Falafel is a traditional deep fried middle eastern dish. We enjoy a wonderfully healthy version by adding a few extra things like turmeric and sweet potato and bake them in the oven instead. I like to add turmeric, because it complements the other flavours so well and gives a gorgeous yellow glow to the plate. Turmeric is an all round winner when it comes to health. It’s excellent at supporting the immune system whilst being great for skeletal, joint, skin and digestive system well-being too. Cumin and coriander are great warming spices that complement our health as well as adding delicate flavours that lend themselves perfectly to middle-eastern type cuisine. Not only are these falafels gluten free, vegan but they are filling, temptingly tasty and really nutritious.
Falafel serves well with hummus, salad and my Easy Tahini Sauce. Here’s the falafel recipe (this is a adapted variation of the original conscious kitchen ‘Baked Falafel’ recipe that first appeared in my book)…

Turmeric & Sweet Potato Falafel Bakes - vegan, gluten-free
Falafel is a traditional deep fried middle eastern dish. We enjoy a wonderfully healthy version by adding a few extra things like turmeric and sweet potato and bake them in the oven instead. I like to add turmeric, because it complements the other flavours so well and gives a gorgeous yellow glow to the plate.
Ingredients
- 240g chickpeas (or 1 tin drained)
- 300g sweet potatoes
- 2 large cloves garlic
- 1 handful fresh coriander leaves
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamon
- 1 heaped teaspoon ground turmeric (or 1 heaped tablespoon of freshly grated)
- 2 teaspoons heaped ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon heaped ground cumin
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 heaped teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons gram flour (chickpea flour)
- Extra gram flour for rolling with
I had what I think was a slightly earlier version of these, at Trin’s house. ( I think they had the sweet potato but not the turmeric?) Anyway, just wanted to endorse how fab they are, much creamier than a regular felafel thanks to the sweet potato. Very, very yummie.
Hey Lesley – what a joy it was to have you round for dinner.
Yes, this is my turmeric version, very similar to the ones we shared together. We didn’t think we could get much better than those sweet potato falafels – UNTIL I added turmeric! Yum!
Made these today and had for dinner with some kale. Absolutley divine! This will be a regular now in my kitchen 🙂 thanks for the recipe x
Delighted to hear that Amy!
Had a mini panic Friday when I planned to make these for my friend who was stopping over – she can’t eat chickpeas. However, I substituted with cannellini beans and some gluten free flour and they were still awesome and she was amazed. I think she may be buying your book as it was the seed loaf on the Saturday followed by naked ‘caramals’. We both reflected on how different it is to have a recipe author promoting so beautifully a conscious way of eating, cooking and baking and yet so much needed. Grateful as always xxx
That’s wonderful. I love the sound of your adaptation… wish I could have tried a sample 🙂
Thank you for the kind words and appreciation for the energy I am bringing forwards.
with love
xx
Do you think I could use flax flour instead of gram flour or even spelt? Thanks in advance xo
Good question Joann 🙂 The gram flour has particular properties, so if you try flax or spelt flour then it may have a slightly different effect. I imagine that they’d work pretty well. There should be enough ‘sticking-togetherness’ with all the other ingredients. Please do let me know if you try an alternative – you’ve got me curious now.
x
I ended up letting the mixture sit all day and I was at the health food store so I picked up gram flour…they’re just coming out of the oven now and look beautiful. I’ll be gifting some of them along with hummus (added turmeric to that as well..yummy) to dear friends and devouring the rest with other friends at a cottage by the lake this week-end. Very blessed! LOVE your recipes! xo
Oh yum! Your friends are blessed to have such a generous friend. I love sharing and will be making cookies and bakewell tart for friends today 🙂
Did yesterday, eaten with avocado and lettuce. They were delicious and crunchy. Very good even!
Hello, i just made this delicious turmeric bakes, And they are soo good. I used Rice flour but worked. So thank you so much!
That’s wonderful to hear Sara. You are very welcome 😉
WOW, so glad I stumbled upon your blog today. I just made these and they are delicious. I cooked them for 30 minutes in 400 F and they came out perfect: crunchy outside and soft in the middle. Thanks for sharing!!
Delighted that you found my blog too.
Thanks for your kind words.
Just stumbled upon your blog through Pinterest! So far I am seeing so many delicious recipes. I am going vegetarian for a little while, so I can’t wait to try these out!
Wonderful. I hope you find lots more inspiration here for your vegetarian explorations.
I am so in love with hummus and just adore the addition of turmeric and sweet potato here! YUM.
Thank you for the kind words… delighted to hear it Aimee.
I want to try there, but am trying to avoid oil could I leave it out, or could you suggest an alternative, please?
I often leave the oil out on this one actually – works fine without.
Hi there! I just found your blog and love it. I have a question and hope you see it (I noticed this is an older post). Should I soak the garbanzo beans first? Thank you :).
Hi Paige,
Welcome to my website – glad you found it. This is quite a popular recipe here, so still current, even though I posted it ages ago 🙂
The weight if for cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans). Alternatively it would be about one normal sized tin of chickpeas. You can also cook a batch of chickpeas up, take out what you need and then freeze the rest for later use.
250g of chickpeas is about 1 1/2 cups (I try to include both measurements these days).
I hope that helps.
Trinity
Hi Trinity,
I love this Tumeric & Sweet Potato Falafel bake. And I would also really love to feature it in our website Greenthickies.com. With your permission of course. Would it be all right if I used one of these images? I will not post the actual recipe and its contents, but just an image and title and the link back to your post.
Thanks a lot 🙂
Yes please do. Using the image and linking back to this page is totally fine and very welcomed.
Thank you 🙂
Thanks Trinity! 😀
Hi Trinity, I made ess – so easy and delicious. Thank you!