Copycat Starbucks Spicy Falafel Pocket Recipe

Starbucks' Spicy Falafel Pocket is toasted lavash folded around smashed falafel, hummus, roasted red peppers, pickled onions and a jalapeño herb sauce, and it is vegan. This copy bakes a spinach falafel from one can of chickpeas instead of frying it, quick-pickles half a red onion, and makes six pockets in 55 minutes.

What is in the Starbucks Spicy Falafel Pocket

Starbucks' menu page describes smashed falafel with hummus, roasted red bell peppers, pickled onions and a spicy herb sauce in toasted lavash, and marks it vegan. It arrived in January 2025 as what Today called a "certified vegan, permanent menu addition".

The ingredient statement on Starbucks' page is more exact than the description:

• The falafel is a spinach falafel: chickpeas, spinach, onions, parsley and spices.
• The spicy herb sauce is a chimichurri of parsley, cilantro, garlic, jalapeño, lime juice and red wine vinegar, plus a salsa of red jalapeño and green onion.
• The pickled onions are onions in red wine vinegar.

One pocket weighs 94 grams and has 230 calories and 8 grams of protein. The pockets here are larger than that. This is a reconstruction from that list; MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Starbucks.

Recipe

Starbucks Spicy Falafel Pocket

A reconstruction of Starbucks' vegan Spicy Falafel Pocket — baked spinach falafel, hummus, roasted red peppers, pickled onions and a jalapeño herb sauce in toasted lavash. Six pockets.

5.0 (4)Print

Prep

25 min

Cook

30 min

Total

55 min

Serves

6

Cuisine

Middle Eastern

Ingredients

• For the pickled onions:
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• For the spinach falafel:
• 1 1/2 cups canned chickpeas (one 15-ounce can), drained and patted dry
• 1 cup baby spinach, packed
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• For the spicy herb sauce:
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 1 jalapeño, seeded
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• For the pockets:
• 3 soft lavash flatbreads (about 9 by 12 inches), cut in half crosswise
• 3/4 cup hummus
• 1/2 cup jarred roasted red peppers, drained and sliced

Instructions

1. Pickle the onions first: stir the vinegar, water and salt together until the salt dissolves, add the sliced onion and leave it at room temperature while the rest is made, at least 20 minutes.
2. Heat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Pulse the chickpeas, spinach, onion, parsley, garlic, cumin, coriander, salt and baking powder in a food processor until the mixture is finely chopped and holds together when pressed, but is not a paste. Pulse in the flour.
3. Shape the mixture into 12 small patties, about a heaped tablespoon each, and set them on the sheet. Brush the tops with the olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes, turning once halfway, until firm and browned at the edges.
4. For the sauce, blend the parsley, cilantro, jalapeño, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, lime juice, thyme and salt to a coarse green sauce.
5. Lay a lavash half on the counter with a short side towards you. Spread 2 tablespoons of hummus down the middle third. Crumble two falafel patties over it and press them flat, then add a few strips of roasted pepper, some drained pickled onion and 2 teaspoons of the herb sauce.
6. Fold the two long sides over the filling so they overlap, fold the ends under, and set the pocket seam side down on the baking sheet. Repeat with the rest.
7. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the lavash is crisp and browned at the edges. Serve with the remaining herb sauce.

Nutrition

Calories:

330

Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.

A falafel that is meant to be smashed

Falafel for frying is made from soaked dried chickpeas, because canned ones are too wet and fall apart in the oil. This falafel is baked and then crushed into the pocket, so it only has to hold its shape on a baking sheet. A can of chickpeas does that, as long as two things are done:

• Dry the chickpeas. Drain them, then roll them in a towel. Water left on them turns the mixture to paste.
• Pulse, do not purée. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs that stick when pressed. Three tablespoons of flour bind it.

For falafel that is fried and eaten whole, the classic falafel recipe starts from dried chickpeas.

The spicy herb sauce is a chimichurri

The heat in the pocket comes from the sauce, not from the falafel. Starbucks' list puts jalapeño in a parsley-and-cilantro chimichurri, and the sauce in the recipe is built the same way: herbs, garlic, one jalapeño, oil, red wine vinegar and lime juice.

• Milder: leave the seeds and ribs out of the jalapeño, as written, or use half of it.
• Hotter: blend the seeds in, or add a red jalapeño or Fresno chile, which is what Starbucks' red salsa blend contains.

The recipe makes more sauce than goes into the pockets. The rest is for dipping.

Is the Spicy Falafel Pocket vegan?

Starbucks labels it vegan, and its allergen line lists sesame and wheat. The copy is vegan as long as the bought parts are: most lavash and hummus are, but some flatbreads contain milk or honey, so the labels are worth reading. Tahini in the hummus is where the sesame comes from.

Folding and toasting

The fold is the same one used for the Starbucks Jalapeño Chicken Pocket, and the table on that page gives times for a panini press and an air fryer as well as the oven. The falafel is already cooked, so the second bake only has to crisp the bread.

Baked falafel patties keep three days in the refrigerator and freeze for a month, which makes the pockets a ten-minute job later. The same filling also goes into a pita, the way the Jack in the Box chicken fajita pita is built.