Lebanese Falafel Recipe From Scratch

Lebanese Falafel Recipe

Falafel is a delicious Middle-Eastern gourmet food that has become popular in the West over the past several years. It’s basically deep fried chick peas or fava beans paste balls, that are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The Lebanese Falafel Recipe includes a host of other ingredients such as onions, herbs and spices.

Freshly Fried Falafel Displayed at a Street Food Vendor in Tripoli, Lebanon

Different Recipe Available for Lebanese Falafel

Different countries in the Middle East prepare Falafel differently…the main tracks being chickpeas (garbanzo beans) based, or fava beans based.

Falafel Street Food Vendor in Tripoli, Lebanon.

Palestinian Falafel Recipe

Our favorite recipe which is featured here has both chickpeas and fava beans. When we discussed it with a Palestinian friend, he noted that in Palestine they don’t add Fava beans to their Falafel. They make it solely with Chickpeas similarly to how most Lebanese make it. In some parts of Palestine, they even use dried green peas instead of chickpeas. In Egypt however, Falafel is made from Fava beans exclusively and is called “Toh’miyya”… so there, be creative and feel free to explore with different beans especially if trying to avoid allergenic beans.

Storing Falafel dough

Leftover Falafel dough can be stored in a ziplog plastic bag in the freezer for a few weeks.  All ingredients of this Falafel recipe can be purchased at Middle Eastern grocery stores.

Related Recipes