noun Middle Eastern Cookery.
- a small croquette made with ground chickpeas or fava beans and spices, often served with salad and tahini in pita bread.
noun
- a ball or cake of ground spiced chickpeas, deep-fried and often served with pitta bread
by 1951 as a traveler’s word, not common or domestic in English until 1970s; from Arabic falafil, said to mean “crunchy.”