Oven Baked Green Falafel

There’s not much being harvested in my garden these days as I wait for the fall weather and crops to kick in. I do have an abundance of fresh herbs, thanks to some early starts I found at Island Seed and Feed.

This prompted Julie Robles and me to finally scoot into the kitchen and make falafel together. We’ve been theoretically scheming up a version that was baked over fried. The combo of herb overload and this never-ending bikini weather made it happen — will I ever see a chunky sweater again?

Loaded with aromatics and baked in the oven, these green wonders are delicious and totally fresh tasting. No worrying about oil temperatures or the mess of clean-up. No more being a slave to the stove, like when I made this rendition for a dinner party.

All these need is a brush of olive oil on a cookie sheet and then slide into the oven for eight minutes. The falafel come out crispy on the outside and moist in the middle. This version is perfect when feeding a crowd; you can focus on your friends over juggling falafel balls in a frying pan.

Set up a spread of lovely, fresh sides and dips before sliding the falafel in the oven. Then, all you need to do is deliver the hot falafel to the buffet and you’re ready to go.

To make this even easier, soak the dried chickpeas overnight – no cooking needed. From there, it’s just mix the ingredients in a food processor, shape into pucks and bake. I admit to having done the unthinkable in the falafel world and used canned chickpeas (please don’t revoke my food blogger license). While no major issues were discovered, the texture is better when you simply soak dried chickpeas overnight instead of using cooked/canned chickpeas.

While I may (sometimes) be loosey-goosey on my chickpeas, I’m fanatical about toasting and grinding my own herbs. If your spices are pre-ground you can still toast them to get the maximum flavor — but don’t skip this step! When I bring new dried spices home from the store I like to toast them all and then pour them back in the container to freshly grind at cooking time. This saves me the extra step of toasting and letting them cool while I’m trying to throw dinner together.

When you pull these out of the oven you will understand why I’m in love with this recipe. It’s easy, healthy, and delicious. Most of all, the fragrance is just incredible — first you smell the mint, then the coriander…then you stuff your face.

This spread was for lunch with the ladies in my family, we built our falafel in every possible way — stuffing  pitas with  cucumbers, pickles, bell peppers, feta and  tahini dressing, or forgoing the pita and building it all as a salad. For warm pitas, just slide in the oven on a dry cookie sheet while the falafel bake for about 5 minutes.