How to get falafel to hold together when pan-frying?

Crumble a piece of (gluten-free)bread.(You can also rub two pieces of rusk biscuit against each other to get some dry crumbles). Make a mixture of a little bit of olive oil and the crumbles. Before putting the falafel in the frying pan, dip them in this mixture. Because the crumbles form a bit of a crust, it's easier to flip them over without them falling apart.

It may not be ideal for the structure of traditional falafel, because this could give the falafel a crusty bite. But you might give this a go, because it works quite well for me.

Good luck!

I resolved this by using flour, it acts as a binder and thickener. Adapting the joy of cooking recipe, I ended up with chickpeas, onion, spices, flour and baking soda.It worked well though I ended up with something akin to a fried chickpea dumpling... I liked it, but not super traditional.

I've read that if you want to make it without adding flour, you can't used canned chickpeas, but I've not tried dried chickpeas myself.

If you're going to use flour, you can find a good list of wheat free flours here.

If you do not want to use flour you might consider these tips:

If they are turning into mush it is likely because your temperature is too high on your frying pan. Try turning it down to medium or medium low.

Also, one thing you might try when making your falafel mix is to use the coldest water possible in it. This will help the falafel to stick together when frying.

I used almond flour as an alternative and it worked pretty well. The perfect temperature is difficult at first but just keep trying....falafels are worth the efforts.

Most of the time it's as simple as over blending the mixture.

When the mixture is over-blended it becomes too sloppy and doesn't hold together during the frying. Pulse sparingly and even use a fork to mush any big garbanzo.

Also try to chop ingredients smaller so less blending is needed.

I've also heard(haven't actually tried) that egg works as a good binder, like a meatball mixture, and that seems to make sense.

I just had this problem. I used panko bread crumbs to fix this and it worked super well.