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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 made these recently and everyone loved them! Even my 15 month old. 🙂 Just one issue we had was that the tahini dressing tasted bitter and I ended up just making hummus the following day so it didn’t go to waste. Any recommendations on how to balance that out when I make it again?
It probably depends on the tahini brand (tahini has an inherent bitter profile which is pleasing bitter in general, some brands have a more prominent flavor). it could also be garlic. sometimes the blending causes the garlic to get bitter. you can use 1/2 tsp garlic powder instead.
Looks amazing Richa!
Made this for dinner tonight! Came together easily and was delicious and filling!
Can you make these ahead of time and freeze?
Yes, shape them and freeze in airtight container or ziplock. Thaw, pan fry or bake and serve.
Hi Richa,
sometimes it’s hard to figure out which typ of lentils etc. are the right kind. But yellow split peas is obvious. So my question is, if you do have an idea why my yellow split pea package calls for 30-40min cooking time (without pre soak), while yours only need 18 to 19min?
Hi Tom,
Any brown lentils will do. Indian brown, spanish brown or other brown. they might need 5-10 minutes of cooking time here and there depending on the type and age of the lentils.
For the falafels, the lentils and split peas are cooked to somewhat less than al dente and then blended and baked. Cooking them to al dente or till they are fully cooked, can end up making the fafafel balls pasty or mushy. This is same method often used to make regular chickpea falafels. Chickpeas and/or fava beans are boiled for about the 2/3 or 3/4 of the usual cooking time, then used to make the falafel. (traditionally, the chickpeas would just be soaked for 24 hours, drained and used. soaked chickpeas have the softness close to chickpeas cooked to 3/4 of the cooking time).
You can cook the split peas and lentils till your preference. If either of the split peas or lentils are too soft, mash them with a fork instead of in a food processor.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for this detailed answer! 🙂
One time I tried “traditional” chickpea falafel, but I’m sure they wasn’t tender enough after baking (ok, not so traditional because of baking then frying^^). When I try them again, should they be as soft after soaking, that I easy could crush them, right?
Baking will dry out the falafels more compared to frying. so the crust can be harder. Keep the mixture a bit more moist than the frying version and bake till just crisp. You can add some tahini to the mixture if it needs moisture.
Yes the soaked chickpeas should be soft enough to get mashed with a little force within your fingers. 1 whole day soak is usually enough.
Just tried this today with chana dal and moong dal, it was delicious! Made a fair amount with little effort. I have a big bunch sitting in the freezer for yummy dinners later this week!
Awesome!!