Hara bhara kabab are vegetarian kababs made with spinach, potatoes and green peas. Kabab is a piece of meat or vegetable most commonly char grilled. Rajma kabab, soya kababs, corn kabab & hara bhara kabab are some of the vegetarian kabab that make a perfect snack. Hara bhara kabab are most commonly found on Indian restaurant menus & are served as a starter or appetizer.
This recipe will help you to make the best hara bhara kabab, better than the ones you get in good restaurants. Plus you have the option to use the best & fresh ingredients when made at home.
Hara bhara kabab is a quick energy booster snack that can be enjoyed by anyone including toddlers. I make these kababs as a evening snack or after school snack for my kids.
Most kids are fussy to eat their greens but mine easily get convinced to eat these hara bhara kababs, palak paratha , creamy palak paneer and this aloo palak. You may like to check this collection of palak recipes.
Kababs are usually grilled on char coal fire or tandoori ovens. But when made at home these are apt to be pan fried or baked. You can find the instructions to bake these below.
Variations of hara bhara kabab
Hara bhara kabab translates to kababs that are loaded with greens. So these are made with lots of spinach, green peas, coriander leaves and potatoes. Here are some variations I often make to the recipe
1.I am a health nut and prefer to reduce the consumption of potatoes even for my kids, so I make these with sweet potatoes.
2.Usually hara bhara kababs are made with roasted gram flour or besan. I feel it is a bit of work to do it on a low flame. So I replace it with powdered poha. You can also use fiber rich red poha.
3.If the peas are not young, then I steam them along with potatoes.
4. Earlier I use to blanch the palak and use it to make the hara bhara kabab. Now a days I do not prefer to blanch it except for salads. So spinach is sauteed in oil and used in the recipe. If you are on a low oxalate diet then do blanch it.
Serving suggestion
Hara bhara kabab are best when served just out of the pan since they are crispy. They tend to loss the crispness when cooled down because they are not deep fried.
They can be served any time of the day with a Green chutney or a Pudina chutney.
If you have kids who love burgers, then they may like these hara bhara kabab as patties in veg burger. I spread some hung curd inside the burger. But you can also use some tomato ketchup or eggless mayo.
Hara bhara kabab are my kids’ favorite and they love these in their burgers.
You can also make a yummy chaat by adding dates tamarind chutney, sev, onions, tomatoes topped over it.
Baking or grilling hara bhara kabab
- I usually make smaller patties if baking them. You will be able to make about 15 small kababs.
- Grease a tray generously. Brush the kababs generously with oil.
- Preheat the oven for at least 15 mins at 180 C. Then bake the hara bhara kabab for 10 mins on each side.
- Flip them after 10 mins and bake until golden. Adjust the timing as needed depending on the size.
- You can grill these in a grill pan on stove top. Just grease your pan generously and then grill them on both the sides.
For more kabab recipes, you can check
Veg seekh kabab
Dahi kabab
Chicken kebab
Reshmi kabab
You can also find more healthy snacks recipes here.
Hara bhara kabab recipe
Hara bhara kabab recipe | How to make hara bhara kabab
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
Ingredients for hara bhara kabab
- 300 grams potatoes or aloo or sweet potatoes
- ½ cup coriander leaves or daniya patta
- 1 cup green peas or matar (frozen or fresh)
- 1 to 3 green chilies (less spicy kind)
- 120 grams spinach (or palak 1 medium size bunch)
- 3 tablespoon besan (or gram flour, or poha powder or bread crumbs)
- ¼ cup bread crumbs (optional, use if dough is too moist)
- 1 ½ teaspoon ginger garlic paste or grated
- salt as needed
- ½ teaspoon garam masala
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (or ¼ to ½ tsp amchur or chaat masala)
- 2 to 3 teaspoon oil for frying
How to make the recipe
Preparation for hara bhara kabab
- Pluck and rinse spinach well in a large pot of water.
- Drain to a colander. Ensure the water has completely drained before using it later.
- Boil potatoes until just cooked. You can also cook peas together.
- Make sure the potatoes are firm and not mushy.
- Dry roast besan or gram flour till it turns aromatic. Set this aside. Or just skip this step and use bread crumbs or poha powder.
- Saute ginger garlic paste in 1 tsp oil till the raw smell is gone. Otherwise the kababs will have the smell of raw ginger and garlic.
- Add peas and chilies to the pan. Then stir fry until peas are tender.
- Add palak & saute until it wilts off completely. (Or If you are on a low oxalate diet, then you can also blanch the palak in 3 cups hot water, drain completely and use it to blend with green peas.) But the sauteing method tastes best.
- Next add the garam masala and salt. Saute for a minute until a nice aroma comes out. Cool completely.
- Blend together palak, peas and coriander leaves to a smooth paste. No water should be added at this point.
- Mash the potatoes & add the ground peas palak paste to the mashed potatoes.
- Mix in the besan to make a uniform non-sticky dough.
- If the dough turns sticky, then add bread crumbs to absorb excess moisture.
How to make hara bhara kabab
- Divide the dough to 10 kababs. Flatten them and make patties.
- Heat a tawa or pan with 1 tbsp of oil. Then fry hara bhara kabab till golden & crisp.
- Flip and fry on both the sides. You can also bake these in a oven.
- Serve hara bhara kabab with ketchup or green chutney.
NUTRITION (estimation only)
Notes
You can also fry them in ghee if serving to kids.
If you are a beginner or new to Indian cooking, I highly suggest you to check the supporting step by step photos for best results. Step by step photos with description available below after the recipe card.
Preparation for hara bhara kabab
1. Pluck the leaves of palak and add them to a large pot of water. I usually sprinkle some vinegar & salt over the leaves. Rest for a while and then rinse them in ample amount of water.
Repeat rinsing thrice and drain the leaves in a colander until the excess water drains up completely.
Avoid using the stalks of spinach as they may leave a bitter taste.
Boiling potatoes
2. Boil potatoes in whatever way you prefer to. They should be just cooked and not mushy. I cooked in a pot with little water. You can steam them as well. Take care not to overcook.
Once done, remove them with a slotted spoon to a colander. Drain off any excess water. You can use up the stock for making roti dough.
3. Dry roast besan in a pan till the raw smell is gone. You should begin to smell the flour good. Transfer this to a plate to cool.
4. Pour 1½ tsps oil to a pan. Fry ginger garlic paste till the raw smell is gone.
5. Add green peas and chilies. Fry for about 4 to 5 minutes. If the peas are not tender, you will have to cook for a little longer. Since we are not going to deep fry the patties, peas will not be cooked much further. So we need to cook until the raw smell of the peas is gone.
6. Sprinkle amchur, garam masala and salt. Stir it and saute for a minute.
7. Ensure there is no water in palak. Then add it to the pan and saute for 3 to 4 mins until the leaves wilt off completely. The leaves will not get cooked much in the kababs so it is good to fry to suit your liking. Set aside to cool completely.
OR You can also blanch the palak in 3 cups of hot water, drain completely and then use it in the next step.
Blending spinach
8. Add spinach, green peas masala and coriander leaves to a blender. Next blend till slightly coarse or smooth texture.
9. Mash the potatoes. my kids like tiny chunks of potatoes in the kebab so i left some tiny bits.
10. Add the pureed peas mixture and chick pea flour as well. If you do not have chick pea flour, you can replace it with dried bread crumbs. But flour lends a nice flavor.
11. Mix everything well. You should get a fairly stiff dough. Otherwise the kebab will turn soft and soggy from inside. Add bread crumbs as needed. If the mixture is not stiff enough or you want the patties to be very crispy.
How to make hara bhara kabab
12. Next heat a tawa and add 1 tbsp oil for each batch. Take small portions of the dough and make balls. Flatten them as needed. Fry on both the sides. You can even coat the patties in dry bread crumbs. Set the patties aside for 5 to 7 minutes for the crumbs to stick well.
13. You may get a green colored to deep brown patties depending on the flame. A high flame yields fairly browned but crispy patties in little time. If frying on a low flame, you can prevent them from turning brown. But takes a lot of time to make them crispy.
Serve hara bhara kabab with a sauce or chutney. We served with mint chutney and homemade tomato ketchup. These can also be served as patties to make a burger.
IIshwar Awatra says
I will try your recipes .
I found very interesting. I never cooked food but after reading your articles I have found love for cooking.
I am a senior citizen.
Thank you
Chandivali
Mumbai
swasthi says
Hello Sir,
Glad to know! Hope you enjoy the recipes
thank you
Neelam says
Amazing tips, seems like good recipe, however I suggest to use roasted chana sattu for binding, it is hassle free n tastes good as well’ Thanks for posting these recipes
swasthi says
Hello Neelam
Thank you for sharing your tip on roasted chana sattu. Sounds good.
:smile
Seema says
Made these kebabs for dinner and they were delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
swasthi says
Welcome Seema
Glad they came out good. Thank you
Flavia says
Hi Swasthi,
How to make poha powder & bread crumbs
swasthi says
Hi Flavia,
For most recipes you can use poha instead of bread crumbs, except for breaded snacks. To make poha powder, add some poha to a blender jar and make a fine powder. Store this in a container and use whenever needed. To make bread crumbs, toast a few slices of bread on a tawa until slightly crisp. They cut them and add to blender. Pulse them. Bread crumbs are easily available in the stores too. Hope this helps
Flavia says
Thank you so much Swasthi🤗
Anjali says
Hi Swathi , Thanks for sharing a delicious recipe . I tried preparing it and everyone appreciated the taste. However the kababs were more like tikki . What must have gone wrong. Please suggest.
swasthi says
Hi Anjali,
You are welcome! Hara bhara kababs actually get their unique flavor and taste when made in a tandoori oven. In most restaurants they char grill them or grill them in tandoori ovens.Some premium restaurants even smoke them towards the end. They also smear a generous amount of butter over the hot kababs. That’s the reason these homemade kababs taste different. You may try to smoke them once done for that aroma. Hope this helps.
Farah Sulaiman says
Hi Swathi
All your recipes look good as well taste good. I tried vegetable cutlet recipe and it turned out really tasty.
Keep the good work!
swasthi says
Hi Farah,
Thank you! Glad they turned out well.
Dr. Kanchan Gupta says
Spinach Kanab superb, nice Nutritious Receipe. Thx
swasthi says
You are welcome Dr. Kanchan Gupta
Glad you like them!
Jigna says
Hi Swasthi
I want to make these kebabs for a party on Sunday. To save time, can I make them in advance and freeze them without cooking or would this not work? If not, can you think of a better way for me to prepare these in advance to save me time later.
These and all of your recipes look amazing – I am making 4 of your recipes for my party on Sunday 🙂
Thank you
Jigna
swasthi says
Hi Jigna,
You are welcome. Yes they do freeze well. Place the patties on a tray and freeze them for 2 to 3 hours. Then remove and keep them in a ziplock bag. Thaw them in the fridge overnight before frying. Thank you so much! Hope you all enjoy the food!
🙂
Meena Verma says
Hi Swasthi, This is superb recipe. I tried and it came out very well. I checked your other tikki n cutlet recipe also but u hav used different binding for each how do we know whether to use besan or rice flour or corn flour or poha. Also what can i substitute maida with. please answer my doubts
swasthi says
Hi Meena,
Thanks for trying the recipe. I would say just go with the healthier ingredient and use poha for all of these – tikkis, cutlets & kababs. Poha works in all of these recipes. If the recipe calls for maida for coating then simply use rice flour or besan. This is a difficult question -“how do we know whether to use besan or rice flour or corn flour or poha.” I usually start trying a recipe with the healthier ingredients, then based on my kids feedback I keep changing until they say yes this is the one. Then that comes to the blog. So it depends on the recipe. You can leave a comment here if you are skeptical about any ingredient. I can suggest you. Thanks again Meena!
Shreya says
I make two recipes of urs today,Harabhara kabab and tawa pulao ,both came out delicious. Yes it both takes hard work but result is tasteful. So I m very very satisfied and thank u so much to share these recipes. Love u
swasthi says
Hi Shreya
You are welcome. Thank you so much for rating the recipe. Glad to know your kababs and pulao came out well.
🙂
Hasina says
I have tried your recipe and very happy with the result. Can you please guide me on how can I refrigerate the kababs for a longer period so that they can be used in kids lunch box as and when needed?
swasthi says
Hi Hasina
Thanks for trying the recipe. You can just freeze or refrigerate the patties in separate containers. Keep the patties out of the fridge for about an hour. Then fry or grill them in the oven. If you freeze then defrost them in the fridge overnight. If they do not turn out crisp then just dip them in dry flour and dust off the excess before frying. Hope this helps.
🙂
Babita says
Dear swasthi i love your every receipe
Thank you for making it so easy
You are such a Blessing…God Bless you
swasthi says
Hi Babita
You are welcome. Thank you so much for the wishes.
Happy to know the recipes are useful.
God bless!
Beatrice Lewis says
love your recipes detailed and very tasty.
swasthi says
Hi Beatrice Lewis
Thank you very much
Ani says
Hello Swasthi
I tried the Hara bhara kababs. They came out very well. For how Many days will the dough keep good in the fridge? I plan to make them 2 to 3 times a week for my toddler. He enjoys them a lot for breakfast.. can I add any whole grains to this? Will they taste good. pls suggest. TIA
swasthi says
Hi Ani
Thanks for trying. I guess the dough keeps good for 48 hours in fridge. Yes you can add cooked quinoa or steel cut oats. I have no idea about rest of the grains. Try and check if your toddler likes them.
Beatrice Lewis says
You can do that, I have prepared it that way esp for parties.
m says
I look forward to making these! Do you think I can make the batter in the morning and bake/fry them in the evening and they will still come out well?
swasthi says
Hi,
I am not sure how they will turn out if the dough is refrigerated. I should come out good but never tried them that way.
Ajman Samani says
Good recipe
swasthi says
Thank you
Tina says
I made these Hara bhara kabab yesterday as I had some friends home. They turned 👌. Very tasty. Thank you so much ☺️
joAnnegr says
Can I use frozen spinach for the kabobs?
swasthi says
Hi, Yes it works but not sure how its going to taste