These smash falafel tacos are the quickest (and easiest) way to enjoy fresh, homemade falafel. Using canned chickpeas makes these SO easy for any day of the week – blitz your mixture, spread onto tacos, and pan-fry for a couple of minutes. Top with crunchy salad and garlicky tahini sauce for a wonderful, speedy meal the whole family will enjoy.
Smash Falafel Tacos, at a Glance
- ⏰ Time: 25 minutes
- 🍽️ Serves: 4
- 🛒 Key Ingredients: Canned chickpeas, onion, garlic, tortillas
- 🧠 Skill Level: Beginner-friendly
- 👩🍳 Cooking Method: Pan-frying
- 💃 Perfect For: Busy weeknights, easy entertaining, a better-than-takeout night in.
Why These Smash Falafel Tacos Work
The smash taco technique continues to deliver the goods. I LOVE a crispy, herb-packed falafel, but there’s no denying that they’re fiddly and time-consuming. Traditionally, you need to soak your chickpeas overnight before making falafel, then shape them into balls and cook them (often deep-fried). This technique cuts those fiddly factors right out.
Using canned chickpeas means you can quickly and easily blitz your falafel mixture without any pre-planning. And spreading the mixture onto mini tortillas before quickly pan-frying is SO simple. Plus, you still get that lovely crispiness that makes falafel so moreish, AND you get falafel in every mouthful.
These are wonderful for any day of the week, and work so well for entertaining. Set up a taco station with all the toppings laid out for your guests to help themselves!
HOW TO MAKE IT EVEN EASIER: Use a good store-bought falafel mixture instead of making your own.
Love smash tacos? Try these smash dumpling tacos, smash chicken Caesar tacos, smash satay chicken tacos or smash banh mi tacos next.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Canned chickpeas. Any canned (or jarred) chickpeas will do – just make sure you drain them well before using them.
- Spices. You’ll need ground cumin, ground coriander, and ground cinnamon as your base spices. I like to add a little sprinkling of red pepper flakes, or chili flakes too, but you can leave that out if you like.
- Herbs. Flat-leaf parsley is non-negotiable, but you can play around with the cilantro (coriander) if you like – I know it’s a divisive herb. Swap it for fresh mint, chives, or more flat-leaf parsley.
- Flour. This helps the falafel mixture bind together. The amount you use can vary – start with 1 tablespoon and see how you go. You want the mixture to be wet enough to form a ball in your hands, without being too wet and sticky.
- The toppings. You can play around here, but I love to serve the tacos with a quick lemony tomato, cucumber, and feta salad, as well as pickled red cabbage for a bit of acidity. Garlic tahini sauce pairs wonderfully with the falafel, but you could use mayo or garlic aioli if you prefer. Or go for tahini yogurt sauce or green tahini sauce.
How to Make the Smash Falafel Tacos
This is a step-by-step photo overview of how to make the tacos – the full recipe with ingredient quantities and instructions is at the bottom of the page for you.
- Add everything except the chickpeas and flour to the bowl of a food processor.
- Blitz into a thick paste.
- Add the chickpeas and remaining ingredients.
- Blitz again until you have a chunky mixture. You don’t want it smooth and too much like a paste – this isn’t hummus! You should be able to form a ball with the mixture in your hands.
- Spread a heaped spoonful of the falafel mixture onto your mini tortillas, using the back of your spoon to press it into a (roughly) even, thin layer.
- Pan fry, falafel side down, until golden, then flip and cook on the other side.
- Top with tahini sauce, your tomato cucumber salad and the pickled red cabbage, then scatter with red pepper flakes and more tahini sauce to serve.
Watch How to Make the Tacos
Smash Falafel Tacos FAQs
Try blitzing the mixture for a little longer. If that doesn’t work, try adding a little (like 1 tablespoon) of tahini or even water.
There are three things that will help here.
– Make sure your falafel mixture isn’t TOO dry – it needs to have a bit of moisture so it sticks to itself on the taco.
– You also want to make sure the pan is nice and hot when you add your taco.
– And, make sure you press down FIRMLY on the back of the taco when you add it to the pan.
Like this recipe? Here are more taco ideas to try
If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you! You can leave a recipe rating and a comment below. And remember to tag @DishedByKate on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok if you’ve made one of my recipes. Seeing your recreations really makes my day 😊.
Smash Falafel Tacos (With Canned Chickpeas)
Ingredients
Method
- Make the falafel mixture.Add the chopped onion, 4 garlic cloves, ½ cup chopped parsley, ½ cup chopped cilantro, 1 teaspoon each of ground cumin, ground coriander, ground cinnamon, red pepper flakes (if you're using them) and salt. Blitz into a rough, chunky paste.
- Finish the falafel mixture.Add the drained chickpeas, lemon juice and flour and pulse a couple of times to break up the chickpeas into the mixture. You don't want it to be super smooth – it's not hummus. Add the sesame seeds and blitz again.You should be able to form a ball in your hands that isn't too sticky (but isn't dry and crumbly) with the mixture. If it's a bit wet, add a little more flour. Set the falafel mix aside.
- Make the quick-pickled red cabbage.Shred your red cabbage, then add it to a bowl with 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Toss, then set aside. You'll notice the cabbage becomes a deep purple and changes in texture.
- Make your garlic tahini sauce.Add ½ cup of tahini, 2 crushed garlic cloves, ½ teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a small bowl, then drizzle in ⅓ cup of water, mixing with a fork as you do. It’ll feel like it won’t come together – it’ll seize up, then become smooth and creamy as you keep mixing. If it’s still thick, drizzle in more water and stir again. Set aside.
- Make your tomato cucumber salad.Slice your tomatoes into quarters, then dice your cucumber. Add them to a bowl with the crumbled feta, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Toss to mix, then set aside.
- Top your mini tortillas.Spread a heaped spoonful of the falafel mixture onto a mini tortilla, then use the back of your spoon to spread it out into a thin, even layer covering the whole tortilla. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and falafel mixture.
- Cook the tacos. Drizzle a little olive oil into an (ideally) non-stick pan and set it over medium-high heat. Place the tacos, falafel side down, into the pan and use a spatula or fish slice to FIRMLY press down on the tortilla (this will help the falafel stick to the tortilla). Cook for four minutes, then flip the tortilla and cook for another minute.
- Garnish and serve. Drizzle a little garlic tahini sauce onto your tacos, then top with the tomato cucumber salad. Finish with a little pickled red cabbage, then drizzle over more garlic tahini sauce. Enjoy with any leftover sauce or salad on the side.
Such a unique recipe that is worth the prep work. Will absolutely be making again, and I may be stealing some of the components for other dishes. Thank you for such a well thought out dish!
Hi. Thank you for this recipe. I’m planning on making this for a gathering on Friday, and I’m wondering if I make this ahead of time, do you think I can then reheat in the oven easily instead of making each one to order while people are here? What do you suggest?
Hi Heather! Wonderful to hear you’re planning on making them soon 😊 They’re definitely at their best freshly cooked, but I think that should work well.
I’d cook the tacos as written, then let them cool on a wire rack so the bottoms don’t steam and go too soft. When you’re ready to serve, pop them on a baking sheet and reheat at around 350F/180C for 8 or so minutes, covered loosely with foil so the falafel doesn’t dry out. You can remove the foil for the last couple of minutes if you’d like the tortillas to crisp up a little again!
I’d also keep any fresh toppings and sauces separate and add those just before serving, so everything stays lovely and fresh. Hope you love them! xx Kate