Falafel

So pleased to have delicious falafel that don't fall apart. I think my previous mistakes were too many wet ingredients and maybe wrong oil temperature. Feel free to skip any herbs and spices you don't want. I keep chopped herbs in the freezer for recipes like this. For the breadcrumbs I just tore a chunk of bread and chopped it in blender before adding the chickpeas.

Chickpeas 3 cups pre-soaked, rinsed, drained and dried off. (1.5 cups dry soaked in 2 litres of water 8 hours / overnight).
OR 2x400g tins of chickpeas, drained, rinsed, patted dry. (the liquid can be reserved for some other recipes)
Onion 1/2 average size (about 80 g) finely chopped
Garlic 1-2 cloves, crushed
Parsley 1 Tablespoon, finely chopped
Coriander fresh, 1 Tablespoon, finely chopped
Coriander powder 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin powder 1/2 teaspoon
Cayenne pepper powder 1/4 teaspoon
Cardamom powder 1/4 teaspoon
Baking soda 1/2 teaspoon
Breadcrumbs fresh, 1/2 - 1 cup (can be skipped but breadcrumbs or a little flour, 2-4 Tablespoons, helps keep them quite light and bind together, especially if using canned chickpeas.)
Tahini paste 1 Tablespoon (or substitute olive oil)

In a food processor, whizz together the chickpeas, onion, garlic and fresh herbs (if you've washed these make sure to dry well to avoid adding too much liquid to mixture).

Once you have a good paste-like texture, mix in dry spices, baking soda, breadcrumbs/flour and tahini/oil. Mix these in until you have a soft but firm mixture.

with clean, wet hands, form into walnut-sized balls (about 25g). make sure to squeeze firmly enough to ensure shape holds and doesn't crumble. If you will be shallow-frying or baking, these can be flattened into more fat disk shapes. For deep(ish) frying, leave as balls. If you like you can roll them in sesame seeds or flour but they should be fine as they are.

These often benefit from resting in the fridge for a while (to firm up) but if mixture is not too moist they are fine to cook straight away.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, add about 7cm oil. Heat to 180 degrees Celsius (or if you don't have deep frying thermometer, until a piece of stale bread dropped into oil browns in about 50 seconds). Fry in several batches until browned on the outside and cooked in the middle (test one). About 3-4 minutes. Drain them in a colander lined with paper towels or on a cake cooling rack while you cook the next batch.

Serve hot.

I will add a tahini sauce recipe and other serving ideas later. x