Last week I decided to try my hand at baking falafel. It was partly because I’d never made falafel before, and wanted to give it a try, but it was also because I wanted to put my tzatziki on it. I’m not a fan of frying things, though, so the baked version seemed like the way to go. And it was…eventually.

My first attempt at making baked falafel is what I liked to call a falafail.

If you haven’t closed the page out of disgust at that terrible wordplay, here’s what went wrong: the falafel was so dry that it crumbled apart if I so much as looked at it, which made it difficult to eat. The flavor was really good, but it needed extra sauce to counteract the dryness.

So I tweaked the recipe, baked for less time, and voilà, delicious baked falafel.

Successfalafel? Yeah, let’s forget I ever tried that.

Luckily the food is better than the word. It went perfectly with my tzatziki, for a delicious falafel pita sandwich. Speaking of pita, I made that, too, because my grocery store didn’t have any. But while mine tasted great, it failed to develop a pocket. So I’ve gotta work on that one.  In the meantime, here’s my recipe for baked falafel.