Veg pakora recipe – Pakora are a delicious Indian crisp fried snack made with gram flour, spices & any main ingredient like onion, paneer or veggies. These vegetable pakora are a variation of the onion pakoda & are super quick to make anytime. These deep fried snack taste delicious & are extremely addictive with a great aroma of gram flour or besan and spices.
Onion pakora are the most popular street food & snack across India. Vegetable pakora that are served in North Indian restaurants are made with other vegetables Potatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, Bellpeppers/ capsicum, eggplant/brinjal etc.
The recipe shared here is my own and is very different from the restaurant served pakora platter. These vegetable pakora can be made using mixed vegetables and leafy greens like palak or methi.
I made these on a weekend when I was left with very few veggies from the previous week. I know deep frying veggies isn’t a good idea, but I do it when I have surplus veggies.
These pakoda turn out crunchy & extremely delicious. Surely they will be loved by everyone. These make a good weekend or evening snack and can be made easily even when you have guests home.
You may also like to check these 19 Pakoda recipes, some of them are
Gobi pakoda
Sweet corn pakoda
Onion pakoda
Cabbage pakoda
Mirchi bajji
How to make vegetable pakora
1. Wash the veggies thoroughly. I have used 1 cup shredded cabbage, 1 medium onion sliced, ¼ cup capsicum, 1 medium carrot, 4 to 5 french beans julienned. Make sure you remove or chop off the bean inside the french beans. They may burst while frying.
You can use other veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, bhindi, potatoes, sweet potatoes, brinjal etc. Make sure all the veggies are almost of uniform size, thin and long. This helps in even frying.
2. You can also add chopped spinach, methi, coriander, dill or pudina/ mint leaves. I used a handful of mint leaves, they add a great aroma. Also add chopped green chilies, crushed ginger garlic or paste, little garam masala and salt.
3. Mix all these and squeeze the veggies a bit to let out moisture from them. The mixture begins to smell very good. Set aside for about 10 mins.
4. Add besan/ chickpea flour, ajwain and rice flour.
5. Mix everything well to make a dough. If needed you can sprinkle few tbsps of water. I did not use any water, moisture from veggies was sufficient to make a dough. Adjust the salt and chilies as needed by tasting the dough.
6. Heat oil in a pan. When it is hot enough, adjust the flame to medium. Take small portions of this dough, slightly flatten. Drop in hot oil. Keep stirring for even frying.
7. Fry until lightly golden. Transfer to a kitchen or absorbent tissue.
Serve mix veg pakora hot.
Pro Tips
1. Always use quick cook veggies to make pakoras. Avoid veggies like potato or sweet potato as the cook time is different from the other veggies. They often don’t cook well.
2. The key to making best crisp pakoras is not to add too much water while making the dough. Veggies tend to release moisture when set aside. So add accordingly.
3. Fry the vegetable pakoras on a medium flame until crisp. Too low flame with make the pakoras soak up lot of oil. Too high flame will brown the pakoras without cooking the dough well from inside.
4. Always taste the gram flour before using it as it has a very short shelf life. It tends to turn bitter with in a few months of processing it.
5. You can also add in lot of leafy greens that are finely chopped.
6. Usually carom seeds or ajwain are used to flavor the pakoras. However if you do not have them just skip and add some garam masala powder.
Serving suggestions
We usually enjoy our pakoras with a cup of hot masala chai. However most people love these green chutney or any hot sauce like this schezwan sauce.
Related Recipes
Recipe card
Pakora recipe (Vegetable pakora) | How to make pakora
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
- ½ cup besan or gram flour (use more if needed)
- ¼ cup rice flour (use more if needed proportionally with besan)
- salt as needed
- 3 green chilies chopped (adjust)
- 2 tbsps mint or coriander leaves or dill leaves chopped
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste or crushed
- ¼ to ½ tsp garam masala powder (optional)
- ½ teaspoons carom seeds or ajwain (optional)
- oil for deep frying as needed
mixed veggies julienned 2.5 to 3 cups
- 1 medium carrot (¾ cup julienned)
- ¼ cup capsicum (bell peppers)
- 1 cup cabbage (shredded)
- 1 medium onion (thinly sliced)
- 6 french beans (julienned)
- 1 cup spinach chopped (optional)
Instructions
Preparation
- Wash the veggies and cut to thin 2 inch long strips.
- Add them to a bowl along with ginger garlic, chilies, salt, green chili, garam masala, mint or other herbs.
- Mix well & squeeze them gently to release moisture. Keep aside for 10 mins.
- Add the gram flour along with ajwain.
- Adjust salt if needed. Add few tbsps water if needed to make a dough.
- Mix well to make a stiff dough.
How to make pakora
- Heat oil in a deep pan on a medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, slide a small portion of the dough to check if the oil is hot enough.
- The pakora dough must rise without browning a lot. This is the right temperature.
- Then gently drop small portions of the dough after flattening a bit. Do not disturb for a minute or until they firm up a bit.
- Keep stirring and fry on a medium heat until lightly golden.
- Finish frying the pakora dough in batches.
- Serve vegetable pakora hot with a cup of masala tea or green chutney.
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
Great recipe. One lesson I learned that I think a lot of first timers to making pakora is, do not expect it be able to shaped like a patty. If you are able to shaped it into a patty then you have added too much flour. Expect it to be difficult to handle and just spoon it randomly into the hot oil. Don’t even try to shape it. Another tip is don’t worry about it sticking. They do not stick. Just keep spooning until the pan is full.
You have the best method – much better than making a batter then worrying if the veggies are to watery. Minimum batter, max veggies. It works great, and it’s foegiving if you make a mistake.
Swasthi,thank u always sharing your recipe I always copy your recipe every time I prepared for lunch and dinner to my boss..the like it so much especially my madam she is a vegetarian..
Welcome Norie
Glad to know the recipes are helpful!
Thanks for leaving a comment!
Just want to thank you for your amazing recipes online. I had tried and failed so many times with pakora, but these always turn out just perfect and I have had so many compliments from friends and family when I make them. Easy, no fuss, and an array of colour in the pakora with all those different vegetables. Perfect!
Welcome Judy,
Thank you! Glad you like them
Thank you for the great recipe! Used a mix of cabbage, zucchini, onion and carrot because that is what was on hand. Easy and delicious, will definitely make these again.
Welcome Patty
Glad to know!
Thanks for leaving a comment.
Hi I just made this with potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, onion, poblano peppers, eggplant. It is over-the-top delicious so good. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Bess,
You are welcome! Glad to know. Love the addition of potatoes. Thanks for leaving a comment
Hi Swasthi,
I would like to thank you for all these recipes that I’ve been religiously following, I’m from north east India and the food that we eat is quite different over there, my husband is from UP so I started learning how to cook from your recipes, any type of food and snacks, I learned everything from your recipes. Thank you so much.
I have one question – the measurements you use when you say “cup”, what type of cup is it? Is there a measurement cup that I can buy? How much ml is one cup?
Thank you
Marina R
Hi Marina
Glad to know you!
You are most welcome! Yes You can find measuring cups in most supermarkets. I use both 240 ml & 250 ml cups for my cooking. Both are just fine. 1 cup is 240 or 250 ml. Any will do. You can look for the whole set – ¼,½ ,¾, 1 cup. Also get the measuring spoons – ¼,½ ,¾, 1 tablespoons & ¼,½ ,¾, 1 teaspoons. Hope this helps
Hi Swasthi, I normally eat the pakoras made by my wife. Today, I ventured into the kitchen, followed your recipe and got to impress my wife with my maiden effort! Thank u, I used red bell pepper, onion, carrot and cabbage and it was awesome!
Welcome Ram,
Glad to know!
wow Swasthi ..i made it today ..It was very easy and tasted awesome..thanks a ton .my fly adored it..grt evening
Welcome Chithra
Glad to know
Thank you
Hi Swasthi,
Like you said I used same recipe in air fryer. It worked well. I put it in air fryer for 9 minutes at 390 degrees F. I flipped them in middle. Oil must taste better but This was good healthy version. Thanks a lot for recipe and your feed back:)
Welcome Roopa
Glad to know they turned out good. Yes I feel there is a huge difference in taste.
Thank you
🙂
Hi Swasthi
I wonder if I placed parchment paper in the air fryer. Spray oil .place pakora on it and spray oil on it again. Is it possible to make it.
No rush for answer….
Thanks
Hi Roopa,
You can do it without the parchment paper. The same recipe works.
I made this tonight! It was excellent. I followed the recipe and it was easy and I had perfect results! The family was eating them before I could get them to the table!
Thank you for your great recipe!
Hi Susan
You are welcome! Glad your family loved the pakoras. Thank you so much!
Amazingly crispy and delicious!
Thanks Jothy
Thank you for this recipe, Swasthi. I miss onion bhajis from the UK and living in the US we haven’t found anywhere that does them well, mostly too cakey. We found a local Southern Indian restaurant which makes delicious onion and chilli pakoras that look just like yours, so I am very excited to find your recipe and make our own.
Hi Richard,
You are welcome. Too much flour and even more moisture can make the pakoras cakey. Hope you enjoy making them!
Thank you!
Thank you Swasthi for another great recipe. Could you please let me what you do with the oil left over from frying. How long is it safe to use and how many times can it be reused? I would appreciate your inputs
Hi Neha,
You are welcome. I suggest you discard the oil after frying. Just use only as much as needed to fry. I have been reading that it is absolutely fine to filter the oil and reuse until it turns to a darker color. But I don’t believe this. So I just discard after single use. If frying papads I fry good enough for 2 days and then discard. If frying murukku or anything to store and eat, for every 2 cups of flour I use a fresh batch of oil. The key is to use only as much oil as needed for frying so we don’t have the guilt.
🙂
Thank you Swasthi for all your inputs.
Thank u for sharing yr recipes & u r great. God bless u with good health & happiness throughout yr life. Lottsalove.
Hi Kogie,
You are welcome. Thank you so much for the wishes & love. You too stay blessed!
🙂
Excellent explanation
Thanks Anjali
It was so delicious. I ate half of them in the kitchen. I didn’t have the green pepper, but I used red and orange pepper. Next time I will double the recipe. All my family love it. Thank you so much.
Hi Sihame,
Great! You are welcome. So glad to know your pakora turned out good. Thank you so much for trying the recipes.
🙂
Thank you for sharing your recipes with the great details.
I am very interested in making good, especially f9od that is made in Pakistan
The Indian food always looks so colourful and one can only assume that it will be tasty.
I triyed some other recipe from the website. I don’t eat spicy food too much, but I lower the chilly pepper for me. The recipes come out so good. They are amazing. Better than the restaurant ??.
Thanks again for trying the recipes.
🙂
Hey swasthi
Stunning pakoras .! They come out so colourful and crunchy every time I make these. Can’t thank you enough for all the recipes. Absolutely amazing ?
Looks good, I’ve bookmarked it and gonna try it soon
Thanks a lot