Can you make falafel with canned chickpeas?

Not successfully. Canned chickpeas are cooked and hold too much water, so the patties break apart in the oil or turn out pasty inside.

Can you freeze falafel?

Yes, both shaped and fried. Freeze raw patties on a tray, then bag them and fry from frozen with an extra minute; fried falafel freezes for 2 months and reheats in a hot oven.

Can they be baked or air-fried instead?

Yes, brush them with oil and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 25 minutes, turning halfway. The crust is drier and less shattery than fried, but the inside is the same.

What can replace tahini in the sauce?

Whisk lemon juice and garlic into plain yogurt or a thick oat-based yogurt for a similar cold, tangy sauce. It will be milder and, with dairy yogurt, no longer vegan.

How far ahead can the mix be made?

Grind the chickpea mixture up to a day ahead and keep it covered in the fridge, but stir in the flour and baking powder only just before shaping and frying.

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Falafel with Tahini Sauce

Name: Falafel with Tahini Sauce
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 13 h 10 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: 1.5 cup dried chickpea, about 10 oz (285 g), soaked 12 hours, not cooked; 1 pieces onion, coarsely chopped; 4 clove garlic, peeled; 1 cup parsley, flat-leaf, leaves and thin stems, packed; 0.5 cup cilantro, leaves and thin stems, packed; 2 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp ground coriander; 0.5 tsp chili (optional), flakes, or more to taste; 1.5 tsp salt; 0.5 tsp black pepper, freshly ground; 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, more if the mix feels loose; 1 tsp baking powder; 3 cup vegetable oil, for frying; 0.5 cup tahini, well stirred; 1 pieces lemon, juiced, about 3 tbsp; 1 clove garlic, grated; 0.5 cup water, cold, plus more as needed; salt, to taste; 4 pieces pita bread, warmed; 2 pieces tomato, diced; 0.5 pieces cucumber, diced; 0.5 pieces red onion, thinly sliced; 1 pieces lemon, cut into wedges

By MiddagsarkivetSeptember 28, 2026

Time: 13 h 10 min
Difficulty: Medium
Servings: 4 servings

Falafel arrived in the Nordics with Middle Eastern immigration in the 1970s and 80s and settled in fast. In Malmö, Copenhagen and Oslo it is street food on the level of a hot dog, and at home it has quietly become one of the standard meat-free weeknight dinners, the thing you make on a Wednesday when nobody wants another plate of pasta.

The one rule that matters: use dried chickpeas, soaked but never cooked. Canned chickpeas are already soft and will turn the mix into hummus that disintegrates in the oil. Soaking takes twelve hours of doing nothing, so start it the night before or in the morning before work. Everything after that takes half an hour.

The sauce is tahini loosened with cold water and sharpened with lemon. It seizes up and goes pale when the water hits it, which looks like a mistake and is not. Keep whisking and it turns smooth and pourable.

Crisp golden falafel patties on a plate with tahini sauce, pita bread, chopped tomato, cucumber and red onion — AI generated image. The dish has not been photographed.

Ingredients

4 servings

For the falafel

For the tahini sauce

To serve

How to make it

1
Soak the chickpeas
Cover the dried chickpeas with at least 3 inches of cold water and leave them on the counter for 12 hours or overnight. They will roughly triple in volume. Drain them well and pat them dry. Do not cook them.
12 h
2
Grind
Put the drained chickpeas, onion, garlic, parsley, cilantro, cumin, coriander, chili flakes, salt and black pepper in a food processor. Pulse in short bursts, scraping down the sides, until you have a coarse, damp meal about the texture of wet sand with visible flecks of green. Do not let it turn into a smooth paste.
3 min
3
Rest the mix
Scrape the mixture into a bowl, cover, and chill for 30 minutes. This firms it up and makes the patties easier to shape.
30 min
4
Make the tahini sauce
Whisk the tahini with the lemon juice and grated garlic. Add the cold water a splash at a time, whisking constantly. The mixture will seize and turn thick and pale before it loosens into a smooth, pourable sauce. Add more water by the tablespoon if needed and season with salt.
5 min
5
Shape
Stir the flour and baking powder into the chilled chickpea mix. Squeeze a walnut-sized lump in your palm: it should hold. If it crumbles, work in another tablespoon of flour. Shape into 20 balls, then flatten each slightly into a thick patty.
10 min
6
Fry
Heat the vegetable oil in a deep skillet or saucepan to 350°F (175°C). Fry the falafel in batches of 5 or 6, turning once, until deep golden brown and crisp, about 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Don't crowd the pan, and let the oil come back up to temperature between batches.
15 min
7
Drain and serve
Lift the falafel onto a rack or paper towels. Serve hot with warm pita, the tahini sauce, diced tomato, cucumber, sliced red onion and lemon wedges.

A couple of tips

Dried chickpeas only. Canned ones are already cooked and the patties will fall apart in the oil, no matter how much flour you add.

Fry one test patty first. If it breaks up, work another tablespoon of flour into the mix; if it browns before the center cooks, lower the heat.

A tablespoon or two of ice water in the food processor makes a lighter, fluffier interior if the mix looks dry and dusty.

What you need

Food processor
Deep-fry or instant-read thermometer

Serving

Stuff the falafel into warm pita with the chopped tomato, cucumber and red onion, spoon tahini sauce over generously, and squeeze lemon on top. A plate version with rice and a green salad works just as well for a family dinner.

Storing it

Fried falafel keeps 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge and reheats best in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 8 to 10 minutes. The tahini sauce keeps 5 days refrigerated and will thicken, so whisk in a little cold water before serving.

Nutrition per serving

Calories	880 kcal
Fat	44 g
of which saturated	5 g
Carbohydrates	99 g
of which sugars	8 g
Fiber	15 g
Protein	28 g
Salt	3 g

Guideline values, worked out from the ingredients.

Questions and answers

Can you make falafel with canned chickpeas?: Not successfully. Canned chickpeas are cooked and hold too much water, so the patties break apart in the oil or turn out pasty inside.
Can you freeze falafel?: Yes, both shaped and fried. Freeze raw patties on a tray, then bag them and fry from frozen with an extra minute; fried falafel freezes for 2 months and reheats in a hot oven.
Can they be baked or air-fried instead?: Yes, brush them with oil and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 25 minutes, turning halfway. The crust is drier and less shattery than fried, but the inside is the same.
What can replace tahini in the sauce?: Whisk lemon juice and garlic into plain yogurt or a thick oat-based yogurt for a similar cold, tangy sauce. It will be milder and, with dairy yogurt, no longer vegan.
How far ahead can the mix be made?: Grind the chickpea mixture up to a day ahead and keep it covered in the fridge, but stir in the flour and baking powder only just before shaping and frying.

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How it was made

This recipe was written by a language model. Below is what it cost, how long it took and when each step ran, so you can see how the archive comes about.

Cost: $0.275
Time: 1 min 50 sec
Model calls: 5
Safety check: Passed

Date	Step	Model	Usage	Time	Cost
Sep 28, 2026	Wrote the recipe	anthropic/claude-opus-5	7,211 in · 3,926 out tokens	48.5 sec	$0.134
Sep 28, 2026	Checked food safety	anthropic/claude-sonnet-5	2,730 in · 19 out tokens	4.1 sec	$0.006
Sep 28, 2026	Made the picture	bfl/flux-2-max	1 image	22.1 sec	$0.070
Sep 28, 2026	Worked out the nutrition	anthropic/claude-opus-5	1,766 in · 2,017 out tokens	24.6 sec	$0.059
Sep 28, 2026	Set the collections	anthropic/claude-sonnet-5	1,499 in · 240 out tokens	6.5 sec	$0.005

Falafel with Tahini Sauce

How to make it

Soak the chickpeas

Grind

Rest the mix

Make the tahini sauce

Shape

Fry

Drain and serve