Air Fried Vegan White Bean Falafel

Something happened on my way to the market. I forgot to take with me my good eyesight. As I picked up the canned beans at Aldi Grocery store I reached out for northern beans thinking it was chickpeas. How did that happen can be explained by the fact this store tend to mix their beans on the shelf. So I ended with six northern beans in my pantry instead of both that and chickpeas.  Anyway I had always wanted to make falafel and that desire was so great yesterday when it was  below zero weather here in Pittsburgh.

I googled for a white bean falafel recipe and found it in this site. It however was not vegan and I searched for one and found it in this other wonderful site except I had to do some tweaking. I substituted northern beans for the raw chickpeas this site used. It also utilized the air fryer which made the recipe even more endearing to me. The list of ingredients included spices that spelled flavor to me so I was set in my mind I am doing it, namely, drive away the winter blues and make my falafel.

Wow, they were delicious with just the right kick to it and texture. I chose to  dredge the falafel in panko crumbs because that is how I roll (lol) but you can skip it. You can eat them as is with tzatziki sauce but I happened to have some pita bread so I stuffed the falafel into it with lettuce, tomato and cucumber pieces. Oh my!

Air Fried Vegan White Bean Falafel

Adapted from this site and this site

• 1-14 oz can northern beans, drained and rinsed (I have used chickpeas in a later prep)
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 clove garlic, cut coarsely
• 1\4 cup cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1\4 cup flour or as needed
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1\8 tsp black pepper
• 1\4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1\4 tsp salt or more to taste
• Panko crumbs (optional)

Place the beans, onion, garlic and cilantro in the blender and pulse till ingredients are mixed. Do not over blend or the mixture will get pasty.

Transfer the bean mixture into a medium bowl and add to it the rest of the ingredients except the Panko crumbs if using.

Using a small ice cream scoop make about 18 one inch balls from the seasoned bean mixture and roll if you choose to in panko crumbs.

Air fry in two batches at 380 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes.

You can serve this as is with vegan tzatziki sauce. You can also stuff it into a pita bread with lettuce, tomato and cucumber.