Crispy Indian vegetable pakora/Bhajji makes a great side dish for Ramadan Iftar, a popular teatime snack in India, and great for parties. The recipe includes serving the pakora as a chaat or tempura.
¼cupwhisked plain yogurt, add tablespoon water to whisk it if it's too thick
2-3tablespoonstamarind-date chutney
Optional Tempura Condiment
Tempura Dipping Sauce, see recipe instructions in the blog
Instructions
Combine chickpea flour, rice flour, turmeric, salt, and water in a large prep bowl. Whisk the batter until smooth and no lumps are left. Set the batter aside for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, wash, and clean all the vegetables. Peel the potato and thinly slice it into circles. Transfer the sliced potato into a bowl with some water.
Slice zucchini and yellow squash into ⅛ inch circles. Pat dry all the excess moisture on the spinach with paper or a kitchen towel.
Heat a cast-iron skillet or a wok with cooking oil on medium-high heat. Takes about 2 minutes for the oil to start heating up on medium heat. Oil has to be medium hot to fry the pakora.
Take 6 to 8 slices of zucchini, squash, and potato for the first batch of frying. Dip one slice of vegetable in the batter at a time and transfer them to hot oil.
Fry the pakora until one side is slightly golden. Turn over the pakora with a fork or spider strainer. Fry the other side until golden and crispy. Fry longer on both sides if needed.
Repeat the frying steps until all the potato, zucchini, and squash are fried. Fry spinach in the end.
Serve it with cilantro chutney and sprinkle of chili, chaat masala and salt.
To serve it as pakora chaat, place the pakora on a plate, top them off with whisked yogurt, tamarind-date chutney, and a sprinkle of red chili powder.
See Tempura dipping sauce recipe to serve the pakora as a tempura.
Notes
Add a drop of batter to the hot oil. If the batter quickly comes up on top of the oil surface and cloudy bubbles form around the batter drop then the oil is ready for frying.
You can also check by sticking the end of a wooden spatula into the hot oil. If the oil is hot enough for frying, the bubble will form around the end of the wooden spatula.