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.
Tips to make best pakoras
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.
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
Pakora recipe
Pakora recipe (Vegetable pakora) | How to make pakora
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
- ½ cup besan or gram flour (use more if needed)
- ¼ cup rice flour or corn starch (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)
How to make the recipe
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.
NUTRITION (estimation only)
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 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.
How to make pakora mix
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.
How to make pakora
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.
chithra says
wow Swasthi ..i made it today ..It was very easy and tasted awesome..thanks a ton .my fly adored it..grt evening
swasthi says
Welcome Chithra
Glad to know
Thank you
Roopa says
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:)
swasthi says
Welcome Roopa
Glad to know they turned out good. Yes I feel there is a huge difference in taste.
Thank you
🙂
Roopa says
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
swasthi says
Hi Roopa,
You can do it without the parchment paper. The same recipe works.
Susan says
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!
swasthi says
Hi Susan
You are welcome! Glad your family loved the pakoras. Thank you so much!
Jothy Vasudev says
Amazingly crispy and delicious!
swasthi says
Thanks Jothy
Richard says
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.
swasthi says
Hi Richard,
You are welcome. Too much flour and even more moisture can make the pakoras cakey. Hope you enjoy making them!
Thank you!
neha says
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
swasthi says
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.
🙂
neha says
Thank you Swasthi for all your inputs.
Kogie says
Thank u for sharing yr recipes & u r great. God bless u with good health & happiness throughout yr life. Lottsalove.
swasthi says
Hi Kogie,
You are welcome. Thank you so much for the wishes & love. You too stay blessed!
🙂
Anjali Chugh says
Excellent explanation
swasthi says
Thanks Anjali
Sihame says
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.
swasthi says
Hi Sihame,
Great! You are welcome. So glad to know your pakora turned out good. Thank you so much for trying the recipes.
🙂
Sihame says
Thank you for sharing your recipes with the great details.
Petronella Krugel says
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.
Sihame says
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 😉😁.
swasthi says
Thanks again for trying the recipes.
🙂
Rita says
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 😉
Yves says
Looks good, I’ve bookmarked it and gonna try it soon
swasthi says
Thanks a lot
Sue says
will they go soggy if reheated later?
swasthi says
Hi Sue,
they will be crispy when you fry them again. You can also heat in oven until crisp
Gigi says
Can this be made with only besan flour? (Or a different flour than rice be used – I can’t use rice, corn, or wheat flour)
swasthi says
Hi Gigi
Yes you can make these using only besan. Traditionally pakora were always made using only besan. They still turn out crisp. Just make sure the pakora dough is right and stiff and not soggy else they turn soft
Andy Stonehouse says
I can’t wait to make the pakoras!
Do you have recipes for dips like chilli or accompanying dips?
swasthi says
Hi Andy
Do try them.
For Indian dips or chutneys . you can check this chutney recipes
Harika says
best pakora turned out awesome
swasthi says
Thanks Harika
Ana says
Great
swasthi says
Thank you