Is falafel vegan? What it is made of, and what changes the answer
Falafel is vegan in its classic form. It is ground raw pulses with onion, garlic, herbs and spices, shaped and deep fried, and there is nothing from an animal in the mix. What changes the answer is almost never the falafel itself. It is the yoghurt sauce, the dairy dressing or the cheese that arrives on the same plate.
What is falafel made of?
Falafel is made of ground raw pulses, herbs, onion, garlic and spices. In the Levant that means chickpeas. In Egypt and across the Arabian Peninsula it is more often fava beans, and some kitchens use a mix of both. The pulses are soaked and then ground raw rather than cooked first, which matters more than it sounds: cooked chickpeas will not hold together, so a recipe that starts from cooked ones has to add flour as a binder. Parsley, coriander leaf and spring onion go in for freshness, cumin and ground coriander seed for warmth. The mixture is shaped and deep fried, though it can be baked.
That is the whole recipe. No egg, no dairy, no meat, no fish, no stock. It is one of the older plant based street foods still eaten in more or less its original form.
At Nabäti it turns up in six shapes. Traditional Falafel is four falafel balls smashed with a hummus spread on warm pita, topped with tomato tahini salad, pickles and fresh mint leaves. Falafel Balls come plain in threes, sixes or twelves. Stuffed Falafel is the Jordanian one, a larger falafel filled with onion and sumac. There is also Hummus & Falafel, Falafel Rolls, and a Falafel Crunch bowl.
Is falafel vegan?
Yes, as a recipe. The mix is plant only and it is fried in vegetable oil. The reason people still have to ask is that falafel rarely arrives on its own, and the things served with it are where dairy hides: a garlic sauce made on a yoghurt base, a yoghurt tahini dressing, crumbled feta on a salad, halloumi in a sandwich. So the honest question is not whether falafel is vegan. It is whether the plate is.
The Nabäti kitchen is vegetarian and every dish can be made vegan, which still leaves you needing to know which is which before ordering. The menu answers that on the dish itself with two leaves. A filled leaf means the dish is vegan exactly as it leaves the kitchen. An outlined leaf means it contains dairy as standard, and a numbered note says what the kitchen replaces. That is what “vegan on request” means on our menu, written out in full.
Of the falafel dishes, Traditional Falafel, Falafel Balls, Stuffed Falafel, Hummus & Falafel and Falafel Rolls all carry the filled leaf. Falafel Crunch carries the outlined one, and the reason is the thing this whole page is about: its dressing is tahini yoghurt. Replacing that dressing with the non-dairy option removes the dairy, and that is the difference between a vegan plate and a vegetarian one. If you are looking more broadly, the same marks run across every one of our vegan options in Rotterdam.
Is falafel vegetarian?
Yes. There is no meat in falafel and there never has been. The confusion is about where it is sold rather than what is in it. In most European cities falafel comes out of the same shop, and often the same fryer, as shawarma and kebab, so people who ask this question are usually asking about the kitchen rather than the recipe.
If that is your question, ask about the kitchen. At Nabäti there is no meat and no fish in the building at all, so there is no shared fryer and no shared grill to worry about. The whole menu is vegetarian, which is a different starting point from a meat restaurant with a vegetarian section. That is the short version of what being a vegetarian restaurant in Rotterdam actually means here.
Is falafel halal?
Falafel contains no meat and no alcohol, so by composition there is nothing in it that would not be halal. As with the vegetarian question, what people are usually checking is the kitchen: whether the same oil has fried something else, whether there is wine or beer in a sauce, whether the bread was made with anything questionable.
Nabäti serves no meat, no fish and no alcoholic drinks, and uses no animal rennet, so the food is halal by composition, and what that means is set out on its own page. That is composition rather than certification. The restaurant does not hold a halal certificate and does not claim one, and if certification is what you need then that is a fair thing to know before you come.
Is falafel gluten free?
That depends on the recipe and on the kitchen, which is why no one can answer it for falafel in general. A traditional chickpea falafel contains no wheat, because soaked raw pulses bind on their own. A version made from cooked chickpeas usually needs flour to hold together. And falafel is normally served in or with pita, which is wheat, so the bread is often the issue rather than the balls.
Shared fryers matter too. The only reliable answer is the one the kitchen gives you about its own recipe on the day. Nabäti publishes allergen information per dish on the menu page, and our kitchen handles all of the allergens listed there. Equipment and utensils are shared between dishes, so we cannot guarantee that any dish is completely free of an allergen, even when an ingredient is left out on request. Please tell our staff about any allergy before you order, and they will check the specific dish with the kitchen.
Where does falafel come from, and is it Turkish or Greek?
Neither. Falafel is most likely Egyptian in origin and travelled north into the Levant, though the early history is genuinely uncertain and the written record only starts in nineteenth century Egypt. The Egyptian version, ta’amiya, is made with fava beans. Moving north into Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, chickpeas take over, and that is the version most of Europe now knows.
It is not a Turkish dish and it is not a Greek one, although you can buy it in both places, along with most of Europe. Nabäti cooks the Jordanian and wider Levantine version, chickpea based, from family cooking in Amman. Stuffed Falafel, filled with onion and sumac, is the clearest example of it on the menu, and the rest of that tradition sits on the Levantine and Jordanian food in Rotterdam page.
Is falafel healthy?
It is made of pulses, which bring protein and fibre, and it is deep fried, so the answer depends on the rest of the plate more than on the falafel. Eaten the way it is eaten at home in the Levant, as one part of a table with dips, salads and bread rather than as the whole meal, it sits in a fairly sensible spot. Eaten as twelve balls and nothing else, less so.
Where can you eat falafel in Rotterdam?
Nabäti Eatery is on Keizerstraat 168 in Rotterdam Centrum, about five minutes from Blaak. That is the short answer. The longer one, and the rest of the Jordanian table the falafel arrives with, is on our page about falafel in Rotterdam. The kitchen is vegetarian and Jordanian, and falafel is on the menu in six forms: in pita as Traditional Falafel, plain as Falafel Balls in threes, sixes or twelves, as Stuffed Falafel, alongside a bowl of hummus as Hummus & Falafel, as Falafel Rolls, and in the Falafel Crunch bowl. Sandwiches come as a full or a half, which is the easiest way to try more than one thing in a sitting, and it is also how most people put together a vegan lunch in Rotterdam here.
Opening hours are Monday to Thursday 12:00 to 20:00, Friday 12:00 to 19:00, Saturday 12:00 to 21:00 and Sunday 11:00 to 19:00.
Before you order
Look for the leaf on the dish if you eat vegan, and tell the counter if you have an allergy so the kitchen can check the dish rather than the menu. See the full menu, dish by dish, or come to Keizerstraat 168, Rotterdam Centrum and let someone talk you through it.
Frequently asked questions
Is falafel vegan?
Yes, in its classic form. Falafel is ground raw chickpeas or fava beans with onion, garlic, herbs and spices, fried in vegetable oil, with no animal ingredients. What makes a falafel meal not vegan is usually a yoghurt based sauce, a dairy dressing or cheese on the same plate.
Is falafel vegetarian?
Yes. There is no meat in falafel. People usually ask because it is often sold from the same counter and the same fryer as shawarma and kebab, so the real question is about the kitchen rather than the recipe.
Is falafel halal?
Falafel contains no meat and no alcohol, so by composition there is nothing in it that would not be halal. Whether a given falafel is halal depends on the kitchen around it, not on the recipe.
What is falafel made of?
Ground raw pulses, usually chickpeas in the Levant and fava beans in Egypt, with onion, garlic, parsley, coriander and spices such as cumin. The pulses are soaked and ground raw rather than cooked, so no binder is needed.
Is falafel gluten free?
It depends on the recipe and the kitchen. A traditional chickpea falafel contains no wheat, but versions made from cooked chickpeas often use flour as a binder, the pita it is served in is wheat, and fryers are frequently shared. Ask the kitchen about its own recipe.
Where can you eat falafel in Rotterdam?
Nabäti Eatery on Keizerstraat 168 in Rotterdam Centrum, about five minutes from Blaak, serves falafel in pita, plain by the piece, stuffed, with hummus, as rolls, and in a bowl.
