Spinach and ricotta stuffed shells
Pasta shells filled with spinach and ricotta beneath a tomato sauce.
About 55 min · 540 kcal · 30 g protein per serving
Vegetarian
Air fryer chickpea and feta patties with tahini yoghurt
Falafel-style patties of chickpeas, herbs and feta, air fried until golden and served with a cucumber and tomato salad and tahini yoghurt. Crisp outside and soft within, and small enough that three make a meal you can stop at.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 16 October 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm the patties hold their shape in the basket and reach 71°C in 12 to 14 minutes at 190°C
- Confirm 12 patties from this mixture at 6 cm across
- Photograph the finished plate
- Time
- About 53 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 4
- see below
- Energy
- 480 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 30 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 4 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains eggs, milk, sesame. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- feta. Some feta is made with animal rennet; check the label if you are vegetarian.
Cooking steps
Spread the drained chickpeas on a clean tea towel and pat them dry. Put them in a food processor with the spring onions, garlic, parsley, fresh coriander, cumin and ground coriander and pulse 8 to 10 times, until coarsely chopped but not a paste.
Tip into a bowl, add the chickpea flour, the beaten egg and the feta broken into small pieces, and mix with your hands. Shape into 12 patties, each about 6 cm across and 2 cm thick, and chill them for 15 minutes so they firm up.
Brush the patties on both sides with the oil and air fry at 190°C / 375°F for 12 to 14 minutes in a single layer, in two batches if needed, turning them carefully halfway, until both sides are deep golden and the centre reaches 71°C.
Cooked when: 71°C / 160°F in the centre. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Meanwhile, stir the tahini with the lemon juice and 2 tbsp of water; it will thicken at first, then loosen into a smooth cream. Stir in the Greek yoghurt.
Dice the cucumber and tomatoes. Serve three patties each with the salad and a generous spoonful of the tahini yoghurt.
The useful detail
Dry the chickpeas and pulse them rather than blending. Wet, smooth chickpeas make a paste that spreads and sticks to the basket. Dry, coarse ones, held by chickpea flour and egg, keep their shape and stay open inside, which is the texture of a falafel without a pan of oil.
Make it work for you
One serving is Three patties with cucumber and tomato salad and 110 g of tahini yoghurt. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Goat's cheese instead of feta
Creamier and milder, and it softens into the patties more.
Per serving: about the same energy, about 1 g more protein, about the same fat.
Butter beans instead of chickpeas
Softer patties; add 1 tbsp more chickpea flour so they hold.
Per serving: about 30 kcal less, about the same protein, about 3 g less fat.
Leave out the egg
Add 1 tbsp more chickpea flour and 1 tbsp of water instead. The patties are a little more fragile, so turn them gently.
Allergens: Removes egg.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
Chickpeas, feta and egg give the patties their protein and the yoghurt sauce adds about a third more, while the chickpeas carry most of the fibre.
| Energy | 480 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 30 g |
| Fat | 19 g |
| of which saturates | 5 g |
| Carbohydrate | 49 g |
| of which sugars | not calculated |
| Fibre | 12 g |
| Sodium | 660 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 4. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chickpeas | 480 g | FDC 173800Chickpeas (garbanzo beans, bengal gram), mature seeds, canned, drained solids | 667 kcal | 33.8 g |
| spring onions | 60 g | FDC 170005Onions, spring or scallions (includes tops and bulb), raw | 19 kcal | 1.1 g |
| garlic | 10 g | FDC 169230Garlic, raw | 15 kcal | 0.6 g |
| parsley | 20 g | FDC 170416Parsley, fresh | 7 kcal | 0.6 g |
| fresh coriander | 20 g | FDC 169997Coriander (cilantro) leaves, raw | 5 kcal | 0.4 g |
| ground cumin | 4 g | FDC 170923Spices, cumin seedFoodData Central records cumin seed; ground cumin is the same seed, milled. | 16 kcal | 0.7 g |
| ground coriander | 2 g | FDC 170922Spices, coriander seed | 5 kcal | 0.2 g |
| chickpea flour | 60 g | FDC 174288Chickpea flour (besan) | 232 kcal | 13.4 g |
| eggs | 56 g | FDC 171287Egg, whole, raw, fresh | 80 kcal | 7.0 g |
| feta | 100 g | FDC 173420Cheese, feta | 265 kcal | 14.2 g |
| olive oil | 14 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 121 kcal | 0.0 g |
| tahini | 30 g | FDC 168604Seeds, sesame butter, tahini, type of kernels unspecified | 178 kcal | 5.2 g |
| lemon juice | 15 g | FDC 167747Lemon juice, raw | 3 kcal | 0.1 g |
| Greek yoghurt | 400 g | FDC 170894Yogurt, Greek, plain, nonfat (Includes foods for USDA's Food Distribution Program) | 236 kcal | 40.8 g |
| cucumber | 200 g | FDC 168409Cucumber, with peel, raw | 30 kcal | 1.3 g |
| tomatoes | 200 g | FDC 170457Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average | 36 kcal | 1.8 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 4 | 1915 kcal | 121.3 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. of which sugars could not be calculated, because one ingredient’s record does not cover it; the row above says which. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. Keep the tahini yoghurt separately.
- In the freezer
- Freeze the cooked patties on a tray, then bag them, without the tahini yoghurt. Freezing keeps food safe indefinitely; the texture is best if they are eaten sooner rather than later.
- Reheating
- Reheat in the air fryer at 180°C / 350°F, 5 minutes from chilled or 8 to 10 from frozen, until they reach 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
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About 1 hr · 360 kcal · 20 g protein per serving
Vegetarian