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Crispy Chickpea Waffles With Herby Israeli Salad & Harissa Tahini Sauce

by:
September 17, 2018
2 Ratings
Crispy Chickpea Waffles With Herby Israeli Salad & Harissa Tahini Sauce
Photo by Jenny Huang
Author Notes

A chickpea-forward, falafel-inspired batter—plus a few eggs, so you get crispy edges, not batter cemented to your waffle iron. I left out the spices and herbs in the waffles and channeled that energy within the toppings: an ultra-herbaceous cucumber-tomato salad and spicy, creamy tahini sauce. —Emma Laperruque

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Crispy Chickpea Waffles With Herby Israeli Salad & Harissa Tahini Sauce
  • Prep time 9 hours
  • Cook time 20 minutes
  • Makes 4 waffles and fixings
Ingredients
  • Herby Israeli salad and harissa tahini sauce
  • 1/4 cup tahini
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons harissa
  • 1 pinch kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 5 tablespoons cold water
  • 1 seedless English cucumber, diced
  • 3 small (or 2 medium) tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 cup parsley leaves, finely chopped
  • 1/3 cup mint leaves, finely chopped
  • 1/3 cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Chickpea waffles
  • 1/2 small yellow onion, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 large garlic clove, smashed and peeled
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 pound dried chickpeas, soaked in water overnight, then drained
  • 3 large eggs
  • 4 tablespoons vegetable or coconut oil
In This Recipe
Directions
  1. Herby Israeli salad and harissa tahini sauce
  2. Make the tahini sauce. Combine the tahini, harissa, and salt in a small bowl. Stir with a fork until smooth. Add the water and stir again until totally smooth. Season with salt to taste.
  3. Make the Israeli salad. Combine the cucumber, tomato, and herbs in a big bowl. Gently toss. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, and a pinch of salt. Gently toss again and taste. Adjust the salt as needed.
  1. Chickpea waffles
  2. Heat the waffle iron. Heat the oven to 200° F and stick a sheet pan inside.
  3. Combine the onion and garlic in a food processor. Pulse until finely minced. Scrape down with a rubber spatula. Add the baking powder, salt, and cumin. Pulse again to incorporate. Add the chickpeas. Pulse until very finely chopped, scraping down a couple times as needed. Add the eggs and pulse again to combine. The mixture should be cohesive and the chickpeas, finely minced.
  4. Grease the waffle iron with oil (or cooking spray). Add 1/4 of the chickpea mixture to the hot iron. Cook according to the manufacturer’s instructions, or until browned and crispy. Repeat with the remaining batter, re-greasing as needed, and keeping the finished waffles in the oven to stay warm.
  5. Serve the waffles right away with Israeli salad and tahini sauce.
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  • Lauren Kestenbaum
    Lauren Kestenbaum
  • FrugalCat
    FrugalCat
  • Emma Laperruque
    Emma Laperruque
  • Andrea B
    Andrea B
Emma Laperruque
Emma is the food editor at Food52. Before this, she worked a lot of odd jobs, all at the same time. Think: stir-frying noodles on the fly, baking dozens of pastries at 3 a.m., and writing about the history of pie in North Carolina. Now she lives in New Jersey with her husband and their cat, Butter. Stay tuned every Tuesday for Emma's award-winning column, Big Little Recipes (also the cookbook in October 2021!). And see what she's up to on Instagram at @emmalaperruque.

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10 Reviews

Lauren K.
Lauren K. September 26, 2020
This was fantastic! I added a lot of lemon and lemon zest to everything to make it pop. The harissa tahini sauce needed the acid for balance. I also added tahini yogurt marinated chicken thighs to make it Mediterranean chicken and waffles. It was delicious!
 
Z
Z October 8, 2018
There is no Israeli salad or any other type of food in there name for the love of God quit stealing original middle eastern food and putting them in their name
 
FrugalCat
FrugalCat October 3, 2018
I don't have a waffle iron so I went with chickpea pancakes!
 
greenglass
greenglass October 2, 2018
I would suggest 'Middle Eastern Salad' as a more appropriate name--I ate this salad throughout the Middle East, in Israel but also in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinian West Bank. There is quite a history of traditional Middle Eastern foods being re-branded as "Israeli".
 
Hollis M.
Hollis M. October 2, 2018
Could these waffles be made egg-free?
 
Author Comment
Emma L.
Emma L. October 2, 2018
They can't, unfortunately. I tried that first and the waffles mercilessly stuck the iron :(
 
Hollis M.
Hollis M. October 3, 2018
Shoot! As someone with a wheat and egg and corn and potato allergy I was thinking this might be finally a waffle option for me!
 
Amy
Amy October 8, 2018
Emma, waffle irons shouldn't need to be greased and re-greased--the secret to non-stick waffles is having sufficient fat *inside* the batter. Take the 4 Tbsp oil in the recipe, put it into the batter, and that should do the trick. At that point, the eggs can probably be omitted (though the texture would be different).
 
Nancy
Nancy September 20, 2018
Emma...have you made this batter as pancakes? If yes, results? If no, an opinion of how well it would work for those of us who don't have waffle irons?
Last, another idea...to use some chick-pea flour (gram) in these.
 
Andrea B.
Andrea B. October 1, 2018
I was wondering the same thing Nancy. Chickpea flour would be easy and I think delicious. Also, it looks like a Belgian waffle maker was used. In addition to pancakes, I wonder if a regular waffle iron would work? May not be as crispy I suspect.