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Sometimes the falafels end up smelling a bit stale and sometimes smell meaty(shared oil?). The stale oil bothers me more than anything else and I always think of fixing some up at home. Its one of those things that are easily available, but really the home made falafels are tastier, fresher and healthier! These falafels are baked, crisp on the outside, moist inside, and delicious and can be frozen for use later.
I use lentils and split peas in these falafels. What I like about lentil Falafels is that they come together really quickly and also cause less gas issues 😉 . Chickpeas are wonderful if you cook them from scratch at home after an overnight soak. The canned chickpeas are notorious though, as are most canned beans. If you are wondering about the bloating because of all the beans and lentils you have been consuming, I will tell you, that this was not much of a problem back in India. We ate much more beans, lentils, split peas, every single meal. Everything got digested well mainly because of zero use of canned beans and lentils. Everything was always soaked overnight, always cooked from scratch and had ingredients to help reduce all the gaseousness, like Asafetida (Hing) or Carom seeds – Ajwain Seeds added during cooking. All the centuries of knowledge of eating beans and lentils is all there deep rooted in the way of cooking. solutions just need to be found and implemented. 🙂
Baked Lentil Falafels!
More Mediterranean options on the blog
Chickpea and Split pea Falafels. use all chickpeas to make a chickpea Falafel. Also see step pictures on this post for the falafel mixture and pre and post baking pictures.
Mediterranean thin crust Pizza with almond feta, olives, mushrooms.
More Bowls.
Herbed White Bean, garlicky collard, Pepita Parmesan Bowl
Quinoa cauliflower bowl with Almond butter Sriracha sauce
Falafels are very filling, allergen friendly and with lentils, practically ready in 40 mins.
what is your favorite Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, or inspired meal?
Baked Lentil Split Pea Falafel Bowl with Tahini dressing. Gluten-free Soy-free Recipe
Ingredients
For the Falafels:
- 1/4 cup lentils, any brown lentils, whole masoor or spanish brown
- 1/4 cup yellow or green split peas
- 2 cups water
- 1/3 cup chopped red onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 packed cup cilantro
- 1/4 packed cup parsley
- 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon whole coriander seeds or coriander powder
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper/ or black pepper or to taste, I also added 1/2 a Serrano chili pepper
- 2 teaspoons oil, optional
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
- 1-2 Tablespoons chickpea flour
For the Tahini Dressing:
- 1/3 cup tahini
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 tsp fresh parsley or 1/2 tsp dried
- 2 to 3 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 to 4 Tbsp water
- 1/4 tsp salt
- a generous dash of cayenne and black pepper
Other:
- Long white Radish made into ribbons with a peeler or radish slices
- Cucumber slices
- Torn Lettuce
- pickles, optional
- cilantro and sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Wash the lentils and split peas. Drain, add to a deep pan with 2 cups of water. Cook on medium-high heat for 18 to 19 minutes. (15 mins if the lentils and split peas were pre-soaked for half an hour)
- Drain and cool slightly. Add to a food processor. Add all the ingredients except chickpea flour and pulse to make a coarse mixture. Transfer to a bowl. Add chickpea flour as needed to make the dough less sticky. If the dough is too sticky. chill for a few minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F / 200ºc. Grease hands and shape the dough into 1 to 1.5 inch balls. Place on parchment lined sheet. Brush oil on top. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden crisp on the outside.
- Meanwhile, Prepare the veggies and make the Tahini sauce. Blend everything under Tahini dressing. Taste and adjust tang and salt. Add more lemon juice if needed.
- Assemble the bowl with lettuce, cucumbers, Radish ribbons and other veggies. Drizzle generous amount of tahini dressing. Serve with warm falafels. Garnish with black and white sesame seeds and cilantro(optional). Or make a wrap in a pita. Add lettuce, pickles, radish, falafels and tahini dressing and make a snug wrap to carry.
- The falafels can be stored for upto 3 days in the refrigerator. Reheat in the oven if needed before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I tried to pin this recipe to Pinterest. But I’m not able to. Pinterest has blocked your website and has declared it to be a Spam link.
i checked at night and it was giving weird errors, then i tried again an hour later and it was working fin, so it must be a pinterest glitch. Pinterest has been very glitchy lately. They sometimes eat up the recipe titles or descripions and other errors
Thank you. I originally found the link through Pulse Canada. But the link they sent me to was one of those shortened links. It didn’t say veganricha.com. Now that I have the correct domain I was able to pin the recipe no problem. I look forward to browsing your other vegetarian recipes.
thats awesome! thanks
Hi, do you ever substitute anything for the chickpea flour. I have a friend with a chickpea allergy that would love these? She’s also allergic to Potatoes and Fava Beans ( and she’s Indian and Vegetarian ironically.)
regular all purpose flour or any other grain flour will work, or breadcrumbs
Thank you. Ah I should have specified that I was hoping for a gluten free one. Would tapioca or almond work? Or do you think Oat is a better option?
a mix of tapioca and oat would work better than almond.
This was really great. I cooked the lentils and split peas in the instant pot with vegetable stock. Very Yummy! Thank you!
thanks
What an amazing recipe! Thank you for sharing it. Just one question, how many falafels are included in be “one serving” chart? Just making sure I get my daily protein amount.
Thanks again!
3 to 4 balls depending on the size.