Low FODMAP falafel (vegan, gluten free)
Gluten free, nut free, egg free, vegan*Measures are in Australian measures. Use gram and ml for international accuracy.
Ingredients
- 125 g canned chickpeas rinsed and drained
- 125 g edamame beans (or 250g edamame beans for the edamame only version)
- 50 g coriander (1/2 large bunch)
- 50 g flat leaf parsley (1/2 large bunch)
- 40 ml (2 tablespoons)* olive oil
- 4-5 spring onion greens chopped
- 1-2 pickled garlic cloves (optional, see notes)
- 3-4 + tsp cumin to your tastes (7.5-10g+)
- 40 g+ light buckwheat flour
- 5 g (1 tsp)* baking powder (gluten free if necessary)
- 2-4 g fine table salt (important, see notes) to your tastes
- Pepper to your tastes
- Optional: 1 tablespoons sesame seeds
Instructions
To make the falafel:
- Place your beans, herbs, oil, spring onion greens and (optional) pickled garlic in a food processor and blitz until a paste with very small chunks forms. It won’t hold together just yet – the buckwheat will do that.
- If you are making the edamame version, you may need to add up to 60ml (1/4 cup) water to help with blending. Try to add it sparingly and only as needed.
- Once you are happy with the consistency, pour the mixture into a small mixing bowl.
- Add the cumin, buckwheat flour and baking powder and stir to combine. The mixture should hold together and be the right consistency to make balls of falafel with your hands. If it doesn't, add 5-10g extra buckwheat flour (be sparing as too much flour will make them pasty and dry).
- Add the salt sparsely, carefully and to taste. I find this falafel mixture becomes too salty very easily (coming from someone who loves salt). I would recommend adding 1/8 or ¼ of a teaspoon, mixing thoroughly and tasting. If it tastes bland and like nothing, add a little more salt. If it tastes full flavoured, stop adding more salt. Add pepper to your tastes.
- Use oiled hands to form the mixture into 10 X 1 tablespoon sized balls. Note: 1 Australian tablespoon is 4 teaspoons elsewhere.
To shallow fry:
- Fill a small, sturdy saucepan with enough neutral high smoke point oil (I used vegetable) to cover the bottom half of one felafel. Preheat it over your smallest burner on a high flame for approximately 5 minutes.
- Once it is very thoroughly heated, add one falafel into the oil. It should form a ring of vigorous bubbles all around the falafel. If it doesn’t bubble like this or if the falafel gets stuck, your oil is not hot enough. The falafel won’t stick at all when cooked in sufficiently preheated oil. Stop and allow the oil to heat for another few minutes before trying again.
- Cook the falafel for around 30 seconds – 1 minute or until the bottom half is golden brown. Use tongs to flip the falafel and cook on the other side. Transfer to a cooling rack and repeat with the remaining falafels.
To bake:
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
- Drizzle about ½ teaspoon olive oil on your hands every time you shape a falafel. Arrange them on the baking tray then bake for 20 minutes. They won’t be golden brown all over like the fried version. However, I have found that baking the falafel for longer creates dry falafel.
To finish:
- Serve the falafel with whatever you’d like (some suggestions in the body of post). Leftovers keep well in the fridge for a number of days. They can also be frozen and defrosted.
Notes
- I have written extensively in the body of post concerning the FODMAP content and the option to use all edamame vs half chickpea and half edamame.
- This falafel mixture can become too salty very easily. I highly recommend adding it to taste and sparingly.
- Pickled garlic is a new low FODMAP ingredient. There are FODMAP notes in the body of the post; I have a recipe for low FODMAP pickled garlic here.
- If you use the chickpea and edamame mixture, 3 falafel is a low FODMAP.
- If you use the edamame only mixture, you can eat 3-4 falafel and possibly more pending your fructose tolerance. See the body of the post for more details.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!