Pakora is a crispy fritter and a popular Indian street food snack. Full of veggies and spices, it’s a perfect shareable appetizer at parties.
Crispy, fried Pakora makes an excellent snack, side or appetizer with your favorite Indian Food recipes. Enjoy these traditional Indian fritters along with popular mains like as Indian Butter Chicken and Aloo Gobi.
Why You’ll Love These Indian Pakoras?
- Perfect shareable snack or appetizer for parties.
- Classic Indian street food made right in your own kitchen.
Sabrina’s Pakora Recipe
Crispy Pakora is a popular Indian street food. It’s essentially just a spiced fritter. The veggies and spices make an amazing flavor combination, then frying them in oil creates the ideal crunch to enjoy them.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpea flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 3/4 cup water
- vegetable oil , for frying
- 6 cups spinach
- 2 russet potatoes , peeled and grated
- 1 cup carrots , peeled and grated
- 1 yellow onion , sliced thinly
- 2 cloves garlic , finely minced
Instructions
- In a large bowl add the chickpea flour, salt, coriander, chili powder, garam masala and turmeric.
- Whisk well to combine.
- Add water to the bowl and whisk well to combine.
- Add the spinach to a large skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes until wilted.
- Add the spinach, potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic to your bowl, whisking well.
- Add vegetable oil to your large skillet or large pot about 3″ deep.
- Work in small batches to avoid crowding.
- Add in the mixture in 2-3 tablespoon spoonfuls and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy.
- Let cool on a metal rack.
- Serve with chutneys or raita.
Nutrition
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Sabrina’s Tips
Make sure to add enough oil to the pot to deep fry the Pakora. If you prefer, you could use coconut oil, grapeseed oil, or canola oil as the cooking oil for this recipe. Whatever oil you use, be sure not to fill the pot too high, or the oil can splash up and burn you.
Table of contents
About this Recipe
This veggie version of this popular street food make a great appetizer. Made with a blend of spices, chickpea flour, and vegetables. When serving, you can enjoy them with delicious dipping sauces like my cool creamy Raita. It’s the perfect shareable party snack!
Ingredients
- Chickpea flour: You’ll need 1 cup chickpea flour to make the batter. Indian chickpea flour may also be referred to as garbanzo bean flour or gram flour. Chickpea flour creates structure, crunchy texture, and nutty flavor for this recipe.
- Seasonings: To get the classic flavor, you’ll use a combination of dry spices, including kosher salt, ground coriander powder, chili powder, garam masala, and turmeric. Adding just 1 teaspoon garam masala incorporates a complex variety of warm and spicy flavors to the mixture.
- Veggies: This recipe is made with a flavorful blend of veggies. Mix together spinach, grated potatoes, carrots, yellow onion, and garlic cloves for a crisp and colorful veg mix. The simple fritter blend makes it easy to make with a variety of different vegetables according to your taste.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes, the batter is actually at its best when made in ahead of time. You can prepare the batter 30 minutes before or up to 2 days ahead of cooking the fritters. If you make the batter in advance, cover the mixing bowl in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge. Then let the batter come back to room temperature before frying.
Serving Ideas
After frying, you can enjoy them as a snack on their own or on the side of Chicken Vindaloo or Chicken Korma. You can enjoy them with delicious dipping sauces to make the perfect party appetizer. Something as simple as ketchup or yogurt dip can make a delicious dip. Try them with mint chutney or try making a homemade Pakora sauce with this simple recipe.
Pakora Sauce
- 8 tablespoons of plain yogurt
- 4 tablespoons of ketchup
- 1 teaspoon of mint sauce
- ½ teaspoon of chili powder
How to Store
- Serve: Enjoy Pakora after it’s had a chance to cool slightly. But don’t leave the fritters out at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
- Store: To keep any leftovers fresh, transfer them to a Ziplock bag or another airtight container to store in the fridge for 2-3 days.
- Freeze: You can also freeze the leftovers. Be sure to let the recipe cool completely before sealing it in a freezer bag or another freezer-safe container to keep for up to 1 month.
Air Fryer Method
- To make in the air fryer, start by following the original recipe to prepare the batter.
- Then preheat your air fryer at 355 F, and let it heat for 5 minutes.
- Prep your air fryer basket with a coating of cooking oil spray.
- Scoop 2-3 tablespoon-sized spoonful of the mixture into the basket. You’ll have to go in batches to keep in a single layer without letting them touch.
- Air fry for 12 minutes, flipping them halfway through the cooking time.
- Then remove the first batch, and continue to cook the remaining batter.
Frequent Questions
You can use a variety of vegetables, including cauliflower, onion, potato sweet potato, or carrot. This recipe uses a combination of grated potatoes, carrots, and yellow onion. To make the batter, you’ll use water, spices, and chickpea flour. As you can probably guess from the name, chickpea flour is made with dried and ground garbanzo beans.
It is often served as an appetizer at Indian restaurants to be enjoyed before your main dish. It’s classically sold as street food and makes an excellent snack on its own. You can serve the savory fritters with yogurt sauce and green chutney for delicious dipping sauce options.
Be sure to heat the cooking oil before adding the Pakora to cook over medium heat. It should only take the fritters 2-3 minutes to finish cooking. You can tell they’re done when the outside is crispy and golden brown. You want the outside color to darken but not be too brown before removing the Pakora and placing them to the side.
Variations
- Mixed Vegetable Pakora: You can use a variety of mixed veggies. Feel free to swap out some of the grated vegetables in the original recipe for other types of vegetables or add more types of fresh veggies to the mixture. Some delicious vegetables to try are sweet potatoes, green beans, green chili peppers, bell pepper, and red onions. You could also make crispy Vegetable Pakora with additional leafy green vegetables like cabbage or kale.
- Aloo Pakoras: One popular type of pakora is Aloo or potato. For this version, rather than grating different kinds of vegetables, simply peel and slice two medium potatoes into rounds. Then coat the potatoes in a batter made from flour, garam masala, red chili powder, turmeric, kosher salt, and ginger. Add water to the flour and spice blend and whisk to form a batter. Then coat the potato slices in batter and fry until the Aloo Pakora is crispy and browned.
- Flour: Traditionally, this is made with chickpea or garbanzo bean flour. This is an excellent gluten-free flour. However, if you don’t have chickpea flour, you could also use rice flour, buckwheat flour, or oat flour.
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