Take this entrée from the Indian cuisine and make large XXL vegetable pakoras that are very easy and delicious fried onion cakes. These vegetable pakoras are very big and taste the best with homemade mint sauce!
For a very long time, I didn’t know what a pakora is. Every single time I went for dinner to an Indian restaurant I was afraid to order pakoras. It was always in an appetizer (entrée) menu and it sounded so strange that I just didn’t dare to order it!
But once everything changed. I visited one of my Indian friends at their home and when the entrée was served, it was the pakora! At first, I thought it was a little onion cake or some other fried savoury cake. I didn’t know it was the pakora. I felt brave enough to try it, though.
And that was THE moment, my friends. I absolutely fell in love with pakoras and even requested more sauce to dip them in! So there you go. Don’t be afraid to try new things because you never know. You can discover your new favourite thing!
What is pakora?
If you are not familiar with the Indian cuisine and Indian dishes, I should probably start with telling you what pakora is.
A pakora (it can be also spelled as pakoda or known as bhajji, bajji, Bhajiya) is usually a size of entrée or a snack. It’s usually round and deep-fried or fried. I think it reminds of little vegetable or bean fritters, such as zucchini fritters or chickpea fritters.
Pakora has different variations. It can be made of sliced or spiralized onions, potatoes or other mixed or single vegetables. They are served with a slice of lemon or lime, chopped coriander and some sort of sauce or chutney. It can be mango chutney or any other fruit chutney, spicy sauce, mint sauce or yoghurt. I like to have bhajis with mint sauce!
To make pakoras you usually need heaps of different spices, such as sweet paprika, smoked paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander, chilli, cayenne pepper, and ground turmeric (for a beautiful yellow colour).
In most of cases, pakoras are made of one main ingedients. This can be potatoes, onion, cauliflower, and eggplant. It’s mixed with flour, such as chickea (besan) flour and combined with other spices. Pakoras should be crispy on the outside because they are fried. They should be soft (but not raw!) on inside like a potato cake.
Regarding their origin, pakoras come from the Indian subcontinent and depending on the place, pakoras have a slightly different recipe. You can find pakoras in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and a few other places within India. Pakoras are also sold as an easy, yummy, and cheap street food.
Are you a lover of the Indian cuisine? then xou will love these Indian recipes:
Spicy Lentil And Chickpea Soup
What do you need to make vegetable pakoras?
- Chickpea flour. Also known as Garbanzo bean or besan flour. In Indian recipes, you come across using chickpea flour quite often. It’s a traditional variety of flour, often used instead of white wheat flour. Chickpea flour has a big plus – it’s gluten-free!
- Ground cumin
- Ground coriander
- Sweet paprika
- Ground turmeric. If you use ground turmeric, you will reach a beautiful yellow colour as I did. You can see it in my photos!
- Ground chilli. Omit ground chilli powder if you prefer a sweeter taste rather than spicier.
- Onion
- Potatoes
- Green beans. You can use frozen or fresh.
- Peas. Again, you can use frozen or fresh.
- Water to thin the batter if needed
- Salt and pepper
- Vegetable oil for frying
- Fresh coriander leaves. You can read about coriander (cilantro) and how to use it for cooking here.
For mint sauce you need:
- Fresh mint leaves. Read about using mint leaves in other ways here.
- Garlic paste
- Dairy-free yoghurt. You can make your own yoghurt with this vegan yoghurt culture.
- Salt
- Green chilli pepper
XXL Vegetable Pakoras With Mint Sauce
Equipment
- Blender or Food processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpea flour or other gluten-free flour
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp ground chilli
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 4 medium potatoes peeled and grated
- 1 cup green beans
- 1/2 cup peas
- 1 cup water
- salt, pepper
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- chopped fresh coriander leaves for garnish
Mint sauce
- 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves chopped
- 1 tbsp garlic paste1)
- 1 cup dairy-free yoghurt for example Greek style
- salt
- green chilli pepper sliced, for garnish
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add chickpea flour, ground cumin, ground coriander, sweet paprika, ground turmeric, and ground chilli. Combine them together.
- In the same bowl, add grated potatoes, sliced onion, green beans, and peas. Fold and mix everything together. Depending on how dry the batter is, add some water until the batter holds together enough to make fritters – pakoras. You might use about 1 cup of water until you reach your desired consistency.
- Depending on your taste, add salt and pepper. With your hands, start making pakoras about the size of your palm. Don't make them too thick or it will become too hard to fry them.
- In a frying pan heat up 1 tbsp vegetable oil and place your pakoras on the hot pan. Fry them from each side until they turn golden or light brown. Fry your pakoras rather slower on a lower heat than fast.
- Garnish h the pakoras with chopped fresh coriander leaves and serve with mint sauce.
To make the mint sauce:
- Place all the ingredients for the mint sauce in a blender or a food processor and blend until the mint is broken into small pieces.
Notes
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @writtenbyvegan or use hashtag #writtenbyvegan or share it with your friends and family! You can also rate this recipe below! 🙂
Klara Walterova
Klara is a professional freelance writer for hire. She offers web content, blog posting, ghostwriting and copywriting. She writes for a healthy lifestyle, wellness and travel websites. She focuses on veganism and the vegan diet. When she's not writing, she develops new tasty vegan recipes, travels the world or plays with her cats. Please contact her for her online writing services on her website writtenbyvegan.com or visit her Instagram profile @writtenbyvegan.