Traditionally, Lebanese falafel is made only with chickpeas or a combination of chickpeas and fava beans. Our take on it includes a popular Middle Eastern aubergine dip, baba ganoush. This gives the traditional falafel a deep savoury richness topped with another twist on a popular favourite, toum yoghurt
TOP TIP! If the falafel mixture falls apart while frying, add 1-2 tablespoon of chickpea flour to the mixture and blend
| Created by | Spinneys |
| Prep time | 40 minutes |
| Cook time | 60 minutes |
| Serves | 4-6 |
| Cuisine | Arabic |
| Diet | Vegetarian |
| Preparation | Moderate |
| Calories | 493 |
| Fat | 31.9g |
| Saturates | 3.6g |
| Protein | 13.4g |
| Carbs | 45.2g |
| Sugars | 13.6g |
| Given the cook-at-home nature of Spinneys and natural variations in ingredients, nutritional information is approximated. See details | |
Ingredients
Cooking Instructions
Download PDFTo make the toum yoghurt, juice 1 lemon. Place 3 cloves of garlic (approx. 20g) and 2 tbsp of lemon juice in a blender or food processor and blitz to form a paste. Slowly pour 50ml of olive oil into the garlic mixture with the blender running on high. Add in the yoghurt and blend until smooth. Season and refrigerate until needed.
Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4.
To make the baba ghanoush, place the aubergine in a roasting dish and, using a fork, pierce it a few times. Place the dish in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the aubergine is blistered and super soft inside. Allow to cool before peeling off the skin.
Once cold, add the flesh to a blender along with 1 garlic clove, tahini, 1 tbsp olive oil (approx. 15ml), paprika, ½ tsp of sea salt, all of the juice of the other lemon and parsley and blitz until smooth. Adjust the seasoning, if needed.
Preheat the oil to 180°C.
To make the falafel, drain and rinse the chickpeas and place in a food processor along with the cumin, turmeric, 1½tsp of salt, 2 garlic cloves, parsley, water, chickpea flour, baking powder as well as the baba ganoush. Blitz until smooth.
Using a tablespoon, mould the mixture into even-sized balls.
Drop the falafel in the hot oil and fry for approx. 5-10 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Drain the falafel on paper towels.
Halve the cherry tomatoes, roughly chop the cucumber, peel and finely slice the onion and toast the pine nuts.
Serve the falafel with the toum yoghurt, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, pine nuts and coriander.
