Falafel is one of my top vegetarian cravings! Whether tossed on a salad, served with sauces or veggies, or stuffed in pita bread, these crunchy tiny spicy nuggets have only one drawback: The Deep Fryer. You’ll need to thoroughly fry the falafel to get them precisely crunchy, which will require a lot of cleanups.
Alternatively, you can air fry the falafels!
Now, I don’t anticipate a lot of falafel street carts with air fryers popping up anytime soon. True, the falafel fried in this manner doesn’t get quite as crispy as falafel prepared in a typical deep fry, but it’s near. It’s also well worth it because of the simple clean-up and consumption of less oil.
Contents
What Exactly Is Falafel?
Traditional falafel is created by soaking dry chickpeas overnight and pounding them with garlic, spices, and other typical ingredients. They’re a terrific vegetarian choice filled in a soft pita, holding a shape like discs or small balls, and fried deeply.
My falafel is made with canned chickpeas and served with lettuce, crisp vegetables, and a simple dip sauce.
Serving Ideas:
Could you put them in a sandwich? These crispy, air fryer chickpeas falafel filled in hot pita bread is hard to beat for our money.
Salad for vegetarians! I’ve also served them as a salad put on a bed of greens with the tahini sauce as a dressing.
Lunch in a bento box? When combined with olives and sun-dried tomatoes, leftover falafel can also be used as a bento box ingredient.
How to Store Falafels:
Each pita sandwich requires around four to five falafels; while this recipe will make many more falafels, you will have some leftover falafels. Fret not! You can easily store them in your refrigerator for around 5-6 days. Also, you can seal them in zip lock bags and put them in the freezer to store them for a long time.
More Appetizer Recipes
Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Wings
Air Fryer Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus
Air Fryer Chickpeas Falafel
Ingredients
- Non-Stick Cooking Spray
- 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas rinsed and drained
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro
- ¼ cup parsley
- 2 clove garlic peeled
- 1 large shallot chopped
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- as required salt
Instructions
- In a food processor, add all the ingredients and pulse until the mixture comes together in a rough paste.
- Make about 26 balls from the mixture and then with your fingers, flatten each slightly.
- Grease the Air Fryer Basket with cooking spray and then slide inside.
- Adjust the temperature of Air Fryer to 350 °F to preheat for 5 minutes.
- After preheating, arrange 13 falafels into the greased Air Fryer Basket in a single layer.
- Slide the basket into Air Fryer and set the time for 14 minutes.
- While cooking, flip the falafels once halfway through.
- After cooking time is finished, remove the falafels from Air Fryer and place onto a platter.
- Repeat with remaining falafels.
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