The Arabi Kitchen · The Levant & Egypt

Falafel

فلافل

Green inside, shattering outside, gone in two bites. The street breakfast of the whole eastern Mediterranean.

The green middle is the signature — parsley and cilantro ground straight in with the raw chickpeas.

Every city in the region has a falafel window with a line out front at seven in the morning, and every one of those lines contains someone who will tell you the falafel across town is better. It is the great democratic food of the eastern Mediterranean: fried to order, wrapped in bread with pickles and tahini, eaten standing up, priced for everyone.

The whole secret is one rule, and it is unbreakable: raw chickpeas. Soaked a full day, never cooked, ground with herbs and onion and garlic. The raw starch binds; the herbs turn the middle green; the hot oil does the rest. Canned chickpeas — already cooked — simply dissolve, which is how most first attempts end, and why the rule comes first here.

And an honest word, because this is a grocery store talking: on a Tuesday night, the Ziyad mix is not a compromise, it is what half the region's own kitchens reach for between weekends. Soak nothing, add water, rest, fry. Keep the from-scratch version for the morning you have time to enjoy it.

What is falafel?

Falafel are fritters of raw soaked chickpeas (or, in Egypt, split fava beans — there called ta'ameya) ground with fresh herbs, onion, garlic, and warm spices, then deep-fried until dark and crisp outside and green and steaming inside. Served in pita with tahini sauce, pickles, and tomato, falafel is the definitive street food of the Levant and Egypt.

The recipe — from scratch

Makes ~24 · 24-hour soak, then 45 minutes

• 2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked 24 hours — never cooked, never canned
• 1 big bunch each parsley and cilantro
• 1 small onion · 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp ground cumin · 1 tsp ground coriander · ½ tsp cayenne or shatta to taste
• 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp baking soda (added just before frying)
• Neutral oil for frying · sesame seeds, optional, for rolling

1. Drain the soaked chickpeas well. Grind them with the herbs, onion, garlic, spices, and salt in a food processor to a coarse, sandy paste — it should hold when squeezed, still grainy, never smooth.
2. Rest the mixture 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
3. Stir in the baking soda. Form balls or little pucks with wet hands; roll in sesame if you like.
4. Heat oil to 350°F. Fry in batches 3–4 minutes until deep brown. If the first one falls apart, the oil is too cool or the grind too coarse — fix, then continue.
5. Drain one minute. Eat one standing at the stove; that one is the cook's.

The weeknight way

Empty the Ziyad falafel mix into a bowl, add water per the box, rest 15 minutes, form, and fry exactly as above. The spices are already in it. Nobody at the table will file a complaint, and the sandwich — pita, tahini, pickles, shatta — is identical from here on.

Set This Table

Scratch or shortcut — both roads start here.

Dry chickpeas — for the from-scratch weekend$8.99Ziyad Falafel Mix — the weeknight truth$7.99Tahini — for the sauce$10.49Village Bread Authentic Pita$5.79Tut's Cucumber Pickles 19oz$5.99Shatta — for the ones who take heat$7.99

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