Vegetable pakora recipe
These crispy golden pakoras are made with an assortment of veggies in a chickpea batter. I'll share with you all my secrets to make the best pakoras you've ever eaten.
Servings: 24 servings
Calories: 62kcal
Equipment
- Wok or frying pan (or deep fryer)
Ingredients
For batter
- 1 cup besan (chickpea flour)
- 4 tablespoons rice flour (rice flour makes the pakoras more crispy. You can skip and use more chickpea flour instead)
- ½ to 1 teaspoon cayenne (or any moderately spicy red chilli powder. Use less if you can't tolerate heat.)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ajwain (carom seeds)
- 1 tablespoon kasoori methi
- Salt to taste
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Vegetables
- 1 medium potato (use a waxy red or yellow potato. Cut into thin, inch-long strips.)
- 1 medium onion (thinly sliced)
- 1½ cups cabbage (thinly sliced)
- 2 tablespoons cilantro (finely chopped, optional. You can also use curry leaves)
For deep frying
- ¼ cups vegetable oil (for deep frying. See FAQs above on which oils are best for deep-frying pakoras.)
Instructions
- Place all the batter ingredients in a bowl. Whisk to mix. Add a tablespoon of oil to the flour and mix it in.
- Add a tablespoon of oil to the mixture and rub it into the flour mixture. This will help make pakora crispier. The flour should look a bit grainy at this point.
- Add the chopped vegetables and cilantro to the bowl and mix them with your hand until all the vegetables are coated with the flour. Set aside for five minutes so the vegetables express their moisture.
- After the vegetables have rested for five minutes, start adding water to the bowl a tablespoon at a time. Mix after each addition. Add just enough water so there is no dry flour in the bowl and all the vegetables are evenly coated in the batter. I needed ⅓rd of a cup of water but you might need a little more or less.
- Heat two inches of oil in a wok or skillet. When hot drop lumps of the pakora batter into the oil. The oil should bubble furiously as soon as the pakora makes contact with it. If it doesn't allow it to heat a bit more. If you have a candy thermometer, it should register 350 degrees F/180 degrees C before you start frying the pakora.
- Fry the pakoras until they are golden-brown, flipping them over a couple of times.
- Remove the pakoras with a spider to a colander lined with paper towels. Don't brown the pakoras too much as they will continue to darken after they come out of the pan. Serve the pakoras hot.
Notes
- Spices: If you don't have all the spices, leave some out. You can make the pakoras without the ground coriander, ajwain (carom seeds) and kasoori methi.
- Salt: Pakoras always taste a little less salty after frying because the vegetables absorb some of the seasoning as they fry. Taste a pakora after frying the first batch and add more salt to the rest of the batter if it doesn't taste like it has enough salt.
- Don't overcrowd the wok or skillet when deep-frying. Each pakora you add brings down the temperature of the oil, so don't fry too many at a time. I did three batches in my standard-sized wok.
- If the pakoras clump together in the wok don't worry - you can separate them after they have finished frying.
- Nutrition information assumes ¼ cup oil absorbed by the pakoras during deep frying - just under ½ teaspoon per pakora.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 vegetable pakora | Calories: 62kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 0.5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Potassium: 107mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 102IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 0.5mg