>>2779554Anon's Falafel Tips:
What you do is boil chickpeas, favas or both in water with a few cloves of garlic and some olive oil. The favas can go dry directly into the water and the chickpeas should be soaked overnight in tepid water into which a little bicarb has been added (bicarb is alkaline and alkaline substances break up the starches in chickpeas).
In any case, you cook it up in UNSALTED water until they're just done, then drain, reserving, also, the garlic.
It's allowed to cool, then mashed with spices, herbs and any additives you'd like (onion or garlic mince, for example) and salted to taste. adding roasted chickpea powder as necessary to hold it's form.
Eggs are not traditionally used in falafel; the roasted chickpea powder takes the place of both wheat flour and eggs.
Furthermore, falafel are only deep-fried for tourists; home made falafel are either shallow/pan-fried or even grilled over coals (for a smoky flavour).
My nan liked to make hers with mashed fava exclusively adding only enough roasted chickpea powder to hold it together. Her spice mixture included sumac and cumin, but I can't be sure of everything else; she also used fresh parsley and once mistakenly used cilantro (we all liked it; ever the purist, nan did not). The chili is not a requirement, it's just a possible additive, like onion or garlic mince.
I get very sad with most restaurants' falafel because it's always bland because I think people either use prepackaged frozen falafel for deep-frying or boxed falafel mix; I think that restaurant falafel is bland in order to match the tastes of the patrons. Any Levantine home-cook will spice falafel with at least garlic (cooked with the beans) and cumin; every time I went with nan to some Maronite thing, there was always someone's homemade falafel and they were always spiced.
