When you are really hungry, there is nothing more filling and satisfying than stopping at a falafel stand in downtown Jerusalem or Tel Aviv for a steaming pita pocket filled with delectable falafel balls, humus and tehina. Now you can enjoy Israeli Falafel at your home!

Falafel, is a fried ball or patty of spiced fava beans or chickpeas. It is a highly popular form of fast food in the Arab East. Fallafel is very common in Greater Syria and it is the most popular daily food in Syria. Fallafel is now also very common in Israel, being regarded there as a national food. The word "fallafel" comes from the Arabic word "filfil", meaning pepper.

Fallafel is traditionally served as a filling ingredient in a pita bread wrap (i.e. sandwich), and the term "falafel" commonly refers to this sandwich by synecdoche; fallafel in a pita is typical street food or fast food. Along with the fallafel balls, which may be crushed onto the bread or added whole, various toppings are usually included. Fallafel balls may also be eaten alone as a snack or served as part of a mezze. During Ramadan they are sometimes eaten as part of an iftar, the meal which breaks the daily fast after sunset.

Despite initial reluctance by both Arabs and Israelis, fallafel is now seen as a uniting, pan-Middle-Eastern dish. In recent years, immigration from the Middle East to Western countries has brought with it a broader availability of Arab and Middle Eastern cuisine, and the fallafel sandwich has become a popular and iconic food within alternative fast food or slow food movements, and indeed has spread world-wide.

Food is sometimes a contentious issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where Arabs often criticize Israelis for claiming Arabic food as their own. It is mostly a symbolic conflict; oppressed ethnic groups such as Palestinians often cling to symbols such as food to hold on a sense of national identity.

Fallafel is made from fava beans or chick peas or a combination of the two. The Egyptian variation uses exclusively fava beans, while other variations may only use chick peas. Unlike many other bean patties, in fallafel the beans are not cooked prior to use. Instead they are soaked, possibly skinned, then ground with the addition of a small quantity of onion, spices, bicarbonate of soda and deep fried at a high temperature. Sesame seeds may be added to the balls before they are fried; this is particularly common when fallafel is served as a dish in its own right rather than as a sandwich filling.

Recent culinary trends have seen the triumph of the chickpea fallafel over the fava bean fallafel. Chickpea falafels are served across the Middle East, and popularized by expatriates of those countries living abroad.