Falafel
Falafel once had a place on the breakfast menu at McDonald's in Egypt, where the chain for a time sold a sandwich called the McFalafel. A global burger company adapting its menu around a fried bean fritter says a great deal about how deeply the dish is rooted there. Yet nobody can say for certain where falafel began. Was it the food of the pharaohs, or a far younger invention? How did a snack from Egyptian street stalls reach Beirut, Berlin and North America? And why do two peoples in the Middle East each insist the dish belongs to them? The first clue sits in the word itself.
The Arabic word falāfil is the plural of filfil, which means pepper. That word was borrowed from Persian felfel, a cousin of the Sanskrit pippalī, meaning long pepper. Another account traces it to an earlier form, filfal, from the Aramaic pilpāl, a small round thing or peppercorn. The Aramaic word itself comes from palpēl, meaning to be round or to roll. Either route ends at something small and round, which suits the shape of the fritter.
In English, falafel first appears in writing in 1936. Writers have spelled it falafel, felafel, filafel and filafil. The word can mean the fritters themselves, or it can mean the sandwiches filled with them.
Egypt and Sudan use a different name, ṭaʿmiyya. It comes from a diminutive form of the Arabic ṭaʿām, which means food. The diminutive marks a single unit, so the name means a little piece of food or a small tasty thing. It is built on the root Ṭ-ʕ-M, which has to do with taste and food. That Egyptian name points toward the country where the dish most likely originated.
Egypt is the most likely birthplace of falafel, but the evidence is thin. Some have speculated that its history reaches back to Pharaonic Egypt. Against that idea, the earliest written references from Egyptian sources date only to the 19th century. Oil was also probably too expensive for deep frying in ancient Egypt.
A second theory involves British soldiers from India. Craving Indian food while stationed in Egypt, they supposedly began making, or having made, replacements for it. The theory is plausible and has circumstantial support, but no conclusive evidence exists.
Alexandria, as a port city, was able to send the dish and its name to other parts of the Middle East. Falafel first spread south into the rest of Egypt. After World War 1 it began to leave the country. By 1933 a falafel shop had opened in Beirut. From there it traveled down the Red Sea coast as far as Yemen, west into Libya and north into Turkey.
Around the same time, falafel reached Mandatory Palestine, where some Jews and Arabs adopted it. Many recent Ashkenazi Jewish migrants hesitated. For the most part the recipe stayed the same on its journey. In the town of Mersa Matruoh, cooks swapped fava beans for hyacinth beans and beef. In the Levant, chickpeas took the place of fava beans.
Five qualities carried falafel across borders. It was inexpensive, easy to store, easy to produce and convenient to eat. It could also be served in many different ways. The hesitant newcomers in Mandatory Palestine would take years to come around.
By the time of Israel's independence, falafel had not yet become as popular among Israelis as it is today. Then rationing arrived in 1949 and gave the dish a boost. It was a good source of protein, and its ingredients were easy for everybody to find. Some people still treated it as a foreign food. A growing number of cookbooks, however, began to print recipes.
Jews expelled from the Middle East arrived having eaten falafel in their previous countries. Their presence helped win over the more hesitant groups.
The historian Gil Marks credits Jewish Yemeni refugees with popularizing the pita falafel sandwich in the 1950s, after independence. The idea itself is older. The Palestine Post carried the first mention of falafel in pita bread as a street food on the 19th of October 1939. What goes into the balls, though, changes from one country to the next.
In Egypt, falafel is typically made from fava beans. Israeli and Palestinian cooks commonly use chickpeas. In Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and across the wider Middle East, cooks use chickpeas or a mix of both. The chickpea version is the most popular in the West. Palestinians also make a variation stuffed with sumac and onions.
When cooks use chickpeas, they do not cook them first. Cooked chickpeas make the falafel fall apart, and the cook would then need flour as a binder. Instead the chickpeas are soaked overnight, sometimes with baking soda. They are then ground with ingredients such as parsley, scallions and garlic. Cumin and coriander often go in for extra flavor.
Dried fava beans follow a different path. They are soaked in water and stone ground with leek, parsley, green coriander, cumin and dry coriander. The mixture is shaped into balls or patties by hand, or with a tool called an aleb falafel, a falafel mould. Most often the shaped pieces are deep-fried, though they can also be baked in an oven.
Inside, falafel may be green from herbs such as parsley or green onion, or it may be tan. Sometimes sesame seeds are scattered on top before frying. Balls are the usual shape, but other shapes appear.
As a sandwich, falafel goes into flatbreads such as pita, samoon, laffa or taboon. Tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, pickled vegetables and hot sauce can be added. Tahini-based sauces are the common companion. The balls also work alone as a snack or as part of a meze tray. The dish has a place on the religious calendar too.
During Ramadan, falafel balls are sometimes served as part of the iftar, the meal that breaks the daily fast after sunset. Falafel is still popular in the Coptic diet, and large volumes are cooked during religious holidays. Arab Christians eat it as part of the Lenten diet.
Across Egypt, the Levant and the wider Middle East, it is also an everyday street food and fast food. In Israel, the chickpea version has taken on a status that not everyone accepts.
Waves of Arab and Turkish migration carried falafel through Europe and into Germany in particular, where a large Turkish population had settled. At first it was eaten mainly by the migrants themselves. In the early 1970s, Turkish food stalls and restaurants appeared and made falafel available to Germans. The recipe was transformed in the process.
In North America before the 1970s, falafel was found only in Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Jewish neighborhoods and restaurants. By the 1990s it had begun to reach the broader public, first as an exoticized "eastern" dish. Later it became normalized, and it is now a common street food in many North American cities.
Vegetarians and vegans worldwide embraced falafel as an alternative to meat-based street foods. It was long thought of as the stuff of veggie burgers, but its use has widened as more people treat it as a source of protein. Some vegetarian recipes use it in place of meat in meatloaf, sloppy joes and spaghetti and meatballs.
Homemade falafel is about 35% water, 32% carbohydrates, 13% protein and 18% fat. A 100 g portion supplies 333 calories. It is a rich source of folate at 20% of the Daily Value, along with several minerals and dietary fiber. Baking the balls avoids the high fat content that comes with frying in oil. As the dish moved between cultures, so did the arguments about who it belongs to.
Falafel has been the subject of gastronationalistic campaigns in many Middle Eastern countries. The most prominent is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where both sides have claimed ownership of the dish. Arguments over how important falafel is in different national cuisines are a clear example of gastronationalism.
The chickpea version has been adopted into Israeli cuisine, where it features prominently and is widely recognized as a national dish. Palestinians and other Arabs have criticized that designation. The discussion centers on whether Israel's adoption of the dish is cultural appropriation. Arguments over geographic origin run alongside it.
Whatever the verdict, falafel is still sold on streets from Egypt to Germany to North America, one fried ball at a time.
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Common questions
What is falafel?
Falafel is a deep-fried ball or patty-shaped fritter of Egyptian origin that features in Middle Eastern cuisine, particularly Levantine cuisines. It is made from ground fava beans, chickpeas, or both, mixed with herbs and spices before frying.
Where does falafel come from?
Falafel most likely originated in Egypt, though its exact origin is uncertain. The earliest written references from Egyptian sources date to the 19th century.
What does the word falafel mean?
Falafel is the Arabic plural falāfil, from filfil, meaning pepper, which was borrowed from Persian felfel. In Egypt and Sudan the dish is called ṭaʿmiyya, meaning a little piece of food. In English the word is first attested in 1936.
What is falafel made of?
Falafel is made from fava beans, chickpeas, or a combination of both, ground with herbs and spices. Egypt typically uses fava beans, while Israeli and Palestinian cooks commonly use chickpeas. The chickpea version is the most popular in the West.
Why are chickpeas not cooked before making falafel?
Cooking the chickpeas first makes the falafel fall apart, so a cook would need to add flour as a binder. The chickpeas are soaked overnight instead, sometimes with baking soda, and then ground with ingredients such as parsley, scallions and garlic.
How did falafel become popular in Israel?
The introduction of rationing in 1949 boosted falafel's popularity in Israel because it was a good source of protein and its ingredients were easy for everybody to find. Jews expelled from the Middle East, who had eaten falafel in their previous countries, also helped popularize it.
Why is falafel controversial in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have claimed ownership of falafel, which is an example of gastronationalism. The chickpea version has been called a national dish of Israel, a designation Palestinians and other Arabs have criticized as cultural appropriation.
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