Herb-green chickpea falafel rolled in sprouted jowar flour and baked until the crust cracks open on a soft, steamy centre.
Ingredients
From the TrooFoodz pantry
- Sprouted Jowar Flour ¾ cup
Fresh
- Dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained 1½ cups
- Onion, roughly chopped 1
- Garlic 4 cloves
- Flat-leaf parsley 1 large bunch
- Coriander leaves 1 small bunch
- Ground cumin 2 tsp
- Ground coriander 1½ tsp
- Baking soda ½ tsp
- Green chilli 1
- Sesame seeds 2 tbsp
- Olive oil, for brushing 3 tbsp
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Method
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Use raw chickpeas
Soaked but uncooked chickpeas are essential — tinned ones turn to wet purée and the falafel will not hold. Drain them thoroughly and pat dry.
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Pulse, don't purée
Blitz the chickpeas with the onion, garlic, herbs, chilli and spices in short pulses until it looks like coarse damp sand that clumps when pressed.
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Rest the mixture
Chill it for fifteen minutes. The starch hydrates and the mix firms up, which makes shaping far easier.
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Shape and coat
Roll walnut-sized balls, flatten them slightly, then roll each through Sprouted Jowar Flour mixed with the sesame seeds until fully dusted.
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Rest on the tray
Set them on a lined tray and leave five minutes so the flour draws moisture from the surface and sets into a proper coating.
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Bake hot
Brush generously with olive oil and bake at 200°C for twenty-five minutes, turning once, until the crust is deep gold and cracked.
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Serve straight away
Eat them within minutes of leaving the oven, while the shell is still brittle and the inside soft. Tahini sauce and pickled onion alongside.
Why this works
Sprouted jowar flour is fine and mild, so it forms a thin ceramic-like shell in the oven without adding a competing flavour. Baking soda in the mix creates tiny gas pockets that keep the interior light where an oven-baked falafel would otherwise go dense. The five-minute rest after coating lets surface moisture hydrate the flour, which is what makes it cling rather than flake off in the tin.
Make it your own
- Sprouted Jowar Flour → Sprouted Foxtail Millet Flour Holds structure even better; slightly coarser crust.
- Flat-leaf parsley → All coriander More pungent and greener in colour.
- Baking soda → A tablespoon of besan Denser but sturdier; binds without lift.
