These baked beetroot falafel are vegan, easy to make, delicious & very satisfying. Great for lunch, as a healthy snack or light dinner. They will become your meal prep heroes too!
If you like easy food that is so versatile you can turn it into lunch, healthy snack or even dinner, you will love my baked beetroot falafel!
Perfect fillers for lunchboxes, picnics or to add to salads, wraps, grain bowls and so much more!
Full of whole-food ingredients, these Middle-Eastern patties are baked not fried, naturally vegan, really filling and delicious.
They are perfect for meal prep and batch cooking as they keep well in the fridge for week's worth of nibbles or lunches plus can be easily frozen too.
Falafel fan? Check out my recipe for Easy Chickpea and Carrot Falafel Burgers.
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📝 Ingredients & substitutions
Here's what you will need to make baked beetroot falafel.
See recipe card for specific quantities.
- Cooked Beetroot (Beets) - I use cooked beetroot in my falafel which is my personal preference.
Feel free to use already cooked beets you can buy in vacuum packs but make sure they're not vinegary type.
Those of you who'd rather cook your own, check out my How to cook beetroot guide for methods and tips.
- Cooked Chickpeas - Traditionally, falafel is made with soaked, raw chickpeas but I opted for already cooked/tinned ones instead, so much easier!
- Walnuts - For added substance. You could substitute them with your nuts of choice although I urge you to try walnuts, they go so well here.
- Red Onion - Feel free to use white onion or shallots if you prefer.
- Roasted Garlic - Roasted garlic provides lovely sweetness. 5 cloves might seem a lot but roasting eliminates all the garlicky harshness and turns them all sticky and sweet. If you'd rather use fresh garlic reduce number of cloves to 2.
- Lime Zest - Lovely, citrussy flavour enhancer. Lemon zest can be used here instead.
- Ground Cumin & Coriander - My spices of choice when it comes to making falafel. Feel free to choose just one of them if you want (double the quantity).
- Fresh Herbs - I decided on dill (it works so well with beetroot) and coriander (cilantro). Fresh parsley would work really well too.
- Panko Breadcrumbs - They will help bind our little falafel patties together. I like Panko as they're really nice and fine but if you happen to make your own breadcrumbs feel free to use them instead.
- Salt & Pepper - The usual flavour suspects.
🔪 How to make baked beetroot falafel
Ingredient quantities & detailed instructions to be found in recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F (fan 180C/350F) and prepare a baking tray or two by lining them with some parchment paper.
Put all of the ingredients (with the exception of breadcrumbs) in a bowl of food processor and blend until smooth. Depending on the size of your food processor you might have to do it in batches.
Add 60g of your breadcrumbs (to start with) and mix them in gently by pressing pulse button on the food processor. Alternatively, you could transfer your falafel mix into a bowl and mix in your breadcrumbs by hand.
Mixture will be quite soft but you want for it to hold together so add more breadcrumbs if necessary.
Taste your falafel mixture and adjust seasoning to your taste.
Take small portions of falafel mix and form them into small patties (I got 20). Feel free to make them as big or as small as you want.
Once you've got all your beetroot falafel patties on the baking sheet, brush or spray them with some oil (optional).
Bake in pre-heated oven for approximately 25-30 minutes until nicely browned and crispy looking turning them over half way through.
Enjoy!
🍽 Equipment
Food processor - It is one essential piece of equipment here in order to get nice and smooth texture for the falafels.
🥡 Storing
Leftover beetroot falafel will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Ensure it is stored in the airtight container to prevent it from drying out.
For tastiest result let it come to room temperature before serving or reheat it gently in the warm oven.
❄️ Freezing
Beetroot falafel can be frozen both baked and unbaked.
To freeze, arrange the falafel in a single layer on a baking sheet or tray that will fit in your freezer ( I sometimes use lids from storage containers). Once frozen solid you can transfer them into ziplock style bags for easy storage.
Unbaked falafel can be cooked from frozen, simply follow the instruction in the recipe card. You might need to add few extra minutes to baking time.
Baked falafel can be defrosted overnight in the fridge or for couple of hours on the kitchen counter. Eat at room temperature or gently reheat in the oven.
💭 Pro tips
- I like beetroot falafel really smooth but feel free to process it less and leave some texture.
- After draining and rinsing the chickpeas make sure to give them a pat dry to get rid of some excess moisture. This will prevent the falafel mix from getting too wet.
- Don't be afraid to adjust seasoning to your liking. You might want to add some extra salt or increase the amount of spices, herbs or zest.
- Brushing falafel with a little bit of oil will make them extra crispy.
- To roast garlic for beetroot falafel simply cut the top off entire head of garlic so that you can see the exposed cloves, sprinkle with salt, drizzle with olive oil and roast wrapped in foil at (fan) 180C/350F for approximately 40min.
- Falafel mixture is quite soft but don't be tempted to add too much breadcrumbs. Use between 60-80g max.
- If you have time, pop baking tray with prepared falafel into the fridge for 15-20 minutes to firm up a bit (not necessary).
🍴 Serving suggestions
These little baked beetroot falafel patties are so versatile.
We love them served with homemade no-yeast flatbreads or chapatis but they will go great in pitas too.
Use them to top your favourite salad or grain bowl. I love them on top of this simple tabbouleh salad.
As for the dips, go for your favourite - mayo, tzatziki, cucumber raita, tahini, hummus (try wild garlic flavoured one), anything you like!
❓ FAQs
Yes you can although I haven't tested it with raw beetroot.
To reheat it, simply pop them on lined baking sheet and into oven preheat to 180C/350F (fan) for about 10 minutes until warmed through. You could also use microwave but they're likely to get a bit soggy.
Have you tried my Baked Beetroot Falafel?
Please consider giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in recipe card below and share your views or tips in the comments.
😋 More beetroot recipes
📋 Recipe
Baked Beetroot Falafel
Ingredients
- 400 g cooked beetroot cut into small chunks
- 2 400g tins of chickpeas drained, rinsed and dried a little
- 1 red onion peeled and cut into rough chunks
- 60 g walnuts
- 2 teaspoon (heaped) ground cumin
- 2 teaspoon (heaped) ground coriander
- 5 cloves roasted garlic or 2 raw garlic cloves (peeled)
- 1.5-2 teaspoon good quality salt or to taste
- freshly ground pepper to taste
- 80 g panko breadcrumbs start with approx. 60g and add more if required
- 1 lime zest or lemon
- 30 g fresh herbs of choice dill, coriander (cilantro), parsley or a mix
- oil for brushing optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F (fan 180C/350F) and prepare a baking tray/sheet or two by lining them with some parchment paper.
- Put all of the ingredients (with the exception of breadcrumbs) in a bowl of food processor and blend until smooth. Depending on the size of your food processor you might have to do it in batches.
- Add 60g of your breadcrumbs and mix them in gently by pressing pulse button on the food processor. Alternatively, you could transfer your falafel mix into a bowl and mix in your breadcrumbs by hand.Mixture will be quite soft but you want for it to hold together so add more breadcrumbs if necessary.
- Taste your falafel mixture and adjust seasoning to your taste.
- Take small portions of falafel mix and form them into small patties (I got 20). Feel free to make them as big or as small as you want.
- Once you've got all your beetroot falafel patties on the baking sheet, brush or spray them with some oil (optional).
- Bake in pre-heated oven for approximately 25-30 minutes until nicely browned and crispy looking turning them over half way through.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Nutritional information is approximate, per 1 falafel (based on 20 falafels baked with oil) and should be treated as a rough guideline only.
- Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Freezer friendly both baked and unbaked. For details see - Freezing.
- Best served slightly warm or at room temperature so take them out of the fridge at least half an hour before serving. Alternatively, warm them up in the oven.
- I like beetroot falafel really smooth but feel free to process it less and leave some texture.
- After draining and rinsing the chickpeas make sure to give them a pat dry to get rid of some excess moisture. This will prevent the falafel mix from getting too wet.
- Don't be afraid to adjust seasoning to your liking. You might want to add some extra salt or increase the amount of spices, herbs or zest.
- Brushing falafel with a little bit of oil will make them extra crispy.
- To roast garlic for beetroot falafel simply cut the top off entire head of garlic so that you can see the exposed cloves, sprinkle with salt, drizzle with olive oil and roast wrapped in foil at 180C/350F (fan) for approximately 40min.
- Falafel mixture is quite soft but don't be tempted to add too much breadcrumbs. Use between 60-80g max.
- If you have time, pop baking tray with prepared falafel into the fridge for 15-20 minutes to firm up a bit (not necessary).
Please leave a comment & rating if you've made my recipe! Feel free to ask questions too, I reply to all!