Crispy Spinach Pakoras
August 23rd, 2010 filed under Appetizers, Snacks, Vegan
Spinach pakoras are delicious as a snack. Spinach pakoras can be served many different ways and they always taste great. One of my favorite ways to serve these pakoras is papdi chaat.
Recipe makes about 30 pieces
Ingredients
For Batter
- ½ cup gram flour (basen)
- 1 tablespoon corn starch (arrow root powder)
- ½ teaspoon salt adjust to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon asafetida (hing)
- About 3/4 cup water
Also need
- About 30 fresh spinach leaves
- Oil to fry
Method
- Mix all the dry ingredients together: besan, corn starch, black pepper, cumin seeds, asafetida, and salt. Corn starch adds to the crispness.
- Add the water slowly to make a smooth batter (batter should be thin consistency).
- Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium high heat.
- The frying pan should have at least 1 ½ inch of oil. To check if the oil is ready, put one drop of batter in oil. The batter should come up but not change color right away.
- Dip the spinach leaf into the batter one at a time, making sure it is covered by the batter completely; wipe it from side of the batter bowl making sure batter is evenly spread over spinach. Then, slowly drop in the slices into the frying pan.
- Fry the pakoras in small batches. The pakoras will take about 2 to 3 minutes to cook.
- Turn them occasionally. Fry the pakoras until both sides are golden-brown.
- The crispy, delicious pakoras are now ready to serve.
- They can be stored for several days in air tight container.
Tips
If oil is too hot pakoras will not be crispy; if oil is not hot enough, pakoras will be greasy.
Serving Suggestions
- Spinach pakoras can be served as chips with your choice of dipping sauce.
- Spinach crisp can also be served as papdi chaat.
Can you bake them instead of frying? Would the rest of the recipe remain the same if we did?
I am an American who loves Indian food and enjoy your website very much. I have not prepared many of your dishes yet, but hope to very soon. I have a question about asafetida (hing). I have not seen it even in the Asian grocers here, but was wondering if it is necessary to the flavor of the dish. What is its benefit to the recipe? Thank you!
Naomi, hing is only found at Indian grocery stores. It gives a hint of flavor similar to onion and garlic, but if you don’t have any hing the dish will still taste good. Don’t worry about it.
Thank you I needed to find a health snack,. God Bless
Thank You very much for the recipe, Its great to eat food that mom makes, but now i am able to do it myself in college. Great thanks, i guess i don’t miss mums cooking any more!!
Krishna,
You will always miss your mums cooking.
Hello Aunty,
Tat was really lip smacking dish…My Husband loved it so much and was surprised by the recipe…Thank u so much….
They were gone in minutes. That’s how good they are.
is there any substitute for corn starch?? i want to make today.
Yummy! We Filipinos have a similar dish in “Kangkong” leaves, and we call it Crispy kangkong. The choice of using Spinach for this dish is healthy and practical, since Spinach is easier to locate in markets.