Most recipes for falafel call for dried, soaked chickpeas which give the lightest falafel.  I find however that I often forget all about the overnight soaking so was determined to come up with a recipe that was light and fluffy with jarred chickpeas.

Ingredients
½ small onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
4 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
4 tbsp mint, finely chopped
325g jar of chickpeas, drained (you can keep the aquafaba for another recipe)
150g frozen green peas, defrosted
4 tbsps tahini
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ras el hanout
1 lemon, juiced
½ tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper
50g chickpea flour (gram flour) or plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
Flour for coating
Oil for frying

Method
Put the onion and garlic into a food processor and pulse until chopped.  Add the parsley and mint and pulse again a few times.  Add the chickpeas, peas, tahini, the spices, lemon juice salt and pepper and pulse again.  You want a mixture with texture so where some of the peas and chickpeas have broken down and some are roughly chopped.  If you do not have a food processor, finely chop all of the veg and use a masher to mush and mix everything together.  Transfer to a bowl, add the flour and baking powder and mix through with a spatula or wooden spoon until fully combined. 

If you have an ice cream scoop this is great for making falafels as every falafel will be the exact same size.

Heat the oven to 200c and put a greaseproof lined try into the oven.

To pan fry, put 2½cm of oil into a frying pan and heat on medium.  You want the oil to be hot enough that when you put your falafel in they immediately gently sizzle. They will take around 5 minutes each side to go golden.

Take an ice cream scoop (or a tbsp spoon if you don’t have) and coat the inside with oil.  Take a scoop of the mix and carefully drop into the hot oil.  Repeat until the pan is fullish with room for the falafel to fry.

Once your first batch is cooked, turn off the oven and put the cooked falafel into the oven in your dish. Repeat frying with the next batch.