This is a beautiful falafel plate with homemade hummus and falafel, vegetables, olives, feta, tahini sauce, and pita. Delicious and easy-to-pull-together mezze platter to satisfy your Middle Eastern food cravings.
Whenever I make a fresh batch of falafel (which happens very often), I try to make the most of it. I love them just as they are, with a little bit of hummus, but a nice falafel plate with lots of other mezze or a falafel sandwich is even better.
Ingredients: 13
Preparation time: 20
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What is a falafel mezze plate?
A combination of small plates and ingredients with the crispy falafel as the centerpiece. There will always be a bowl of hummus on the platter and some tahini-based sauce. You will add fresh vegetables and some cheese. Or you can keep the falafel plate vegan and leave out the cheese.
Why will you love this platter?
- Flavors: Amazing, everything fits together; you will take a bit of this and a bit of that and probably overeat because it just tastes so good.
- Healthy meal: Donโt stress too much if you end up overeating; everything is super healthy here todayโฆ
- Versatile: Use whatever you like and leave out what you donโt like.
- Perfect for entertaining: You can make a giant platter or falafel plate for many guests. Itโs delicious and fun to eat.
What do you need?
Falafel
- I recommend trying our falafel recipe; itโs so good. However, you can take a shortcut and buy good-quality falafel balls if you want.
- Needed ingredients for homemade chickpea balls: dry chickpeas, gram flour, garlic, onions, cilantro, parsley, baking soda, coriander, cumin, chili flakes, sesame seeds, salt and pepper, and oil for deep frying. The balls can also be air-fried or baked. You will also need a food processor. The recipe yields about 20 small patties.
Hummus
- It would be best to make our creamy hummus recipe; itโs better than anything you can buy in the grocery store, it costs almost nothing, and it takes about 5 minutes to make. You could also try this Creamy Butter Bean Hummus.
- Needed ingredients: canned chickpeas, cumin, coriander, paprika, tahini, lemon juice, a little olive oil, salt, and black pepper.
Tahini sauce
- A must, if you ask me. Itโs the same tahini sauce we used for drizzling on the sandwich the other day.
- Needed ingredients: tahini, lemon juice, garlic cloves, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.
Cheese
- I love feta cheese, but fried halloumi itโs fantastic as well; I often add it to the platter. The only drawback about halloumi is that you have to serve as soon as you fry it.
Vegetables and herbs
- We always have tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, red onions, and olives.
- Black olives with the pit still inside are the best; they have the most robust flavor. If you use them, warn the people at the table about the pits. You can also use pitted olives, but theyโre just not as tasty as those with the pit still in.
- Fresh parsley, basil, mint, or cilantro are all great. And you can add some lemon slices as well.
Bread
- Thin flatbread like pita or similar, preferably something you bought in a Middle Eastern store.
Seeds
- Optional, but delicious. Sprinkle some Nigella or sesame seeds on top of the falafel mezze plate.
How to assemble a falafel plate?
- Make homemade falafels, your own hummus, and tahini sauce.
- Place both dips and the crumbled cheese into small bowls and the bowls on the platter.
- Slice all the vegetables.
- Arrange all the ingredients around the dip bowls on the plate.
- Heat the bread if you like. You can do that in a large pan on medium heat or in the preheated oven on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper; it will take 5 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius), depending on how thick the bread is. Cut and arrange the pita wedges on the falafel platter.
- Drizzle the fresh veggies and the fresh herbs with 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and a few drops of lemon juice, and sprinkle them with fine sea salt and pepper.
- Drizzle everything on the falafel plate with a bit of tahini sauce and sprinkle with seeds
Other things you could add to the platter
- Tabbouleh saladย or anotherย couscous salad.
- Other saucesย like Greek yogurt and garlic sauce, garlic mayonnaise, Sriracha, Sambal Oelek, or another hot sauce.
- Other dipsย like baba ganoush, tzatziki, muhammara, and different sorts of flavored hummus.
- Pickled vegetables:ย we love pickled beets, but pickled onions or carrots are also delicious.
- Roasted vegetables:ย try eggplants, zucchini, carrots, peppers, and even roasted potatoes or sweet potatoes.
- Antipasti: like stuffed tiny peppers or stuffed olives.
- Salad leaves:ย iceberg lettuce, green salad, or rocket.
- Other vegetablesย like white or purple cabbage kneaded with a bit of salt and mixed with oil. Try kohlrabi or carrot sticks, green onions, and so on.
- Nuts:ย I think salted roasted almonds are a great fit.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, but itโs preferable to slice the fresh vegetables shortly before serving; they are better when freshly cut.
Arrange everything on the plate, leaving some space for the fresh veggies and herbs, cover the dish with cling film, and keep it refrigerated.
Bowls are perfect for individual serving. Arrange the ingredients in a bowl, the hummus included. Sprinkle the crumbled cheese on top and drizzle with tahini sauce.
Everything (except the fresh veggies and herbs) keeps well in the fridge for several days. Keep in airtight containers.
The falafel and the hummus can be frozen in airtight containers. Defrost in the fridge. You can reheat the falafel in the oven or the air fryer before serving again.
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๐ Recipe
Falafel Plate (with Hummus and Tahini Sauce)
Ingredients
- 12 falafels Note 1
- 1 cup hummus 250 g
- 1 cup tahini sauce 250 g
- 1 cup feta 200 g, Note 2
- 4 small tomatoes sliced, Note 3
- ยฝ cucumber sliced
- 1 large red bell pepper sliced
- 1 red onion sliced
- 20 black olives Note 4
- a few sprigs of parsley basil, mint, or cilantro
- 2-3 thin flatbreads pita
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- sprinkle of Nigella or sesame seeds
- a few lemon slices
- fine sea salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Make falafel, hummus, and tahini sauce.
- Place both dips and the crumbled feta into small bowls and the bowls on the platter.
- Slice all the vegetables.
- Bread: Heat the bread in a large pan on medium heat or in the preheated oven on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Depending on how thick the bread is, this will take 5 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Cut into wedges.
- Arrange all the ingredients around the dip bowls on the plate.
- Drizzle the fresh veggies with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil and a few drops of lemon juice, and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.
- Drizzle everything with a bit of tahini sauce and sprinkle with seeds.
Notes
- Homemade or bought.
- Buy a block of feta and crumble the cheese yourself.
- I donโt mean cherry tomatoes; if using those, you will need about 3-4 per person.
- Olives with pit inside taste better, but warn the people eating about the pit.
James says
I liked this recipe very much! Thanks Adina!
redflag says
calling a cultures food exotic is problematic, uncool
Paul Popescu says
@redflag, Exotic
adjective: exotic
originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country.
What is uncool about saying that a food is originating from a foreign country?
TheFastRecipe says
You know what is uncool? To review a recipe with 1 star, without actually creating the recipe, because of 1 word, disregarding the amount of work that many people put into creating this recipe. Cheers!