What made my falafels dissolve in fact disappear in the fryer?

[Redpriestandmozart]

I've made them loads of time using dried, soaked chickpeas but was in a hurry today I made them using canned chickpeas. Bloody gorgeous they were too, full of spices, chili, garlic, fresh mint & corriander but I didn't add flour as mix was a good consistency.

I dropped 8 into deep fryer, bloody thing bubbled up and the falafels had disappeared just dissolved in front of my eyes! Bubbled and bubbled and wham gone just like that!

So what went wrong? I dried shallow frying, same thing happened. In the end I did them on the flat side of George Foreman grill. They were fantastic flavour but soft and fell apart, eat them anyway :( so sad as I was looking forward to them all day :(

i suspect that the chickpeas need to be raw. Normally for falafel you use chickpea flour.
Chickpea flour has a sticky propensity. The cooked ones probably don't.
Why don't you keep some chickpea flour (called 'besan' in Indian groceries) on hand, to use for binding savoury things? It is a good thickener too. It can be used for so many foods.

Thanks for that, so it was the flour I forgot, I have gram flour and usually add some but the consistency looked so good I didn't.. big mistake I won't make again!!!

Can't help as I've never made a successful falafel! But I think gram flour might be the way forward...

I love falafel but have never made it - are there any foolproof recipes out there that I can try?

I use canned chick peas, bit of flour garlic, red onion, lemon juice, tons of coriander salt. Press into shape, dust in flour then shallow fry.

I just use plain flour

I made these last week. Bloody fantastic and cheap. agirlcalledjack.com/2013/08/24/adventures-in-a-meat-free-cottage-perfect-falafels-ive-cracked-it/

I use tinned chickpeas and add fresh breadcrumbs (no flour) and an egg to ensure they stick together and then shallow fry. They're more crumbly without the egg, but work if you chill the mixture first.

Oh yes,I use cumin in mine too.