So if you’ve asked yourself, “can falafel be frozen?”
The answer is yes, you can easily freeze your falafel instead of dooming it to the bin.
But how should you store your falafel in the freezer and how should you prepare it later?
Read below and find out how best to freeze and thaw pre-cooked falafel, cooked falafel, and frozen falafel from falafel mixes.
Can You Freeze Homemade Uncooked Falafel?
If you’re a proud cook and take pride in serving your food fresh, however, you have likely taken extra special care to prepare your falafel dough balls in advance to fry as you go along.
In this case, you’ve earned yourself the optimal method of falafel freezing.
Freezing uncooked falafel is the best way to preserve it so that it not only tastes but also feels great later.
Preserving falafel dough instead of cooked falafel gives you the advantage of retaining its ability to get crisp when it’s thawed out and goes into your fryer.
This isn’t only good for excess falafel dough. It also means is that you can prepare a batch to your own taste at any time and freeze it for a rainy day.
So what leftovers was this about again? You’ve only planned ahead for the next dinner party. Albeit accidentally.
Can You Freeze a Falafel Mix?
Yes, and there’s no difference in freezing falafel dough made from scratch and falafel dough made from a mix.
But maybe you have a falafel mix prepared that you haven’t formed into patties yet.
Although it wouldn’t be the end of the world to freeze the falafel mass as is, if you have a few minutes to spare, balling it first would be the best way to go.
This is especially helpful if you’re looking to save freezer space, since you can simply take out just the amount you need for each meal and make room for other foods instead.
Remember, it’s best to avoid thawing and refreezing your foods.
So make sure that if you do have to place your entire mix into the freezer as one large amount. You’ll be ready to consume all of it when you next take it out.
Can you Freeze Cooked Falafel?
Given, falafel is one of the easier Middle Eastern meals you can prepare, but no good foodie is happy to watch their food go anywhere except into a hungry mouth.
So even if you’ve been in a hurry and only sought out a fast, hot meal, all you would need to do is make sure that you have allowed your falafel to cool down to room temperature before placing it in the freezer.
Always try to freeze your falafel balls individually on a tray with some baking paper before putting it away.
Falafel balls are fragile and you want to avoid having them stick together when they’re freezing, otherwise, they tend to crumble apart later.
Freezing cooked falafel has the benefit of not needing any further cooking.
All you would need to do is reheat, so it’s easy to pop your falafel balls into the microwave for a quick meal when you need it.