Air Fryer Falafel

Falafel is one of the great democratic foods of the Levant — fried chickpea fritters sold from carts and hole-in-the-wall counters in Beirut, Damascus, Amman, and (with fava beans instead) Cairo, where some food historians place its origin. It's mezze, it's street food, it's a sandwich stuffed into pita with tahini and pickled turnips the color of a sunset. Cheap, filling, vegan by accident long before that was a marketing term. A culture's everyday cooking usually tells you more than its restaurant cooking, and falafel is the everyday at its best.

Here's the honest tradeoff with the air fryer: a deep fryer gives falafel that all-over blistered, lacy crust because the whole ball is submerged at once. Air-frying browns the surfaces the air touches, so you flip, and you accept a slightly more even, less explosive shatter. What you gain is real — a fraction of the oil, no pot of fat to manage, and an interior that stays moist and green. The one rule you can't bend: dried chickpeas soaked overnight, never canned. Canned chickpeas are already cooked and full of water; they collapse. Raw soaked ones bind themselves.

Use a basket with room to spread the patties out so they crisp instead of steam.