This little Indian side dish is usually deep fried. However these pakoras still work very well shallow frying and are delicious. You can also use other vegetables like broccoli, eggplant, carrots and roasted kumara. As they are not being deep fried, most vegetable will need to be lightly pre-cooked an also flatter rather than rounder shapes.
Vegetable Pakoras
Makes 4 – 6
Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpea (chana/besan) flour
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 3/4 cup water
- oil for frying
- 1/4 head cauliflower florets sliced
- 1 large onion sliced into rings
- coriander (cilantro) for garnish
Method
- Sift all dry ingredients into a bowl. Add water and garlic and mix well into a smooth batter.
- Slice onion and cauliflower. Rather than round florets just slice through the cauliflower so you have slices about 1cm (1/2 inch) thick.
- Cook or steam the cauliflower for a couple of minutes to soften it.
- Mix with the batter in the bowl.
- Heat a non-stick frying pan and put in a splash of oil for each batch.
- Fry each side for around 2 minutes each or until golden brown.
- Garnish and serve immediately.
