Looking for a Meatless Monday meal for two that’s ready in 15 minutes? Falafel pitas are your answer! My husband and I have been making these for years, ever since our afternoon lunch dates before we were married led us to a delicious little falafel stall at a local farmer’s market. We loved them so much, we wanted to be able to recreate them at home.
Lucky for us, Trader Joe’s makes preparing these easy falafel pitas at home such a breeze! If you don’t have a local Trader Joe’s, you should still be able to collect most of these ingredients and still make these yourselves, but you might need to make a boxed falafel mix if you can’t find them frozen.
Though this “recipe” is vegetarian, you can read through to the end to see my tips for making these vegan very easily.
Ingredients
- Falafel balls (frozen or homemade – Trader Joe’s also has a boxed mix)
- Flatbread or pita bread (I prefer the taste/texture of flatbread)
- Hummus
- Harissa
- Greek Yogurt
- 1 to 2 Persian cucumbers
- 1/4 of a small red onion
- 1 whole pickle
- 1 small tomato
- Feta cheese
Optional for Yogurt Sauce
- Sriracha
- Red wine vinegar
- Salt & pepper
- Cayenne pepper
- Garlic powder
Instructions
Here’s a quick rundown of the instructions on how to put these together, with detailed notes below.
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake falafel for 10 to 15 minutes, or until heated through (flip halfway to ensure even baking). Turn on the broiler at the end if you want yours extra crispy.
- Slice toppings for veggies (thin slices for onion, tomato, pickles, and cucumbers work best as they are easy to bite through in the pita.
- Toss the flatbread on top of the falafel baking in the oven for a couple minutes until warm (nobody likes a cold flatbread!)
- Build the pitas by slathering hummus directly onto the bread, add the falafel balls (I use 2.5 per pita – my husband uses 3 and less veggies)
- Add the Greek yogurt, desired amount of veggies, harissa paste, and top with feta cheese.
Optional Sriracha Sauce
For a kick on the Greek yogurt, add 1 to 2 tbsp of Sriracha (depending on how spicy you want it to be) to about 1 cup of Greek yogurt. Add a dash of red wine vinegar, and salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic powder to taste (one of these days, we’ll develop a recipe for this but it turns out different every time!).
*Sour cream works well too – or you can try my easy sour cream tzatziki instead!
Detailed Instructions
Bake the Falafel
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees for the falafel and arrange them on a baking sheet (the Trader Joe’s frozen package says 325 but I find they aren’t heated through enough at that temp, nor do they get crispy enough – this of course, will vary on your oven so just check them often). Greasing the baking sheet is not necessary.
One of these days, I want to try and air fry these in our new air fryer we got for Christmas, since baking them can tend to dry them out a bit!
Toss the flatbread on top of the falafels baking in the oven just before serving to warm them up a bit.
Chop the Veggies
While the falafel is baking, chop those veggies!
Everyone has different preferences here, but we found that our favorite toppings are red onion, cucumbers, tomato (although none of this red deliciousness for my husband), and pickles. Pickles!!! The falafel stand we would stop at for lunch on our dates topped their pitas with pickles and it was perfect for salt and crunch.
Slice everything up nice and thin as these pitas can get messy, and the smaller the veg, the easier it is to eat.
Add all the toppings!
I’m a huge fan of the roasted garlic hummus at Trader Joe’s right now (I also like the spicy hummus for the pitas on occasion, but we do add a lot of other spicy elements as well so it’s not necessary on the hummus). We find it’s best to slather the hummus directly onto the flatbread.
Add your desired veggies, Greek yogurt, harissa paste (this stuff is AMAZING – and it is spicy so make sure you taste test first), and finally, at little feta cheese.
Eat up!
You can pretty much call these falafel tacos the way we build them and they are such an easy weeknight meal! Serve them with Trader Joe’s canned dolmas – they are the best!
Make it vegan?
Of course! Falafel is vegan-friendly. Some suggestions to make these vegan (because I have done this before):
- Use tahini instead of Greek yogurt for more sauce (Trader Joe’s used to sell some in the refrigerated section but they do not anymore)
- Omit the feta cheese (or find a vegan crumbly cheese alternative)
- The Mediterranean flatbreads at Trader Joe’s have honey in them, so look for regular pita bread instead (usually vegan) and check the ingredients on the packaging.
New Ideas
I’m always thinking of ways to change this dish up and am thinking of getting some fresh sauerkraut to add for a little crunch, salt, and extra flavor boost.
Let me know in the comments below if you try out this easy meal idea!
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