Vegan Chickpea & Sweetcorn Falafel, light and moist!

I have never been overly keen on shop-bought falafel.  They are just too dry for my liking.  But these Vegan Chickpea & Sweetcorn Falafel balls are light, fluffy, and moist inside.

Served with salad leaves and my Vegan Roasted Red-Pepper Sauce, they make a perfect light lunch or starter.

Easy to make!

In the ingredients, I always save the aqua-faba – water from the chickpeas – as sometimes the mixture can be a little too dry and thus needs a little bit of extra moisture. But you won’t know this until all the ingredients have been mixed. Therefore, I do not list it in the ingredients, just show it in the photo.

Also, I have chosen to use tinned chickpeas because I like the moistness that I get from them, but it is important to make sure you drain the chickpeas and the sweetcorn really well. If you don’t you will end up with a mixture that is far too wet.

So, place all of the listed ingredients in the recipe in a food processor. My processor is quite small so I have to push down the mixture around the sides a couple of times to make sure everything is blended properly.

Blend to form a ‘paste-like’ consistency. On this occasion, I did not need to add any of the saved aqua-faba from the chickpeas.

You can use water instead of the aqua-faba but I like the consistency it has. It’s no surprise that you can use it to make vegan meringues as it has a very ‘egg-white’, gloopiness.

When the ingredients have been completely blended, chill for at least 2 hours. The mixture can be made the day before you want to cook them and just leave overnight in the fridge.

Chilling a mixture like this not only helps the mixture to bind well, it also allows the mixture to develop its flavours. You know, like a curry always tastes better the next day, if there’s any left!

How much mixture does it make?

This recipe makes approximately 400 g / 14 oz. Therefore, I weigh the mixture so that I get even-sized falafel balls. So it will make 8 50 g / 1¾ oz balls. But, if you have a good eye, you don’t need to do this, just use your judgment. Also, you can make them smaller. Just remember, it will alter the number of calories per falafel ball and will reduce cooking time.

Before shaping into balls, preheat the oven as per recipe directions.

It also helps if you run your hands under a cold tap first as the colder your hands the less likely the mixture will stick to them.

If the mixture is too wet, adding some gram (chickpea) flour to it will help to bind it, so it can be shaped into balls.

Place the falafel balls on a lined oven tray and gently brush with oil.

Then bake in the middle of the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden and crispy on the outside.

Because they are very moist inside, they will still feel quite squidgy, so leave to rest for 10 minutes. Then serve with salad leaves and my vegan roasted red-pepper sauce.

This sauce goes really well with the falafel. You can pour it over or just dip in!

I could seriously eat these every day!

Like these Vegan Chickpea & Sweetcorn Falafel?

Please leave me a comment below and let me know if you like these light, fluffy and moist falafel, and what you serve yours with! ????

Happy falafel making and ENJOY! ????