← All recipes · 🥙 Middle Eastern
🥙 Middle Eastern
Baked (NOT Fried) Falafel
⏱ 50 min (mostly chickpea soak/chill time, OR 25 min with canned)
🍞 ~22g (3 patties + salad, no pita)
🍽 4 (3 patties each) servings
⭐ 4/5
⚠️ Estimates only — not medical advice. Carb counts vary by brand and portion. Always verify with your endo or CDCES.
🌍 Cultural note
Falafel is the great Middle Eastern street food — green inside from herbs, crispy outside, eaten in pita or on a plate with salad. Every country in the Levant fights for credit, and every family has their version. Baking instead of deep-frying makes it weeknight-doable AND lighter — and honestly, kids don't notice the difference.
Why this recipe is T1D-friendly
- Chickpeas + herbs = high fiber, plant protein, slower carb absorption than bread
- Carbs are predictable and patty-counted (about 7g per patty), so you can dose by how many your kid eats — no guessing
Ingredients
- 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained and patted very dry (44g — ~11g per serving)
- 1 cup fresh parsley, packed (2g)
- ½ cup fresh cilantro (1g)
- ½ small yellow onion, roughly chopped (4g)
- 4 cloves garlic (3g)
- 2 tbsp chickpea flour or all-purpose flour (12g)
- 2 tsp ground cumin (1g)
- 1 tsp ground coriander (0g)
- ½ tsp baking powder (0g)
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 3 tbsp olive oil for brushing (0g)
- 1 cup tzatziki for serving (~12g total — 3g per serving)
- 2 cups chopped romaine (2g)
- 1 cup diced cucumber (4g)
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved (6g)
Directions
- Heat oven to 400°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment and brush with olive oil.
- In a food processor, pulse parsley, cilantro, onion, and garlic until finely chopped, scraping down sides.
- Add chickpeas, chickpea flour, cumin, coriander, baking powder, salt, and pepper. Pulse until mixture is finely chopped but NOT pureed — you want a coarse, sandy texture that holds together when squeezed.
- Transfer to a bowl, cover, chill 20 min (helps them hold shape).
- Scoop heaping tablespoons and shape into 12 flat patties (about ½ inch thick — thinner = crispier).
- Place on sheet pan, brush tops generously with olive oil.
- Bake 15 min. Flip carefully, brush again with oil, bake 12-15 more min until golden brown and crisp on both sides.
- While they bake, toss romaine, cucumber, and tomatoes with a squeeze of lemon and pinch of salt.
- Serve 3 patties per plate over salad with a generous dollop of tzatziki.
Dash's kid tips 🐆
- Make them silver-dollar size and call them "falafel coins" — Dash says small + crispy = kid magnet
- Freeze cooked patties on a tray, then bag — reheat in air fryer or oven for 5 min, perfect lunchbox addition
- Skip the cilantro if your kid has that "tastes like soap" gene — extra parsley works fine