From Saad Fayed,
Your Guide to Middle Eastern Food.
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Falafel is one of the most widely consumed and recognized foods of the Middle East. Fried balls or patties of chickpeas with spices make falafel both tasty and easy to prepare.

Falafel is found all over the Middle East, however it is more common in countries like Israel, Egypt and Syria. It is regarded as a "fast food" and sold like hot dogs by street vendors. Falafel is also the national dish of Israel.

Other pronunciations of falafel include: felafel, felafil, filfil, and felefel.

Falafel Recipes

Falafel can be prepared in a variety of ways. The spices are important and should be personalized to taste.

• Traditional Falafel Recipe This recipe is a traditional method of cooking falafel. It can be time consuming because of having to soak the beans overnight.
  
  
• Falafel with Fava Beans Recipe Falafel is normally made with chickpeas, however you may find in countries like Lebanon, that falafel is made with fava beans.
  
  
• Easy Falafel Recipe Don't have the time to soak falafel beans overnight? Not a problem. This recipe used canned chickpeas, without compromising the flavor.
  
  
• Boxed Falafel Mixes Falafel mixes are easy, quick, and taste almost as good as homemade. Falafel mixes can come in different flavors also.

If you find your hummus falling apart, add a little flour to the mixture. This should bind it together.

Serving Falafel

The sky is the limit when it comes to serving falafel. It is commonly served in pita bread with salad and tahini sauce or hummus, called a falafel pita. French fries are sometimes added in the pita with the falafel instead of vegetables.

Falafel can be served alone and is often accompanied by hummus, baba ghannouj, fresh pita bread, fries, and a salad.

McDonald's in Egypt serves the "McFalafel", a falafel version of the Big Mac. The secret sauce is replaced with tahini. Not going to Egypt anytime soon to indulge in the McFalafel. No worries, try this McFalafel recipe.