Falafel are one of my favourite meatless mains. I haven’t had them in ages so recently, when I ended up with a beautiful red pepper in my veggie drawer, I decided to make a batch and incorporate a roasted red pepper puree into the mixture. I was reluctant to fry so I looked up baked falafel recipes.
And while I waited for the first batch to bake, I used the tried and true shallow frying method for the remaining mixture.
All of the falafel started out the same size but while the oven baked ones ended up rather flat and crispy, kind of like hockey pucks, the fried ones puffed up into plump, crispy balls with a soft and moist interior.
Baked falafel (on the left) for 20 min at 375 deg F and shallow fried (on the right) at ~ 350 deg F (#4 electric stove setting)
Mise en place – Soaked chickpeas (garbanzo beans), cilantro and mint, onion and garlic, egg and roasted red pepper. Do NOT use canned chickpeas if you can avoid it. You want the texture of soaked chickpeas.
Falafel mixture – about 2 tbsp are shaped into walnut sized balls for baking or frying after being pressed lightly into a 1/2 inch thick patty.
Baked falafel – the parchment paper, as well as the tops of the patties, are sprayed lightly with a vegetable spray to help them brown
Flatter baked falafel
Shallow fried falafel plump up during cooking
Next time, I think I’d use more roasted red pepper puree and the Sriracha sauce the original recipe suggested for a ‘red’ falafel. To be honest, I forgot about the latter.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 
It’s funny, it’s also one of the rare vegetarian dishes that doesn’t make me miss meat or fish. I haven’t made them for ages, but like you, I remember the cooked chickpea (so canned too) doesn’t taste half as good. Great idea to include roasted peppers!
I think I found the red pepper puree/Sriracha idea in a menu for a middle eastern restaurant. It’s another way of adding veggies to the falafel as well. 🙂