Crispy mixed vegetable pakoras are vegetarian fritters that are deep fried and served with chutney. They’re addictive, and one of Pakistan and India’s most loved street food snack. Today I’m giving you the best vegetable pakora recipe ever. Tips for making and keeping the vegetable pakoras super crispy are included in today’s post.
So, as promised in my Aloo Pakora post, I’m back with another pakora recipe…one of my very favourite snacks for Iftar in Ramadan, or when it’s raining: mixed vegetable pakoras. If you like crispy veggies coated in batter and then deep fried, well you’ve come to the right place, my friend.
Dip these pakoras into this delicious and easy Imli ki Chutney.
This Pakistani vegetable pakora recipe is the best. Seriously, it’s so good. And it’s also easy because who doesn’t like easy to make snacks?
What Are Vegetable Pakoras Made Of?
All pakora recipes start with a chickpea / gram flour batter. It’s a super easy batter that’s made with some spices (less or more, your choice) and a little bit of water.
Since we are making mixed vegetable pakoras today, we’ll use a variety of finely chopped veggies:
- Spinach
- Potato
- Onion
These are the three veggies that I absolutely love in my vegetable pakora recipes. However, you may add veggies like thinly sliced cabbage and carrots. Try to avoid vegetables that have a lot of water content like eggplant, because they won’t become as crispy. Although, eggplant (baingan) pakoras are often made in my home, and they do turn out to be super delicious. Just not as crispy.
How Do You Keep Vegetable Pakoras Crispy?
Pakoras are addicting because they are savoury, deep fried and CRISPY. If they turn out soggy, they’re just not as good. So I’ve got a few tips on how to make sure your vegetable pakoras turn out crispy and can’t stop eating good:
1.) Add very little water to the pakora batter. This is super important. Why? Because vegetables release their own water. So we need just enough water to mix the pakora batter with the vegetables. If you go through my Aloo Pakora recipe, I ask you to make a more runny batter because we’re only using thinly slice potatoes in that recipe. But for mixed vegetable pakoras, I urge you to use just enough water to make the batter come together. Rest of the moisture will come from the mixed veggies. And we don’t need a lot at all, in order to make crispy vegetable pakoras.
2.) This isn’t a very commonly used tip, but I like to add just a pinch of baking soda to the pakora batter. This also helps in making the pakoras crispy.
3.) Instead of placing the fried pakoras on a paper lined plate, I use a cooling rack to place my pakoras on. This ensures no steam gathers under the pakoras (while they’re resting) to make them soggy.
If you follow all these tips, your vegetable pakoras will turn out very crispy. You won’t be able to stop eating them!!
How to Make Mixed Vegetable Pakoras
Making these pakoras is super easy peasy. There are two parts to making pakoras:
The Pakora Batter:
- This doesn’t have to be runny at all unlike the Aloo Pakora batter. Why? Because in order to make crispy vegetable pakoras we need just enough moisture in the pakora batter. If there’s excess water, the pakoras won’t turn out as crispy.
Frying the Veg Pakoras:
- You need to ensure that the oil temperature is correct. It shouldn’t be too hot, or else the pakoras will turn too dark and not cook through.
- To check the oil temperature, drop in a little bit of pakora batter. If it floats up immediately and sizzles the oil is too hot. The oil should be medium high.
- Use a tablespoon to drop in the pakora batter. Fry only a few pakoras at a time so as to avoid overcrowding and uneven cooking.
- Use a cooling rack to place the pakoras on, to ensure that the crispiness remains.
- Serve with this delicious mint and coriander raita.
More Delicious Pakistani Snacks
Baked Spinach and Cheese Samosa
Mixed Vegetable Pakora Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup gram flour besan
- 1/2 cup chopped spinach palak
- 1/2 cup potato julienned
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced onion
- 2-3 tablespoons chopped coriander dhania
- 1 green chilli chopped finely
- 1/2 teaspoon lal mirch powder or to taste
- 1 teaspoon crushed coriander seeds sabut dhania
- 1 teaspoon crushed cumin seeds sabut zeera
- Salt to taste
- A pinch of baking soda
- 1/4 cup water or as required
- Cooking oil for deep frying
Instructions
Making the Pakora Batter
- In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients except water and oil.
- Now gradually add the water, a little bit a time, until a thick batter has formed. The vegetables will release water so we don’t want to add too much water. The batter must be thick so that it evenly coats all the vegetables. If the batter is too thin, it won’t stick to the vegetables.
- Once the pakora batter is ready, set it aside.
Frying the Mixed Vegetable Pakora
- In a medium sized wok, bring oil to a medium high heat.
- To see if the oil is ready for frying, drop a little bit of batter into the oil. If it floats up immediately, the oil is too hot for frying. If the batter takes about 2 seconds to float up, then the oil is ready for frying.
- Using a tablespoon, drop the batter into the oil. Frying only a few pakoras at a time. Too many pakoras will crowd the wok, and cause the temperature of the oil to drop and the pakoras won’t cook evenly.
- Gently flip the pakoras while frying so that they cook evenly from all sides.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove the pakoras from the wok and place on a paper towel lined plate.
- Serve with green chutney or imli ki chutney.
Well done this is really nice. I like tips to make them crispy. Soda, small amount of water and most importantly cooling rack. I would actually say 'serve' on cooling racks. Like in hotels they serve sliced toasted bread on metal racks. Although in this case we need something horizontal. May be I make one in my workshop!
I wonder if pakoras can be encouraged to take a shape for example like an onion ring?
I would like to try one day pakoras made with whole mildly hot Jalapinos.