Epic Falafel Platter (and how to style it)

This is an epic falafel platter that is perfect for vegetarian entertaining or just an enjoyable dinner. It feeds 6-8 but I’ll give smaller amounts below and can be dressed up or down, with homemade components or store-bought to save time.

Why you’ll love it

• Reason number one: Did you see how amazing it looks? If you ate with your eyes you would be full already!
• It’s vegetarian but can easily made vegan using vegan sauces and this amazing vegan feta.
• It’s an incredibly tasty mix of dishes.
• It’s perfect for entertaining.
• You can dial the amounts up or down to fit the number of people you’ll be serving (guide given below).
• You can cheat and use all shop-bought, make everything from scratch, or a mixture of both.
• Detailed assembly instructions and photos are provided to make your board look the same as mine.

And if you like this then you might want to try my epic vegetarian charcuterie board or this amazing quesadilla platter.

Components

This platter is really easy to assemble and you have a few choices for what you can use. Here I’ll give you all the options you can use to suit your own taste, and in the recipe card, I’ll give the exact ingredients and quantities I used for the board featured on this page.

The platter

Like most of my boards, you can use what you have. For the board on this page, I used a rectangular 14 by 20-inch tray. You can also use:

• A large tray.
• A large serving plate.
• A large serving platter.
• A large chopping board.
• Put some baking parchment on the table, and add everything to it grazing-style.
• A baking tray or one of the baking sheets from the oven.
• A large piece of stiff cardboard (cover it with parchment or aluminum foil to stop it getting soggy).

If what you’re using is porous or expensive I recommend lining it. You shouldn’t be able to see the backdrop anyway after filling your platter.

Personally, I prefer using a tray or something with raised edges as it makes it easier to transport it from the kitchen to the dining room without anything rolling off, but if you’re serving this falafel platter on a table in your kitchen or have an open-plan kitchen-dining room style space, then anything goes.

Falafel

Depending on how much time you have, and how much you love cooking, you can use store-bought or homemade falafel. I do much prefer homemade falafel and they are very cheap to make, but you do need to start soaking chickpeas the day before.

I highly recommend this recipe for baked or fried falafel, although honestly fried is better as baked tends to dry out more, or even this healthy air fryer falafel recipe.

Don’t overcook your falafel either, they are not supposed to be as hard and dry as you find in kebab shops where they’ve been hanging around for a while and aren’t freshly made.

Sauces and dips

Falafel originated in the Middle East and goes best with Levantine, Turkish, or Greek-style sauces and dips. Greek-style dips aren’t technically Middle Eastern but I’ve had falafel with them so many times in Greece and the rest of Europe and they pair so well I thought I’d include them here.

I’d suggest four to five sauces for a 6-8 person platter, for smaller ones, three is enough, and try to get a mixture of textures.

You want some to be chunky enough for scooping onto pitas or pita chips, and some smooth and silky enough for just dipping your falafel or fries or veggies into.

For the board on this page, I used hummus, garlic yogurt sauce, baba ganoush without tahini, ezme, and tahini sauce. But you can use whichever selection you prefer. I do recommend you also think about the visual aspect of your board though and don’t go with all creamy pale sauces. Some other sauces that would be amazing are:

• Muhammara
• Tzatziki
• Labneh
• Toum
• Tirokafteri (a spicy feta dip)
• Skordalia
• Greek fava dip

Serve your dips and sauces in small containers (like little ramekins or pinch bowls) to avoid getting other ingredients soggy. If they’re store-bought, consider just removing the lid and serving them in their original container as it won’t be very noticeable with all the other ingredients on the platter.

Starches

Next, you need to think about what kinds of starchy or carby foods you want on the board. It’s perfectly fine to just go with a mix of whatever you want from pita chips, crackers, pita bread, flatbreads, or fries (for that real kebab shop feel). Just choose one or two, whatever suits you best.

Fries are great for dipping and adding to plates if you’re using plates, but you do need them to be hot, so all of the other board components need to be in place or made or chopped/prepared ready to go and it needs to be served quickly. Crackers or pita bread are more forgiving and can be served at room temperature.

If you want to bulk out your falafel platter offering you could also serve tabbouleh, or bulgur pilaf, though I’d recommend serving them in large bowls on the table next to your platter, as they are quite damp and voluminous and will get things soggy or hog a ton of space.

To really amp up your platter, some dolma or crispy roasted chickpeas would be amazing.

I recommend adding at least two different kinds of starchy ingredients, I used Lebanese flatbread and fries on this platter.

Vegetables and pickles

For veggies and pickles, you want a mix of crudités and large pickles for dipping and things people can add to a split pita bread or flatbread roll for a more kebab-shop-style experience.

For the board on this page, I used the elongated plum-style cherry tomatoes ( as they’re longer and small, they’re good for both dipping and adding to pita bread), diagonally sliced cucumber, large pickled gherkins, and quick-pickled red onions.

For pickled components, either serve them in their own bowl or quickly drain and dry them with a paper towel (easier with large ones) to stop moisture from reaching other platter ingredients and getting them wet.

Four is a good number from this category to brighten up your platter, but for smaller 2-3 people-sized ones, three is enough. You can use the ones I did or mix and match or substitute them for:

• Raw carrot batons
• Raw sliced onion
• Pickled silverskin onions
• Hot pickled Turkish peppers (or substitute pepperoncini or any long mild-medium spicy pickled pepper).
• Raw sliced peppers
• Thinly sliced radishes

I don’t include fruit in my version but pomegranate seeds or grapes would also go really well.

Cheese and olives

Optional, but adds a lovely touch. For the platter featured in this post, I used regular cubed feta and marinated green olives, but you can also use:

• Black olives, particularly kalamata ones.
• Marinated cubed feta
• Labneh balls

Finishing touches

Your board is probably already looking gorgeous but if you really want to elevate it, consider adding some optional finishing touches. You can sprinkle them on dips and sauces or around the board, like:

• Fresh chopped herbs or full fronds of them, placed strategically.
• Salad leaves
• Red pepper flakes
• Za’atar
• Sumac
• Cracked black pepper
• Toasted pine nuts
• Lemon zest

I also drizzled tahini sauce over my falafel in this recipe but you shouldn’t do this unless you’re ready to serve and anticipate all the falafel being eaten soon or the falafel will absorb the sauce and get mushy.

How to make it

This board is very easy to assemble but if you’re looking to get the same kind of style as my platter then you might find it more helpful to follow these detailed instructions with photos.

1. Grab a bowl or plate for your falafel. For serving five people or more a soup plate or piatto ondo will be more useful and conserve space on your board. I had my falafel freshly cooked and hot and all the other ingredients ready to go, otherwise, if you’re cooking them last, just add a bowl as a placeholder while you build the rest of the platter.
2. Add the sauces and any wet pickle ingredients in their own bowls to the board. I like to place one in each corner and then offset any remaining ones as in the photo below.

3. Add in your starches, you should have at least two. Cut flatbread or pita bread into quarters or thirds, or just use pita chips, and fan around the falafel in the middle of the board with one pile higher and one pile lower. Then group a second starch around diagonal corner sauces and fill the space around the corner bowl, all around it, and between the offset bowl of sauce as in the image below.
4. Start adding veggies and pickles. Work around the space you have and leave a little space for the cheese and olives.

5. Add in the cheese and olives to fill the remaining spaces. Try not to have the same of one ingredient too close to another.
6. Add in your finishing touches, fresh herbs, spices, olive oil, sauces, or whatever you prefer. You’ll notice I filled in the gap between the round bowls in the edge corners with a little salad and I highly recommend doing this or using fresh herbs as the platter is just not as attractive with random spaces where you can see the base.

I also fizzled some tahini sauce over the falafel, but only do this right before serving as otherwise the falafel will absorb the sauce and become mushy.

Storage

If you have any leftovers, they’ll need to be covered and kept in the fridge for up to five days, although fresh veggies will taste best during the first three.

Unless you have a really huge fridge and can separate all the ingredients enough, you’re better off removing things from the board.

Keep dry things like crackers and bread apart from damp things like sauces or vegetables. For sauces served in little bowls or their own jars, you can simply cover them with a lid or plastic wrap. If you have fries on your board, store them separately from everything else and reheat them in the oven on low until crispy again, or in an air fryer.

Make it ahead

You can definitely prepare and assemble this board ahead of time if you have space in your fridge and add the starches right before serving.

Otherwise, I recommend prepping all the ingredients first, sauces, cut bread, chop vegetables, etc., and then assembling half an hour before eating.

Servings guide

This board serves around 6-8 people but sometimes you might want to make a platter for fewer or have more than eight guests so let’s look at what serving sizes you’ll need.

It’s a fairly inaccurate science since you might have someone eating from your platter who only wants to eat one thing, some people who are feeling poorly or extra hungry, etc. but you should get some idea from the details below and the quick platter size table.

Falafel:

Plan on four falafel per person if you’re serving fries and pita bread. For just falafel and pita bread you might want to include one or two more falafel per person to make sure everyone has enough to eat.

Sauces and dips:

As I mentioned before, visually, for a normal 6-8 size serving you’ll want four to five sauces. For over eight people definitely have at least five sauces, and increase the amount by one sauce for every extra two people. For smaller platters, three sauces are fine.

You’ll need half a cup of sauce per person at a minimum, so if you have six people, that’s three cups of sauce, and it works out perfectly with 3 different sauce types.

Starches

Each person will need one cup of starches. For example, for one person I’d give a small pita or half a cup of pita chips, and a handful of fries (about 2.5 ounces), which all roughly equates to one cup.

Vegetables and pickles

Half a cup per person of vegetables and pickles.

Cheese and olives

Half a cup of cheese and olives (combined), or a quarter cup of each per person is the perfect-sized serving.

Common platter portion sizes

Item	2-3 people	4-6 people	6-8 people	8-10 people
Falafel	8-12	16-24	24-32	32-40
Starches	2.5 pita, 1.5 cups fries	5 pita, 3 cups fries	7 pita, 4 cups fries	9 pita, 5 cups fries
Sauces and dips	1.5 cups, 3 types	3 cups, 3 types	4 cups, 4 types	5 cups, 5 types
Vegetables and pickles	1-1.5 cups	2-3 cups	3-4 cups	4-5 cups
Cheese and olives	0.33 cups each	0.75 cups each	1 cup each	1.33 cups each

Did you make this dish? Let me know how much you loved it with a star rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐and a comment below.