slightly less than a bulb in the cupboard.

Also.. don't try and cook them in really hot oil. It should be just hot enough to fry, but not super hot. Otherwise your felafel will be black outside and cold and uncooked inside. Test it by dropping a tiny speck of felafel in there first. If it sizzles gently then it's hot enough.