Suitability of different pulses in falafel making – a new application for Swedish foods

Abstract: There is potential for growing several types of pulses in Sweden. An increased domestic pulse cultivation and consumption could have many positive effects, such as reduced climate impacts, furthering of local societies, improved soils and increased resilience in food production. The present study aimed to evaluate the use of Nordic grown pulses in falafel, a deep-fried patty traditionally made from chickpeas or faba beans. The purpose was to create a new application for Swedish pulses in order to promote domestic pulse production. Falafels made from pea, bean, lentil and lupin were subjected to physicochemical analyses and a sensory acceptance test. The best liked falafel was then included in an optimisation to obtain a highly desirable texture. The falafels made from different pulses had significantly different physicochemical properties, with most of the variation due to differences in water absorption during soaking, water loss in deep-frying, the textural properties cohesiveness and hardness, and in colour measurements. The sensory evaluations indicated that all falafels were liked by consumers, with exception for yellow pea falafels. High liking of appearance correlated with large values of redness (a') and contrast in lightness (L') between falafel exterior and interior. High liking of texture correlated with large moisture content in falafel batter and weight increase in soaking, and with low hardness. An optimisation using response surface methodology was constructed for Gotland lentil falafels to investigate the effect of soaking time and NaHCO3 concentration in the soaking water on the water uptake of lentils and textural hardness of falafels. Soaking time was the most important factor, where 10–13 hours was optimal for Gotland lentils to obtain both high water uptake and low hardness values. In conclusion, several Nordic grown pulses were suitable for falafel making, and soaking time had a significant effect on textural properties of Gotland lentil falafels.