Baked Falafel Bowls! Meal-prep these baked falafels, then freeze for the busy workweek. An easy, delicious, falafel recipe made with soaked chickpeas (not canned) that you can make ahead then create Falafel Bowls! Vegan and Gluten-free!
Hey friends, lately I’ve been “meal-prepping” these authentic Baked Falafels for weekday bowls, then freezing them.
The falafels themselves are made the “good” way, with soaked chickpeas, instead of canned (which gives the falafels the best texture) and baking them with very little oil and then freezing them, so they are always on hand for these healthy, vegan Falafel Bowls.
High in protein, these little guys are total energy boosters and knowing I have them on hand in the freezer whenever I need a falafel fix brings me such joy. It’s the little things, right? 😉
The Baked Falafel Bowls consist of Everyday Quinoa with greens, tomatoes, microgreens, cucumber, grated carrots, Pickled Turnips and Quick Pickled Onions.
Feel free to make creamy Tzatziki Sauce if not opting for vegan!
During the colder months, I often add simple roasted veggies, when tomatoes and cucumbers are not in season.
But feel free to use whatever grains or veggies you have on hand. Embellish. Or keep these totally grain-free!
Pile the bowl up with healthy veggies. Grate carrots, beets or turnips, add greens, tomatoes, microgreens and herbs. Sliced cucumbers are nice too – so cool and crisp … and if so inclined, this Everyday Cucumber Salad is totally delicious on these too!
Baking falafels requires less oil than frying. I use an olive oil spray and then flip them halfway through to get this nice crust. Freeze any extras, then pull them out when you want them and reheat them. So easy!
How to Bake Falafels!
- 375 F oven
- Grease the bottom of a parchment-lined baking sheet with spray olive oil, or brush it with olive oil.
- Form falafels into ping-pong or golfball-sized balls (a slight oval shape is nice).
- Place falafels on the greased parchment. Once all the balls are formed, using wet palms, flatten just a little, so they are about 1 -1 ½ inches thick.
- Spray or brush the tops with olive oil. Bake 15 minutes, then carefully flip.
- Continue baking for another 12-15 minutes until golden and slightly crispy.
How to freeze falafels:
- Bake them first.
- Let them cool completely.
- Place in a ziplock or sealed flat container
- Freeze, careful not to smash them with other items ( until frozen solid).
I don’t have a microwave, so I put the frozen falafels in a foil packet and heat them in our toaster oven, opening up the foil for the last five minutes, to let them crisp.
These Falafel Bowls are nice little gift for yourself during the busy workweek.
I usually make a quick batch of Everyday Tahini Sauce and drizzled it over top, but if looking for something different, how about trying Zhoug Yogurt to bump up the flavor? Sometimes I like to use both. 😉
The pink-looking things in front of the Falafel bowl above are pickled turnips. I add a sliver of fresh beet to the pickling liquid to give them their pretty color. To make these, go back to my original falafel post and scroll down to the recipe. A fun thing to do with all those salad turnips in your CSA box!
What to serve with baked falafels:
- Everyday Tahini Sauce or Green Tahini Sauce
- Authentic Zhoug Sauce Recipe
- Lebanese Slaw (Salatet Malfouf)
- Israeli Salad Recipe
- Simple Homemade Pita Bread!
- Everyday Quinoa with Lemon, Shallots and Herbs
- Cauliflower Rice!
And of course the microgreens… they make everything better, don’t they? Happy happy bowls.
I could eat these baked falafel bowls every single day!
Ok just a little falafel inspiration for you…. to help get your creative juices flowing. Hope you are having a great week.
xo
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Baked Falafel Bowls
- Prep Time: 10 hours
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 10 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 20 falafels
- Category: Vegan Main, Gluten free, Bowls
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Description
Ingredients
- 2 cups dry garbanzo beans, soaked in water 10-24 hours (makes about 4 cups soaked) see notes
- 1 cup Chopped Cilantro (tender stems ok, or use a mix of parsley and cilantro)
- 1 cup onion, rough chopped
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 large jalapeño rough chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons Coriander
- 2 Tablespoons Cumin
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 ¼ tsp kosher salt
Bowl options ( Not imperative- just to give you ideas)
- Quinoa ( like this Everyday Quinoa Recipe)
- simple roasted veggies
- greens – baby arugula, baby spinach or kale, etc…
- sliced cucumbers
- cherry tomatoes
- grated carrot, grated beets, sliced turnips or sliced radishes
- Everyday Tahini Dressing or Zhoug Yogurt (or both)
- Pickled Onions or Pickled Turnips (something pickled or fermented is nice, even kraut)
- Micro greens and fresh herbs ( cilantro, parsley or mint)
Instructions
Place dry chickpeas in a big bowl and cover with 4-5 inches of water and let soak on the counter 10 – 24 hours
Preheat the oven to 375F
Place chickpeas in a strainer and drain them really well. Pat them dry with a kitchen or paper towel.
Place the cilantro, onion, jalapeño and garlic in a food processor and pulse repeatedly until uniformly chopped, like 20 times, at least. Add 4 cups of well-drained, soaked garbanzo beans, oil, cumin, coriander, salt and the baking soda. Blend again, until very well combined, scraping down sides if necessary. You want it to be blended well, like a coarse paste, but not as smooth as hummus. Some texture is good!
Grease the bottom of a parchment-lined baking sheet with spray olive oil, or brush with olive oil. Form falafels into ping-pong or golfball-sized balls (a slight oval shape is nice). If it feels sticky, use wet hands. Place on the greased parchment. Once all the balls are formed, using wet palms, flatten just a little, so they are about a 1 -1 ½ inch thick. Spray or brush the tops with olive oil. Bake 15 minutes, then carefully flip using a metal spatula. Continue baking another 12-15 minutes until golden and slightly crispy.
While they are baking, make the Everyday Quinoa and Tahini Sauce and prep any veggies you like.
Assemble the bowls. I usually start with quinoa, then build upward with greens, veggies, falafels, sauces, pickled things and microgreens and herbs on the top. If packing to take away with you, perhaps keep sauces separate.
Sometimes I’ll add a lemon wedge and/or hot sauce.
Notes
***Please do not use canned or cooked chickpeas here- it just will not work here! Chickpeas must be raw, dry chickpeas soaked in water until plump, but uncooked!
Make doubly sure the soaked chic peas are drained really well before blending. If they are too wet, they may not stick together. Use only 4 cups.
To freeze falafels, carefully place cooled falafels in a ziplock bag in a single layer. (Or place on a sheet pan, freeze, then zip lock) Reheat in a microwave or toaster oven. I usually wrap in foil for the first 10-15 minutes in the oven, then open the foil to let them crisp up a bit.
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I made these last night. Rather than make them smaller, I made them burger size. I followed your instructions and used a small salad spinner to make sure the beans were dry. I used three 15 ounce cans of organic garbanzo beans to have 4 cups of beans as per the recipe. The recipe is pretty easy. The burgers held together well until I tried to flip them—I should have made each a little smaller—but even then they were in just two halves and not falling apart. I made both the green tahini sauce and the Tzatziki sauce and made couscous Moroccan style (all three recipes from your website). My husband said “Love this, this is a keeper!” I asked which he was referring to and he said all of it. I asked which sauce he preferred and he said both. This is high praise as my husband is a very good cook! Thank you Sylvia!
★★★★★
Hey Pam- glad they worked ok! I have never had good luck with using canned chickpeas, and always use dry, soaked chickpeas (traditional). Did you have to add anything like breadcrumbs or flour to get them to hold together?
This recipe is a Grand Slam! Soooo good. Like deep in my belly I could not wait to eat the leftovers. <3 It's the whole thing, the falafel, the tahini dressing, the quinoa…I put it with spinach, radish and carrot because that's what I had.
Also, I am also most definitely incorporating this into meals I freeze ahead for camping trips. yeessssss. Thank you!
★★★★★
Awesome Jenifer!So happy you enjoyed!
Yummy! My bowl consisted of spinach, shredded iceberg, little colorful tomatoes/sliced, grated carrots, sprouts and picked red onion. Drizzled w/your everyday tahini sauce as the dressing.
★★★★★
Oh, and quinoa!
★★★★★
I was super happy with these! Paired with every day quinoa and all the toppings I could muster.
Mixed up yogurt, garlic salt and fresh dill to drizzle on. So wonderful!
★★★★★
Used a blender (Ninja BL621) because we don’t have a food processor and it worked out pretty well. Falafels were great – and I didn’t have an issue with them being too dry!
★★★★★
Made this recipe with canned chickpeas. The falafal was a little dry but so flavorful. Added the everyday quinoa which was delicious, the pickled onions, and the tzatziki sauce recipe. Threw in fresh spinach. I was surprised as to how good it was. All the flavors complemented eachother beautifully. Will definitely make again!
★★★★★
Awesome- Glad it turned out with the canned chickpeas. 🙂
I cheated and used canned beans. They still tasted amazing! Full of flavor, but not too spicy. Perfect with tatziki sauce.
★★★★
I enjoyed this. Falafel was a bit dry without a lot of sauce. Would definitely make again
I just made this for dinner and it was delicious!!! It will go on my regular roster. I was worried when making the falafels because they were hard to shape (as described in a previous post) even after adding a couple tablespoons of flour. But once baked, they became solid and did not break apart even when flipping them over. In hindsight, maybe I didn’t need to add the flour after all. Being baked, they were drier than a fried version but that’s the cost for making them healthier. They were so tasty, it totally compensated! The quinoa recipe is simple but such a nice complement. I sprinkled a bit of sumac on top of the whole bowl for an added “lemony” taste. YUM!!!! So glad I found this blog. Going to try a lot more recipes!
★★★★★
Thanks for the comment – I appreciate you sharing your adaptions!
Made these falafels this evening. Substituted lentils (because I had them) and added a bit of parsley. They were fantastic, and even my “I hate all things new and/or unfamiliar” 7 year old son loved them. I love that they’re baked rather than fried.
★★★★★
Awww, thanks Jaeden! Glad you enjoyed and your liked son liked them too!
How wholesome the bowl is! Thanks for motivating me to make this recipes again after a long postponed period xD So delicious!
– Natalie
Excellent, excellent flavor. We used cayenne to substitute for the missing jalapeno as well as using the dried garbanzos from your web site store. My husband is a falafel nut and he loved this recipe. I served it with a cucumber, tahini, lemon, garlic sauce that I mixed up in my mini oscar. The food processor does an easy job of making this come together quickly. Thank you Sylvia…..
★★★★★
ah hear,this looks amazing.
Cannot wait to make this,Ive been soaking the ol’ chickpeas all night.
let you know how I get on.
Thanks
★★★★★
ah dear,this is sublime…thanks so much.
Looking forward to making this.
★★★★★
What did I do wrong!? My falafels did not stick together at ALL. It was very wet but also fell apart so easily – I couldn’t get them to form into any kind of shape. Followed the directions, but I did have some water in the mix – I thought I had drained the chickpeas well but maybe not? Or perhaps too much texture in the mix? I was so looking forward to this. 🙁
I’m so sorry. You need to drain the chickpeas really really well. You used soaked chickpeas, not canned?
I did! Soaked them overnight, but wondering if I didn’t drain them well enough. I will try again, these look so yummy!!!
I added notes in the recipe to drain extra well. I hope this helps Lucy! Please let me know if you try them again. 🙂
This looks so fresh and delicious. What a great idea to meal prep these!