Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Falafel" in Turkish language version.
The claim that Indian cooking may have influenced the invention of falafel is reasonable. There are many fried foods in India that predate falafel and that are similar in shape and consistency. British soldiers familiar with vada, ambode, dal ke pakode and other fried foods might easily have experimented and encouraged resourceful Egyptian chefs to come up with a local equivalent.
