Did you know you can make green falafel by adding collard greens? These falafel are made using canned chickpeas and they’re pan-fried in the pan for super quick falafel!
I’ve always loved the green Falafels one could get at Maoz, but somehow whenever I made Falafel at home I never used enough parsley or cilantro to get them to have a green color on the inside. So I thought I’d step up the game and add in some of the green collards I had in the fridge. And yeesss… finally… green Falafel! :)
Collard greens are an amazing source of vitamin A, C, K, calcium, and manganese. So they are the perfect addition to protein-rich falafel.
In contrast to previous Falafel recipes (Huge Batch of Falafel, Oil-Free Cilantro Falafel), this time I’ve used canned chickpeas. The Falafel are even quicker to make because they don’t require the dried chickpeas to soak overnight. Yeah to spontaneous Falafels! ^.^
If you have a food processor, these Green Falafels are super easy to make. Just blitz up the green collard leaves & chickpeas, mix in the spices & chickpea flour, form little patties & pan-fry them. Easy as that! What I really like about this recipe is, that you don’t have to decide a day ahead if you’re making falafel because the chickpeas don’t require soaking.
Serve Green Falafel with …
I’ve had the Green Falafel in a simple lamb’s lettuce salad with tomatoes and a hummus dressing (hummus mixed with water & lime juice) and it was delicious! The Falafel would be also great in wraps (especially with homemade tortillas), pita bread, on couscous, or simply to snack on their own (I may or may not have done that…).
Vegan & gluten-free Green Falafel
Ingredients
- 3 large green collard leaves
- 17 oz canned chickpeas
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon lime juice
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons besan/chickpea flour
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
Instructions
- Wash the green collard leaves and remove the stems, roll it up and blitz it in the food processor until fine.
- Drain the chickpeas (save the water for some Aquafaba magic, if you like) and add them to the food processor and blitz until broken up.
- Transfer the mixture into a large bowl, add in the salt, garlic powder, lime juice and give it a good mix.
- Add in the chickpea flour into the mix until you can form little patties (I've added 2 tablespoons).
- Heat a large pan with the canola oil (the bottom should be coated) and add in the Falafel once the oil is hot. Let it pan-fry (on medium to high heat) for about 7 minutes on each side. They should be crispy on the outside and soft but not mushy on the inside.
Estimated Nutrition Info
If you give these vegan and gluten-free Green Falafel a try I’d love to hear how it went! Leave a comment, rate the recipe or post a picture on Instagram, use the hashtag #elephantasticvegan and tag me via @elephantasticvegan to make sure I’ll see it ^.^ I love to see all your lovely creations! Thanks! <3
Collards are a green I don’t buy very often! They’re great, I just never end up choosing them :P What a perfect recipe to influence me to stock up ;)
We don’t have kale here, so I have to use collard greens :D But they are a great addition to the falafel :) Totally love the flavor!
I love the spruced up falafels! Plus extra greens in a yummy form is always good for me :) Is it weird that I kinda want to grab a tortilla chip and dive into that food processor with it as a dip? It looks really good, almost like hummus meets spinach artichoke dip haha!
Haha, not weird at all! Oh… I’ve had the spinach artichoke dip on my to-do-list for sooooo long. I really have to try it soon. It sounds like heaven.
Can these burgers be baked?
I haven’t tried baking these falafel (made with canned chickpeas), but I do have other falafel recipes, that require baking, like this Huge Batch of Falafel or these completely oil-free Falafel with cilantro. Both are made with dried chickpeas. If you do try to bake the falafel made with canned chickpeas, please let me know how they turn out! :)
I just found your recipe. and am definitely going to try it. I have a similar recipe which called for frying. I tried baking them however they dried out and did not brown. Very little oil is used in the pan. I’ve found that a grill pan works well and then you have the nice grill marks too.
Yep, pan-frying, baking and frying all result in different results. It also really depends which chickpeas are used – canned or soaked or soaked and cooked chickpeas. Lately, I’ve preferred using canned chickpeas and pan-frying them (like in this recipe) or baking them in the oven.
Oh my gosh!!! I love it! Such a great recipe! So healthy and delicious! I just pinned it! Thanks for sharing! I adore falafel and I love that these are so healthy as well as tasty! The perfect balance!
Sincerely, Cailee @ http://hellohealthyeating.com
I would like to try spinach instead of collard greens. Do you have any idea how much to use for this. I am not a great cook but learning right now.
Great idea! I’d use about 1 cup tightly packed fresh spinach or 1/3 cup if you use frozen spinach. I’d love to know how it turns out with spinach! :)
Thanks for the information and I will try making it this week. I will send results.
Bonnie
I have a bag of Chickpea Flour in my pantry with just about this amout in it. Can’t wait to try these:) Thank you!
aaawesome! I really hope you give them a try. They are my boyfriend’s favorite falafel :)
Ahh! These look divine! Can’t wait to whip ’em up some time!
These look yummy but I don’t have chick pea flour. Will plain flour be ok to use?
Hi Bridget, you can try. I haven’t tried it with plain flour yet but some of my readers tried it and it turned out okay. I’m afraid it could turn out a bit mushy with plain flour, but maybe it will work just fine. If you do try it out with normal flour, please let me know if you liked them :)
this was delicious! i think i must’ve missed something, though, because mine didn’t turn out like burgers. it was more of a stir fry because i couldn’t get them to “stick” together. can someone help me out for when i do this recipe again?
Hi Michelle, did you use chickpea flour? It’s the binding ingredient in this recipe. If the mixture still doesn’t stick together, just add more chickpea flour until it sticks. It should have enough liquid already when using canned chickpeas, so I’m sure it would work if you just add more chickpea flour. I’d love to hear back if it works for you better next time. I’m glad you liked the taste, though :D
Thanks, Bianca. Next time I make this (probably over the weekend/early next week), I will add more of the chickpea flour. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Good luck, Michelle! :) You can do it!
I love Falafel and this recipe was awesome! Thank you!
I’m glad you liked it, Marla <3
What a great idea! I have gotta try these. They look gorgeous. Here in the US, collard greens are such a staple in Southern cuisine, and I love how you used them here :)
Thank you so much, Casey. Thankfully we have collard greens here, but we have no kale! And it’s scandalous, because kale is all the rage now.. and I can’t create recipes with it :'( I just stick to the collard greens then :)
Looks delicious! How many would make a serving?
Hi Lauren. The ingredients given yield about 12 falafel. I’d say three to four falafel are a good amount per serving (depending on what you’re eating them with). Four falafel in a salad or four falafel in a wrap will a good serving size. :) Divide the ingredients by 3 to only make 4 falafel.
I don’t have any chick pea flour. Would cornmeal work do you think?
While I personally haven’t tried it, a few of my readers told me that they used all-purpose flour instead of chickpea flour and it worked out great for them. But if you want to keep them gluten-free I think if it’s really fine cornmeal (so they don’t get gritty), it could work. But I haven’t tried it yet, let me know how it goes if you do give it a try :)
These are soooo good! I just made them. I’m going to try spinach next time :)
Yeay! I’m so happy to hear that! Spinach sounds good too :)
Falafels have always been vegan and green unless someone messed it up pretty bad.
hahaha :D I had lots of non-green falafel too and they’re good too but I love the addition of collard greens in them :)
My, my , my! I LOVE this idea! I try to add different greens to so many recipes , it’s so fun finding out what combinations work! I cannot wait to try these!
adding more greens is always a good idea. I hope you enjoy them! :)
Can these be baked in the oven, like your other falafel recipe? I’d rather not use oil. Have you tried them baked? TIA
Yes, you can absolutely bake these falafel, Leeanne! I’d bake them for 30 minutes at 350°F (180°C), flipping them once after 20 minutes.
Can these be frozen?
yep, they are freezer-friendly!
Hi Bianca, your blog is awesome. I have fallen in love with your blog. I tried these falafels and they turned out to be perfect. Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks for the awesome review! Glad you enjoyed them! :)
Hi Bianca,
I love your blog. Keep it up, please,
When I soak chickpeas, I soak more than the amount that I need and freeze in bags of half a kilo (dry) each. It seems to me that soaked and frozen chickpeas cook up sooner and softer.
Oh! That’s a good trick! Thank you for sharing, David!
And thank you for your kind words, I really appreciate it! :)