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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.
These look delicious! Is it possible to substitute regular flour for the chickpea flour? I’d rather not buy another bag of flour if I could use the flour I have already! 🙂
yes you can use any flour 🙂
Awesome 🙂 I didn’t mean to post the same question twice!
These look delicious! Can you substitute regular flour for the chickpea flour? I would rather not buy a new bag of flour if I could use what I have instead! 🙂
What brand of tahini do you use in your recipes? Thanks!
Achva brand, unsalted tahini.
I made this tonight. The flavor was wonderful. My husband liked it better than the garbanzo bean falafel. Also I put 2 tablespoons of lemon juice in thr tahini and thought it could use the third teaspoon of lemon. I added it and it curdled. I added a little water and it was fine. All around delicious.
awesome! maybe add a tsp or so more after the 2 Tbsp. i like it with 2 Tbsp, but hubbs likes it more lemony, so he just drizzles lemon juice before eating 🙂
Doubled the recipe to last me a week. Mine came out very green because I added extra cilantro and parsley (didn’t want to waste it). I bought a ready made tahini sauce from Trader Joes and just added water and olive oil to it until it is more of a light salad dressing consistency. I serve the falafels warm over salad greens and use the tahini sauce as dressing. Really delicious and I will be keeping this recipe for future use to serve in pita sandwiches. Thanks!
awesome! i make them into pita wraps some days too!
I made these into burgers and served them on buns tonight. We loved them.
sounds like one fabulous meal!
I cooked these for dinner for my family the other day. I think there’s a missing ingredient in the sauce recipe, because it came out really thick and globby and not saucy at all. But I added water to it, blended, and ended up with a yummy sauce. And the falafel came out great!! Thanks for the recipe!!
oh yes, good catch. its missing 3 to 4 Tbsp water. thanks!
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Richa,
Can I use brown whole masoor and chana dal?
Thanks
yes, i you can. soak both for an hour before using. the chana dal takes too long to get tender and will taste raw and hard if you cook it just for the 20 mins.
Gorgeous Richa! Great to see you at the potluck 🙂