Place dried chickpeas in a large bowl. Cover with the water and let soak 8 hours or overnight. I let mine soak almost 24 hours. Drain the chickpeas.

Place the onion, cilantro, parsley, and garlic in the bowl of a large food processor. Make sure your herbs and chickpeas are not still wet from rinsing. Pulse until well chopped. Add the drained chickpeas, lemon juice, cumin, salt, pepper, cayenne, and baking soda and continue to pulse until all ingredients are coarsely chopped. Edit: You should be able to form the dough into disks at this point. If your dough is too wet, add a tablespoon of flour at a time until it binds.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Shape the falafel dough into 2 to 3 inch disks. You can really make them any size. Larger works well for "burgers" and smaller for salads and wraps.

Coat a large pan over medium high heat with cooking spray or a tablespoon of olive oil. Carefully place the falafel into the pan and cook until browned, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Add more cooking spray or olive oil as needed so falafel don't stick. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake falafel for 7-10 minutes. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt.

Use your falafel in pitas with your favorite sauce or on salads.