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most importantly:do not use canned chickpeas!!!
soak dried chickpeas over-night in pleanty of water, no more cooking is necessary. grind them in food processor, add lots of minced parsley, salt, a smidge of chopped garlic, cumin and paprika, lemon juice and an egg or two. it the mixture seems loose add some flour. i have baked them sucessfully but they are not as crispy and solid. they are far more crumbly but still very good. i have also made them with dried split peas soaked over-night as well. in some parts of north africa and the middle east they use dried, split fava beans. i think it would also work with red or yellow lentils.

All right iz, here I come to confuse you even more:-). I do prefer dried & soaked chickpeas, but I actually cook mine and then mash it with a potato masher. Now, @coolname is right - there is no need to cook them. But I found that I like the texture of falafel better when I used cooked chickpeas as opposed to just soaked - they turn out light and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside.

Otherwise, what I do is very similar to what @coolname wrote, although I also use an onion - basically, I chop it roughly, then throw it into the food processor and mince it there together with garlic and parsley (I also add coriander/cilantro, but you don't have to if you don't like it), then I add this mixture to the mashed chickpeas and season with salt, cumin and a bit of paprika. Add an egg (even though I used to make falafel completely egg-less) and be very easy on the flour - if at all, add very little at a time.

I've tried baking, but I wasn't too pleased with the texture, so I can't recommend it wholeheartedly.

If you want a recipe (well, I'm using the term loosely here, more like guidelines:-)) for tahini sauce, let me know. It's very easy to make, and makes a great dip even without the falafel (although I can never eat falafel without tahini sauce, the force of habit).

oh, i forgot a bit of baking powder. i'm just not the written recipe type.
they can be made w/out eggs also. i just find some egg and flour makes the whole thing more forgiving. you may not end up with the most otherworldy, life-changing, best outside of the jewish quarter in paris (where very good falafel is to be found) but you also won't wind up wasting time and ingredients.

I have made the My Favorite Falafel recipe listed on Epicurious several times, and we love them. It is excerpted from Joan Nathan's book, The Foods of Israel Today.

Rather than tahini sauce mentioned in the recipe, we prefer a tzatsiki sauce. Comments indicate some success with canned chickpeas, but some who used canned had the falafels fall apart in the oil or come out mushy rather than crispy.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/My-Favorite-Falafel-231755

No. The tahina is to put on the pita with the falafel. I guess I could have been a bit more clear on that point.

@iz - whould you like a recipe/guidelines for tahini sauce (which is what you put on the falafel or use as a dip, and in the Middle East it's called just "tahina", so you were very clear about it)?

I like to bake mine, and though I haven't tried to make it with canned chickpeas, the soaked method works so well for me that I haven't found a reason to try it differently. I sent a recipe I found online to a blogger so I'll link you to her page as it's easier than posting the whole thing here: Baked Falafel. Her trick of preheating the baking sheet worked really well for me. She has a yogurt-tahini sauce with the recipe, but I like to whip up a little tzatziki instead. Everyone I make this for loves it, as do I, especially since the only thing I'll fry in my kitchen is stale tortillas for chips or enchiladas :)

The Bittman recipe is excellent. My parents spent a few weeks in Israel and have said that Bittman's recipe is very close in flavor to the real falafel they had there.

These ideas are fantastic! I knew I could count on you guys!

I swear by Joan Nathan's recipe, and I add a squeeze of lemon to it. It is critical to get the temperature of the oil right - if it isn't hot enough, it won't crisp and will taste greasy.

Mark Bittman's recipe sounds very intriguing, as does the baked falafel... I'm tempted to give them a try too.

And I will also add: yes, these are baked. (I do not fry at home, due to the tiny kitchen and massive mess.)