Falafel Plate (with Hummus and Tahini Sauce)

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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 them. 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.

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: Don’t stress too much if you end up overeating; everything is super healthy here today…
• Versatile: Use whatever you like and leave out what you don’t like.
• Perfect for entertaining: You can make a giant platter or falafel plate for many guests. It’s delicious, fun to eat and, depending on where you live, quite interesting, almost exotic.

What do you need?

Falafel

• I recommend trying our falafel recipe; it’s 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; it’s better than anything you can buy in the grocery store, it costs almost nothing, and it takes about 5 minutes to make.
• 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. It’s 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 it’s 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 they’re 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.

Recipe steps

• 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 salad or another couscous salad.
• Other sauces like Greek yogurt and garlic sauce, garlic mayonnaise, Sriracha, Sambal Oelek, or another hot sauce.
• Other dips like baba ganoush, tzatziki, muhammara, different sorts of flavored hummus.
• Pickled vegetables: we love pickled beets, but pickled onions or carrots are also delicious.
• Roasted vegetables: try eggplants, zucchini, carrots, peppers, and even roasted potatoes or sweet potatoes.
• Antipasti: like stuffed tiny peppers or stuffed olives.
• Salad leaves: iceberg lettuce, green salad, or rocket.
• Other vegetables 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: I think salted roasted almonds are a great fit.

Tips and FAQ

• Use bought chickpea balls and hummus to make a super quick falafel plate.

Recipe FAQ

Check out the short story for this recipe: How to make Falafel Platter

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