A fried chickpea or fava bean fritter is crisp outside, dense inside and a little dry, which is why the sides matter more than people expect. What goes with falafel mostly comes down to what the fritter doesn’t have: cream, acid, crunch and starch.
The usual fixes are tahini sauce or hummus for the creamy part, pickled turnips for acid, and a chopped salad like tabbouleh, fattoush or Israeli salad for crunch. Pita or rice handles the starch.
Stands from Cairo to Tel Aviv follow that same logic, whatever they stuff into the bread.
It also doesn’t box you in. Falafel is plant-based, so Jewish dietary law classes it as pareve, which means it can sit next to meat or dairy dishes, according to Wikipedia.
How is falafel usually served?
Falafel gets stuffed into a pita, rolled in a wrap, plated with hummus and tahini sauce, piled into a bowl, or set out as one item among many on a mezze table.
The pita sandwich is what you’ll get at most street stands. The other formats rearrange the same idea, which is putting something cool and sharp next to a fried, earthy fritter.
Pita sandwich and wrap
One pita can hold the falafel, a chopped salad, pickles and sauce, and you eat it with one hand. The recipe in The Foods of Israel Today (Knopf), excerpted by Kveller, stuffs half a pita with falafel balls, tomato, onion, green pepper and pickled turnips.
Stands in Israel offer a longer list of add-ons. The Embassy of Israel in Chicago names Israeli salad, hummus, French fries, roasted eggplant slices and dill pickles as the ones most widely available, and The Jerusalem Post says some customers add sauerkraut too.
The pita sandwich itself traces back to Yemenite Jewish immigrants, at least according to the Embassy of Israel in Chicago, which calls it their invention. Wikipedia, citing Gil Marks, says they popularized it in the 1950s, and it points to a Palestine Post article dated 19 October 1939 as the first mention of falafel in pita as street food.
Anyone who has eaten at a street stand knows tahini finds its way out of the pita. Knowing the right way to eat falafel from a pocket will save your shirt.
A wrap swaps the pocket for flat bread and rolls everything tight. A Lebanese restaurant in Watford lists its falafel wrap on Just Eat with pickle, turnips, jalapenos, peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, parsley, hummus, tahini and chili sauce, all in toasted Lebanese flatbread.
Plate and bowl
In Israeli restaurants the standard order is a plate of falafel with hummus and tahini sauce (Embassy of Israel, Chicago). A bowl puts the falafel over rice, quinoa or couscous with chopped salad and a lemon tahini dressing.
The plate hangs on the hummus. The bowl hangs on the starch, and it needs a dressing to tie the pieces together.
Mezze spread
Mezze is where falafel stops being the main event.
Wikipedia notes that the croquettes are regularly eaten as part of meze, and a platter lets everyone pick their own pairings. Hummus and baba ganoush turn up on most of them, along with grilled or roasted vegetables like eggplant, carrots, potatoes and zucchini, a salad such as tabbouleh, and pita for scooping.
Of everything there, the roasted vegetables are the one people skip. They bring a soft, sweet texture that salads and dips can’t.
Which sauces and dips go with falafel?
Tahini sauce is the default and hummus comes close behind. Then add one sharp or spicy sauce.
A good working rule is one creamy sauce and one sharp one. The creamy one softens the dense interior, while the sharp one cuts through the fried crust.
| Sauce | Base | Role against fried falafel | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tahini sauce | Sesame paste, lemon, garlic, water | Nutty, creamy drizzle | None |
| Tzatziki or labneh | Yogurt (cucumber in tzatziki, strained in labneh) | Cool, tangy | None |
| Toum | Garlic, lemon, neutral oil | Sharp, fluffy, egg-free | None, but pungent |
| Zhug | Chili, herbs, garlic | Hot, herbal | High |
| Amba | Pickled mango | Tangy, sour | Varies |
Hummus and baba ganoush aren’t in the table because they work as both dips and spreads. Hummus goes under the falafel or inside the pita. Baba ganoush brings roasted eggplant, either dolloped on the side or spread on warm bread.
Zooba, an Egyptian street food restaurant, takes a different route and serves ta’ameya with beetroot hibiscus tahini and bessara, a fava bean dip with herbs and crispy onions (TODAY).
A few of these sauces go wrong in familiar ways. Tahini sauce tightens as it sits, so loosen it with cold water right before serving. Toum breaks when the oil goes in too fast, and Silk Road Recipes says to add it almost drop by drop at first. Hot sauce buries the herbs in the falafel, so serve it on the side and let people set their own heat.
Which sauce suits the plate depends on what the plate is missing. If you want more options than the ones above, there’s a wider ranking of which sauce goes best with falafel.
Salads, pickles and fresh toppings for falafel
Fried falafel has no acid and not much crunch, and the usual salads and pickles fill that gap. The salads are tabbouleh and fattoush, plus Israeli salad, and the standard pickle is the pink pickled turnip.
Salads
Tabbouleh is finely chopped parsley and mint with bulgur, tomato, onion, lemon and olive oil. Fattoush piles lettuce, tomato, cucumber, radish, mint and parsley together with toasted pita pieces and a sumac dressing. Israeli salad is just diced cucumber and tomato with herbs, lemon and olive oil.
Joyce Goldstein’s recipe, demonstrated at Foodwise’s 2014 Market to Table program, treats fattoush as a Lebanese variation of tabbouleh that swaps bulgur for toasted pita. Dress it right before serving or the bread goes soggy.
For sandwiches I’d go with Israeli salad every time. Fattoush belongs on the side, where the pita keeps its crunch.
Pickles and condiments
Pickled turnips do the most work per bite.
They’re vinegar-based, crunchy and slightly peppery, and a slice of beet in the brine turns them pink. Silk Road Recipes adds that the beet leaves a subtle sweetness behind.
Other pickles and condiments are fair game too.
- Pickled red cabbage
- Pickled red onions
- Olives
- Pickled peppers
- Sliced jalapenos
Moisture is the enemy of crunch, and several sources land on the same advice. Feel Good Foodie says to keep dry falafel apart from wet items like tomatoes and pickles. Weekday Pescatarian puts pickles in a small bowl so the vinegar stays away from the other toppings. Goldstein’s last-minute fattoush dressing is the same idea.
Which breads and grains make falafel a full meal?
Sandwiches want pita. Plates and bowls do better with a grain such as rice, couscous or quinoa.
According to ThermoWorks, a pita pocket forms because the dough bakes at 450 to 500 degrees F (232 to 260 degrees C), so the water inside turns to steam and pushes the layers apart. The pocket collapses as the bread cools, which is why you stuff it while it’s still warm.
Pocketless flatbread rolls better than it opens. Greek Flavours notes that Greek pita is a soft, pocketless flatbread used to wrap souvlaki and gyros, which makes it the better choice for a falafel wrap.
In Egypt, ta’ameya comes in aish baladi, the local flatbread, served warm (TODAY).
Grains turn the same falafel into a bowl. Plain, lemon or yellow Middle Eastern rice makes the most filling base. Couscous is earthy and nutty with a slight sweetness, according to Birch Restaurant, and it takes harissa well (Cauldron Foods). Quinoa adds a slight crunch that echoes the fried crust (Corrie Cooks). Bulgur usually arrives through tabbouleh rather than as a base.
Heartier sides do the same job. Batata harra, Lebanese spicy potatoes, add a kick and keep the meal filling (Birch Restaurant), while mujaddara, the lentil and rice dish usually topped with fried onions, adds protein.
Fries inside the pita are a real street stand habit. Evergreen Kitchen mentions it, and the Embassy of Israel in Chicago lists French fries among Israeli stand add-ons. Lonely Planet describes the same thing in Egypt, where ta’amiyya sandwiches come with chips.
That works for a quick lunch. At dinner, a grain bowl gives the same fullness with less grease.
What accompanies falafel in Egypt, Lebanon and Israel?
Egypt keeps it plain, with ta’ameya served alongside bread, tahini, tomato and onion. In Lebanon falafel sits inside a mezze spread with tarator tahini sauce and pickles. Israel is the pita country, where chickpea falafel goes in with Israeli salad, pickles, hummus and amba.
| Region | Bean base | Typical accompaniments |
|---|---|---|
| Egypt | Fava beans (ta’ameya) | Tomato, onion, tahini, baladi bread |
| Lebanon | Chickpeas, or chickpeas and fava beans combined | Tarator tahini sauce, parsley, radish, mint, pickles, toum |
| Israel | Chickpeas | Israeli salad, dill pickles, hummus, amba |
TODAY describes ta’ameya as an Egyptian breakfast food, and Lonely Planet places it in the same street eateries that serve fuul medames, stewed fava beans spiced with cumin.
Fava beans give ta’ameya a creamier texture and a more distinct flavor than chickpeas (TODAY), which fits the plain Egyptian fixings of tomato, onion and tahini.
Lebanon treats falafel as one dish among many. Comptoir Libanais in London lists a mezze platter with hommos, baba ghanuj, tabbouleh, falafel, natural labne, cheese samboussek, flatbread and pickles.
Heat and tang come from the sauces at Israeli stands. Taim, a New York falafel shop, offers amba (a pickled mango fenugreek chutney) and s’rug (a Yemeni cilantro, garlic and chili sauce, spelled zhug on other menus) as add-ons.
Even the pickles vary inside Israel. The Embassy of Israel in Chicago lists dill pickles among stand staples, while the Knopf recipe excerpted by Kveller uses pickled turnips.
Fava beans disappeared from Israeli falafel for a medical reason. Favism, an inherited enzyme deficiency occurring among some Jews, mainly those of Kurdish and Iraqi ancestry, proved potentially lethal. All Israeli falafel makers eventually stopped using fava beans, and chickpea falafel became the Israeli standard, according to The Foods of Israel Today (Knopf).
Falafel pairings for vegan, gluten-free and high-protein meals
Most of the usual sides are vegan already, since hummus, tahini sauce, salads and pickles contain no animal products. Going gluten-free means swapping out the pita and bulgur, and a high-protein plate just needs more legumes or grains next to the falafel.
For a vegan plate, watch for yogurt sauces and cheese. Tzatziki, labneh and raita are all dairy, and feta sometimes lands in fattoush even though it isn’t authentic (Joyce Goldstein, Foodwise 2014).
Tahini sauce is the simplest replacement. For something cooling, Sharon Palmer’s vegan tzatziki uses plain unsweetened soy, almond or coconut yogurt with cucumber, garlic, herbs and lemon.
Traditional falafel is gluten-free, but the recipe decides. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ own chickpea patty recipe binds 1 pound of canned chickpeas with 1/2 to 1 cup of breadcrumbs or fine bulgur.
Wheat is the other catch in the sides, since pita and bulgur tabbouleh both contain it. Shared fryers are a risk for celiac disease, according to Plant Based Folk, so ask how the falafel is cooked. Rice, quinoa or greens work as the base, and quinoa tabbouleh can stand in for the bulgur version (Feel Good Foodie).
Falafel is already a legume food, so the easy move is stacking more legumes and grains next to it. USDA FoodData Central lists home-prepared falafel at 13.3 g of protein per 100 g, while its survey entry for falafel shows 8.3 g, so how much protein falafel actually carries depends on the recipe.
Hummus, quinoa and lentil dishes such as mujaddara add protein without changing how the plate works.
One warning about fava beans. People with G6PD deficiency can have an acute hemolytic episode after eating them, as a published case report on PubMed Central describes. Wikipedia notes that falafel can be made from fava beans, chickpeas or both, and a Rite Aid health guide advises checking falafel labels for fava beans.
What to drink with falafel
Ayran and mint tea are the regional picks, and a lemon cooler works too. All of them reset the palate after something fried.
Ayran is yogurt whisked with chilled water and salt, sometimes with mint (Wikipedia), and Tarla Dalal lists it as an accompaniment to Lebanese dishes including falafel.
An Egyptian contributor to a British Council Learn English thread says tea comes beside the breakfast ful and falafel, with or without mint.
The lemon cooler is a Lebanese drink of lemon with rose water and mint (Tarla Dalal), tart enough to cut through the crust.
Ayran is yogurt-based, so a vegan plate needs a different drink.
How to build a balanced falafel plate
Order matters here, because each choice narrows the next one.
Build steps
- Start with the format: a sandwich for one-handed eating, a plate for sharing, a bowl for a full dinner.
- Pick one starch to match. Pocket pita goes with a sandwich, a grain with a bowl, bread with a plate.
- Add two sauces from different bases, one creamy and one sharp or hot. The sauce table above has the options.
- Add one fresh salad and one pickle, such as Israeli salad inside a pita or tabbouleh on the side.
- Choose a drink, ayran or mint tea.
- Assemble. Spread hummus or sauce on the bread first, then follow the layer order below.
Sources disagree about where the falafel goes in the sandwich. J Weekly says to put the cool ingredients in the pita first, since hot ones make the bread open up and the sandwich leak. A Couple Cooks spreads hummus or sauce on the bread, then adds the falafel, chopped vegetables and herbs.
Either way the cool spread goes on the bread first. Only the falafel position changes.
Combinations that clash
Hummus, baba ganoush and tahini sauce all run on tahini, lemon and garlic, so serving them together just repeats one flavor. Swap one for tzatziki, amba or s’rug.
Acid stacks up too. Pickled turnips, a sumac fattoush and a lemon-heavy tahini sauce all deliver sourness, so let one of them lead.
Seasoning is the last thing to watch. Falafel already carries cumin, coriander and herbs, and Feel Good Foodie advises keeping side seasoning light and fresh.
If two items on the plate share a base, change one.
Falafel Pairings FAQ
Can falafel be eaten on its own?
It can. Plant Based Folk says a well-made homemade falafel is neither oily nor dry, so it holds up without sides.
Evergreen Kitchen still recommends at least one dip, since the interior is dense.
Is falafel a main dish or an appetizer?
Both. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ recipe serves it with toothpicks as an hors d’oeuvre or as a sandwich filling.
As a main, it needs a starch and a salad around it.
Does falafel go with cheese like halloumi or feta?
Cheese works fine. Corrie Cooks adds falafel to a grilled halloumi salad for a heartier meal, and feta is a common add-on in falafel wraps.
Both cheeses are salty, so go easy on the pickles.
Can you serve falafel with meat dishes such as wings or shawarma?
Yes, and restaurants do it. Mosaic Lebanese Cuisine in London lists a mixed mezze platter of falafel, halloumi meshwi, chicken wings and kibbeh shameyh with tahini.
Treat falafel as one item on the table, not the centerpiece.
Do baked or air fryer falafel need different sides?
No. Evergreen Kitchen serves its oven-baked falafel with pickled red cabbage, tzatziki and cucumber in pita, the same pairings used for fried falafel.
Baked patties carry less oil, so lean on a creamy sauce to keep each bite moist.
How Far Ahead Can You Prepare Falafel Pairings?
Two days ahead is safe for most of it. Hummus and salads keep 2 to 3 days in the fridge (The Mediterranean Dish), and tahini sauce keeps 3 to 4 days (SBS).
The item with the shortest shelf life sets the schedule. Make the longest-keeping things first so the perishable ones are freshest on the day.
Tahini sauce and grains can go two days out. Hummus and salads wait until the day before. Falafel, the fattoush dressing and assembly all happen on serving day.
Falafel made ahead needs reheating in an oven at 350 degrees F for 8 to 12 minutes to restore the crust (Life Made Sweeter).
A Couple Cooks says falafel sandwiches taste best fresh, so make-ahead falafel trades some texture for time.
