Falafel Wrap Recipe
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This delicious falafel wrap recipe is healthy comfort food at its best! These crispy falafel patties are baked instead of fried, then wrapped in a whole wheat pita and topped with spinach, tomato, and a creamy hummus sauce. Vegan, easy to make gluten free, and totally family friendly!
Falafels are truly a comfort food of mine. I honestly love all types of Mediterranean food: whole wheat pita, hummus, feta, olives, veggies, and other delicious dips – you really can’t go wrong putting those ingredients together!
Of course, since falafels are deep fried chickpea patties with a pretty heavy sauce and served in a white pita, they’re not exactly the healthiest meal. But they are great for a treat once in a while.
Since I’d rather have a Greek falafel wrap more regularly than just “once in a while”, I realized that this was my opportunity to makeover the traditional falafel, by baking them instead of frying them, and they turned out GREAT.
Even though falafel is often deep-fried, baking still gives you that amazing texture without the added fat. This homemade easy falafel wrap recipe is a lightened up version that makes a delicious meal!
👩🏽🍳 Why This Recipe Works
- Simple recipe for homemade falafel
- Great recipe for lunch or dinner
- Kid friendly
- Packed with fresh vegetables
- Baked instead of fried
- Tastes just like an authentic falafel wrap recipe, and tastes way better than store-bought falafels!
- Healthy vegan recipe, easily made gluten free
- Will quickly become your favorite falafel recipe!
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🥘 Ingredients
This falafel and hummus wrap requires simple ingredients that you can find at any grocery store! Here’s what you need:
- Whole Wheat Pita: We use whole wheat pita pockets instead of regular pita bread for added fiber and whole grains. Make sure to get the larger sized pita so that it holds all of the toppings in this pita wrap. Use a gluten free pita to make this veggie falafel wrap gluten free.
- Canned Chickpeas: The base of this homemade falafel wrap recipe! While you can use dried chickpeas, you’ll have to soak and cook them first, which takes way longer, so I like using canned garbanzo beans to cut down on prep time. I also have found that canned chickpeas hold up just as well as dried/cooked chickpeas in this falafel sandwich recipe.
- Red Onion: For texture and flavor in this falafel roll.
- Whole Wheat Flour: Acts as a binder and helps the falafel balls stay together. You could also try using panko breadcrumbs or whole wheat breadcrumbs. For a gluten free option, use oat flour.
- Spices: We added parsley, garlic cloves, cilantro, cumin, salt, lemon juice, paprika, and black pepper to give these falafel patties great flavor. Feel free to add cayenne pepper, chili powder, or crushed red pepper flakes for more heat in these homemade falafels.
- Baking Powder: Helps the falafel balls bake in the oven and keeps them from getting too dense.
- Olive Oil Spray: Used to spray the falafel so that they get a nice crispy texture on the outside while baking, to mimic traditional fried falafel.
- Toppings: Baby spinach, diced tomatoes, hummus sauce (made with hummus + water!)
📖 Falafel Wrap Toppings
You can customize this recipe with all sorts of toppings based on your personal tastes! Here are some of our favorite fillings to add to this vegan falafel wrap recipe:
- Traditional hummus, or variations like garlic hummus, beetroot hummus, etc.
- Baba ganoush
- Creamy tzatziki sauce or vegan tzatziki
- Fresh greens – spinach, romaine lettuce, arugula
- Fresh veggies like diced tomatoes, diced onions, cucumber slices
- Sauteed vegetables like cabbage or even leafy greens
- Fresh herbs like fresh mint or fresh parsley
- Tabbouleh salad
- Sesame seeds
- Creamy tahini sauce
- Pickles
- Crumbled feta cheese or vegan feta
🔪 Instructions
This falafel roll recipe is super easy! Here’s how to make a falafel vegetable wrap:
Prep Ingredients: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine chickpeas and all ingredients for falafel (except for the pitas, spinach, tomatoes, baking powder, and nonstick spray) in a food processor, and give them a good chop.
Finish Falafel Mixture: Transfer into a bowl, add the baking powder and stir together. Using a potato masher, mash any big chunks that remain – Mixture should remain slightly chunky, not smooth.
Make Falafel Patties: Spray a baking sheet thoroughly with olive oil nonstick spray. One at a time, take spoonfuls of mixture in your hands and form 15 balls, each about the size of a ping pong ball, and gently place them on the baking sheet. Spray the top of each ball with olive oil nonstick spray, for a total of about a 2-second spray.
Bake: Bake in the oven for 15 minutes (note – depending on your oven, this might take longer – up to 20-25 minutes – but be sure to check on them to make sure the bottom doesn’t burn!).
Make Hummus Sauce: Meanwhile, combine 2 parts hummus to 1 part water, and stir until blended (add more water to taste depending on how watery you like your sauce). Season to taste with salt / black pepper and refrigerate until ready to serve. While your falafel patties are baking, chop your veggies and warm up your pita bread.
Finish Baking: Remove baking sheet from the oven, and carefully turn each ball over, gently reshaping if the bottoms have flattened. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 10 – 15 minutes (or longer, depending on your oven), until golden brown and slightly crispy. Allow to cool and set for at least 5 minutes.
Assemble Falafel Hummus Wrap: Fill the whole wheat pitas with spinach, 3 falafel balls, diced tomato, and top with spinach and sauce. Wrap and enjoy!
Tip: How To Make Falafel In The Air Fryer
To make this Lebanese falafel wrap recipe in the air fryer:
- Follow steps 1-3 in the instructions.
- After you spray the falafel with cooking spray, roll them in whole wheat or panko breadcrumbs for a light coating.
- Air fry the falafel at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.
- Flip and air fry for another 6 minutes on the second side.
- Then assemble your falafel burrito the same way you would in the instructions above.
❓Recipe FAQs
It depends on how you make the falafel patties! When falafel wraps are made the traditional way using white pita, and fried chickpea patties, it’s not really a healthy meal as it’s high in fat and calories, while also low in nutritional value.
But this Mediterranean falafel wrap recipe is super healthy for you! You get all the flavor of a traditional wrap, but by making a few healthy swaps you increase the nutritional value and decrease the fat and calories without losing any flavor!
Here are the healthy substitutions I made to increase the nutritional value while decreasing the fat and calories.
#1 | Whole Grains: I used a whole wheat pita instead of a white one made with refined grains.
#2 | More Veggies: I added baby spinach and tomatoes as toppings. Spinach is high in iron, magnesium and potassium.
#3 | Less Oil & Added Fat: I made my own “sauce” using hummus and a bit of water – it tasted so close to tahini sauce but was much lower in calories! I also baked the falafel patties instead of frying them which greatly reduces the amount of oil needed. This also reduces the overall calories!
Falafel wraps are a Mediterranean sandwich made with pita, fried chickpea patties, and is usually stuffed with lettuce or a fresh salad, tomato, and pickles, and topped with a tahini sauce.
Traditionally falafel is served with other mediterranean sides. Try some of these suggestions:
Tabouli: A salad made with parsley, tomatoes, and bulgar wheat.
Hummus: A chickpea and tahini dip.
Baba Ganoush: An eggplant and tahini dip.
Fattoush Salad: A salad of chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers in a light vinaigrette.
If you’re making this falafel sandwich wrap in advance or for meal prep, I recommend storing everything separately, and assembling only right before you’re ready to serve the wraps.
Store all of the toppings individually in airtight containers, let the leftover falafels cool and store them in a separate airtight container, and place the pitas in a ziptop bag and keep everything in the fridge.
When stored separately, all of the components will keep for 3 days in the fridge. I don’t recommend freezing this falafel wrap with hummus.
💭 Expert Tips
- Drain and rinse chickpeas before adding them to the food processor.
- For best results, don’t over-process the falafel mixture — you want it to remain slightly chunky, not a smooth puree.
- Check the patties in the oven at 15 minutes, however it could take up to 25 minutes to bake.
- Feel free to also make these in the air fryer!
- If you’re serving this falafel tortilla wrap to young kids, they might find it hard to hold the pita without everything falling out. Usually for younger kids and toddlers, I’ll serve this “deconstructed” — with the falafel and toppings cut up on one side of the plate, the sauce for dipping, and the pita cut into triangles or cubes to eat on the side!
🌯 More Delicious Wraps And Veggie Sandwiches!
- Sourdough Grilled Cheese
- Gourmet Banana Peanut Butter Sandwich
- Chickpea Stuffed Pita Sandwiches
- Garlic Bread Grilled Cheese
Love this plant based mediterranean recipe? Please leave a 5-star rating 🌟 in the recipe below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page!
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📋 Recipe Card
Falafel Wrap Recipe
Ingredients
Falafel
- 5 whole wheat pitas
- 15 oz chickpeas, rinsed & drained (1 15oz can)
- 1 red onion very finely chopped
- ¼ cup whole-wheat flour you could also try using panko breadcrumbs or whole wheat breadcrumbs
- 3 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1½ tbsp chopped garlic
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
- ½ tbsp ground cumin
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp lemon juice
- ⅛ tsp paprika or more to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- olive oil nonstick spray
- 2 cups baby spinach
- ¾ cup diced tomatoes
Sauce
- 3-4 tbsp store bought hummus
- 2-3 tbsp water start with 1 tbsp and work your way up from there
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place all ingredients for falafel (except for the pitas, baking powder, and nonstick spray) in a food processor, and give them a good chop.
- Transfer into a bowl, add the baking powder and stir together. Using a potato masher, mash any big chunks that remain – Mixture should remain slightly chunky, not smooth.
- Spray a baking sheet thoroughly with olive oil nonstick spray. One at a time, take spoonfuls of mixture in your hands and form 15 balls, each about the size of a ping pong ball, and gently place them on the baking sheet. Spray the top of each ball with olive oil nonstick spray, for a total of about a 2-second spray.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, combine 2 parts hummus to 1 part water, and stir until blended (add more water to taste depending on how watery you like your sauce). Season to taste with salt / black pepper and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- While your falafel patties are baking, chop your veggies and warm up your pita bread.
- Remove baking sheet from the oven, and carefully turn each ball over, gently reshaping if the bottoms have flattened.
- Return to the oven and bake for an additional 10 – 15 minutes, until golden brown and slightly crispy. Allow to cool and set for at least 5 minutes. Note: You can also make these in the air fryer! To make in the air fryer, follow steps 1-3 above. After you spray the falafel with cooking spray, roll them in whole wheat or panko breadcrumbs for a light coating. Then air fry the falafel at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes. Flip and air fry for another 6 minutes on the second side.
- Fill the whole wheat pitas with spinach, 3 falafel balls, diced tomato, and top with spinach and sauce. Wrap and enjoy!
Notes
- Drain and rinse chickpeas before adding them to the food processor.
- Use fresh organic ingredients whenever possible.
- Don’t over-process the falafel mixture — you want it to remain slightly chunky, not a smooth puree.
- Be sure to find whole wheat pita bread to increase the fiber.
- Check the patties in the oven at 15 minutes, however it could take up to 25 minutes to bake.
- Feel free to also make these in the air fryer!
- If you’re serving this to young kids, they might find it hard to hold the pita without everything falling out. Usually for younger kids and toddlers, I’ll serve this “deconstructed” — with the falafel and toppings cut up on one side of the plate, the sauce for dipping, and the pita cut into triangles or cubes to eat on the side!
- This recipe makes 15 patties. 1 serving = 1 pita + 3 patties + 2 tbsp diced tomato, a handful of baby spinach and a drizzle of sauce.
This was such a delicious dinner. My meat eating family loved it because the falafels were so tasty and satisfying.
Awesome!! Thanks for letting me know Amanda!
These made a perfect lunch for us yesterday! Delicious and nutritious – what’s not to like?
Yay!! So happy to hear that Ieva!
What a delicious way to serve falafel. These wraps look incredible.
Thanks Dannii! You will love this recipe!
made these for dinner and they were a huge hit! So tasty!
Yay! So happy to hear that MJ!
That looks like a delicious recipe! I feel one of the secrets to making great falafels is to use fresh chickpeas and soak them. Canned chickpeas never give the same taste or texture.
Thanks Lucy! That’s a great point! If you have the time to soak/cook dry chickpeas that definitely would give the falafels an even better texture! But in a time crunch honestly, the canned chickpeas work pretty well too!
I’ve been wanting to make my own falafels. These look perfect and love that I can make them in the air fryer.
Totally!! This is a great recipe for making them at home because it’s super easy and pretty quick too!
These look so incredibly fantastic – I am a sucker for falafel and the good old pita pocket combo is just the BEST!
Yesss! I’m a sucker for falafel too! I’m sure you’ll love this recipe Marie!
These were so good and my first attempt at making falafel. I had no idea how simple it was to make, and will def be making it more!
Yay!! That is awesome to hear Caitlyn!
I have been hunting for a great falafel recipe and this is the one! Love it.
Hooray! Thanks so much Erica!
We were craving falafels since restaurant aren’t open around our area yet and this was perfect for making them at home. Didn’t realize how simple they would be!
Yes!! These really are super easy and they taste just like the restaurant version! I’m sure you will love them!
Thank you for the recipe!! I tried it last night and it took a lot longer than I thought. I have a question about the baking process… When I was baking them, I left them in the oven for 25 minutes on each side, but the inside was still moist and uncooked. so I put them back in the oven for another 25 minutes and the inside would not cook. am I doing something wrong, or are they supposed to be uncooked? I didn’t make them thick, I made 11 patties from this recipe. I ate them still semi uncooked on the inside (since it was all veggies), and they were still very good, but I’m pretty sure they were supposed to be cooked…
Hi Soha! There could be a few things going on: This recipe is supposed to make 15 falafel balls — so it could be that your patties were a little too big and required more cooking time. Also — these patties will not get super firm on the inside – they will be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. So it could just be that you interpreted the softness for being undercooked? The only other thing I can think of is that your oven doesn’t get as hot as mine, and so it required more cooking time. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions!
I tried these and they’re amazing!! This is definitely going to become one of my regulars. Thanks for posting the recipe.
Woohoo!! So happy to hear that Bryant! 🙂
I always just bought the baked ones from the vegetarian section at my local grocery store…but now I want to try and make them! Oh and you should try Josephs low carb flax seed pitas (they are only 60 cal for the whole pita) I get them believe or not from Walmart.
Hi Sarah! I can’t wait for you to make these at home! I use to buy pre-made falafels too but I think these taste way better (and are healthier for you 🙂 ). Good tip on the flax seed pitas! I’ll see if I can find them next time I go grocery shopping!
Just soaking the chickpeas – looking forward to tasting the result tomorrow.
I hope you liked this recipe Tim! It’s one of my favorites!
I’ve shopped around for a good falafel recipe and found one here! Great flavor and consistency, and they don’t fall apart! I love them with a homemade cucumber yogurt dill sauce!
Thanks so much Becca! This is one of my favorites too! Love the idea of the cucumber yogurt dill sauce 🙂
I was so glad to see this recipe. I am fasting for the next three weeks and have to stay away from fried foods. This looks perfect. Will be making them this week! Thank you!
Oh great! Let me know how they turn out Stephanie!
what can you substitute the flour with? any other veggie or perhaps quinoa?
Hi Jackie! You need a binding agent – so substituting vegetables for the flour wouldn’t work. You could grind quinoa up in your food processor (making quinoa flour) and use that. But essentially you need some sort of flour/breadcrumbs/etc. to help hold the patties together. Hope that helps!
These are delicious! Thanks for my new go-to falafel recipe!
Yay! So glad to hear that Kelli! 🙂