Vegan sweet potato falafel with harissa mayo and pickled cabbage – recipe

Purists will rightly take issue with me calling this a “falafel”, because it isn’t made with dried chickpeas and then deep-fried to achieve a lovely, crisp shell. In my defence, however, falafel can at worst be dry when cooked in this way at home. Today’s recipe for pan-fried falafel is made with the cook’s friend, tinned chickpeas, and sweet potato. It makes for an unctuous, simple but no less delicious spiced patty that gets on very well indeed with harissa mayonnaise and pickled cabbage.
Prep 10 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 4
Prep 10 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 4
For the falafel800g (2 tins) chickpeas, drained60g flat-leaf parsley, 10g leaves left whole, the remaining stalks and leaves roughly chopped4 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp fine sea saltFinely grated zest of 2 lemons – you’ll use the juice in the pickled cabbage
1 small sweet potato, peeled and grated (200g)2 tbsp chickpea flour (20g)Rapeseed oil, for frying
For the pickled cabbage¼ red cabbage (300g), very finely shredded2 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp fine sea salt
To serve
2 tbsp rose harissa – I like Belazu’s120g vegan mayonnaise4 large pittas, or flatbreads½ cucumber (150g), finely slicedPickled chillies – I like Cooks & Co’s green frenk chillies
Put the chickpeas in a food processor with the chopped parsley (save the whole leaves for later), spices, baking powder, salt and lemon zest, then blitz. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and blitz again, to make a rough paste. Press a spoonful of the mixture against the side of the bowl – if it doesn’t stick, blitz again.
Scrape the mix into a bowl and fold in the grated sweet potato and chickpea flour. Shape the falafel mix into 12 roughly 65g balls, then compact each one down into a patty shape about 6cm across.
To make the pickled cabbage, put the cabbage in a bowl, add the lemon juice, half a teaspoon of salt and the reserved parsley leaves, then toss to combine and put to one side.
To make the harissa mayonnaise, put the harissa and mayonnaise in a bowl and mix well.
To cook the falafels, put three tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan on a medium-high heat. Add the patties to the pan (cook them in batches, if need be), and move them around to try to brown the sides. Cook for four to five minutes, turn, add another tablespoon of oil and cook for another four to five minutes, until deep dark brown on both sides.
To serve, toast one pitta, then split it open and generously spread one half of the inside with harissa mayonnaise. Add three patties, a small handful of the cabbage, some slices of cucumber and a pickled chilli, then close the pitta and repeat with the remaining breads, falafels and fillings.