Colm O'Gorman: Here's how to make fresh falafel with Yemeni chilli sauce

Serve your falafel with pittas or some freshly made flatbreads and homemade pickles.

Falafel are a Middle Eastern street food staple. When they are made properly, these deep-fried chickpea fritters are a delight — crispy on the outside, light and beautifully spiced on the inside. I cannot abide the ready-made, shop-bought versions, to be honest. I find they are invariably dense and tasteless. 

Freshly made falafel, though, is a world apart, and this recipe is perfect for making your own at home. 

It takes a little time, but that mainly involves the time needed to soak the dried chickpeas and to chill the falafel mix. The actual preparation and cooking of the falafel themselves are fairly quick and the recipe is overall, pretty straightforward.

Serve your falafel with pittas or some freshly made flatbreads and homemade pickles. To make the pickles, heat 150ml of white wine vinegar over a medium heat, add 75g of caster sugar, and half a teaspoon of flaky sea salt. Peel and very thinly slice a red onion and pop it into a jar or bowl. Pour half the vinegar mixture over the onion. Wash and thinly slice half a cucumber, and pop that into another bowl or jar along with the rest of the vinegar mixture. Set aside the jars while you make your falafel. 

We always have pickled chillies with this dish as well. We buy those ready-made as they are readily available locally. Some hummus and a tahini sauce are also good along with the Yemeni-inspired chilli sauce below. Thinly-shredded white cabbage simply tossed in some lemon juice, olive oil, black pepper and a little salt brings some lovely freshness and crunch to the meal, so I highly recommend you make that to have with your falafel.  

Fresh Falafel with Yemini Sauce

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

I can't abide store-bought falafel. Nothing beats the fresh, herbaceous taste of homemade deep-fried chickpeas

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 20 mins

Total Time

 40 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Middle Eastern

Ingredients

• For the falafel:

• 250g dried chickpeas

• ¼ tsp baking soda

• ½ onion

• 3 cloves garlic

• 1 green chilli

• 20g fresh parsley

• 3 cardamon pods

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp ground coriander

• 2 tbsp flour

• 1 level tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp flaky sea salt

• A good grind of black pepper

• 1 litre sunflower oil

•  

• For the chilli sauce:

• 30g fresh coriander

• 2 green chillies

• 2 cloves garlic

• ¼ tsp ground cumin

• ¼ tsp salt

• Juice of half a lemon

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Get the chickpeas on to soak a full day before you want to cook the falafel. Never use tinned chickpeas for falafel — they will not work — you must use dried ones that you have pre-soaked. Pop the chickpeas into a pan and cover them with water. Use plenty of water, at least twice the volume of water for dried chickpea as they will soak up all the water and double in size as they rehydrate. After about twelve hours, drain the water and recover with fresh water, adding the baking soda. This will help soften the chickpeas.

2. When the chickpeas have had 20-24 hours to soak, they are ready to use. Drain them into a colander and pop the lot into a food processor. Add the coriander, stalks, and leaves. Peel and roughly chop the onion and garlic. Wash and roughly chop the chilli, and pop it, seeds and pith included, along with the onion and garlic into the food processor. Pulse everything until you get the correct texture. It should have a slight paste-like consistency but with grains of ground chickpeas with a texture a bit like couscous. Pulse rather than blitz the chickpeas or you will likely end up with a hummus-like paste which will not hold together when you fry the falafel.

3. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Toast and grind the seeds from the cardamom pods. Now add those to the chickpeas mixture along with the cumin, coriander, flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. The flour will help to bind the mixture and the baking powder will make the falafel lighter. Stir well to combine everything thoroughly. Cover the bowl with some cling film and chill it in the fridge for an hour.

4. Once the mixture is chilled, heat the sunflower oil in a pan or wok to 180° Celsius. Roll a few tablespoons of the mixture into a ball, and carefully lower it into the hot oil. Deep fry it for four minutes until it is golden and crisp all over. This test falafel will allow you to taste the mixture for seasoning. Cut open the falafel and have a taste. Add more salt if needed and a little cayenne pepper if you want more heat. Form five or six balls of falafel and pop them in to cook. Fry them for four minutes until they are golden and crisp all over, and then remove them to a rack or some kitchen towel to drain while you prepare and cook the rest of the mixture. Make sure you keep the oil at 180° Celsius as you cook. It can cool down as it cooks a batch, so check it each time that you take a batch out and make sure to get the oil back to 180° Celsius before you add the next. If the oil is not hot enough, your falafel may not hold together, and you will not get a beautiful golden and crunchy exterior.

5. As your last batch of falafel is cooking, pop all the ingredients for the chilli sauce into a food processor or blender and blitz to a smooth sauce. Serve the falafels right away, with flatbreads or toasted pitta, pickles, hummus, and the shredded cabbage salad.