Recipe Cauliflower & Onion Pakoras (Indian)

[Mountain Cat]

These are vegan. I love them. I had to do my best to re-create them after ordering them a couple times at an Indian restaurant a little out of my way for regular visits. More local restaurants to me seem to lack this wonderful food! This recipe is also gluten-free if that is something you need or prefer.

Vegetarian Cauliflower and Onion Pakora Recipe

• 50 grams (2 ounces) besan (chickpea flour), also sold as “gram”.
• 150-200 grams (5.5-7 ounces) Cauliflower, broken up into small chunks.
• 1/2 medium onion, preferably yellow or white, sliced.
• 1 teaspoon garam marsala
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• Handful of cilantro (coriander leaves), coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried menthi (fenugreek leaves)
• 3/4 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon dried chili powder (I used Korean, which may have more of a bang than most)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• water sufficient to make a paste.
• Cooking oil. (I prefer avocado or grape seed oil, but whatever, make it high temperature oil)

Mix everything but the water and oil, together.

Add water gradually, mix, add more as necessary, until you have a moderately thick paste.

Heat the oil in a pan on the cook top. A good medium high is desired, but the oil should not smoke.

Test the temperature by adding a drop of batter to the oil. If it rises to the surface and begins cooking, you are in the ball park.

Add several (the number depending on the surface area of your pan) heaping teaspoon sized dollops of batter to the pan. Somewhere between 1 and 2 teaspoons in size. They should brown slightly before turning them. They’re good anywhere from a golden to a darker brown. (You can indeed make them somewhat larger than I did.)

Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate covered with a paper towel to absorb excess oil. With high frying temperatures, less oil will be absorbed, so keep this in mind.

Serve warm, with an Indian chutney if so desired. They make a great appetizer or snack, and can be re-heated (oven is best, so they retain their moderate level of crispiness) later.

 

[Mountain Cat]

Um, I wanted to have that green "recipe" tag in front of this post, but couldn't find it. Perhaps I need to look for it before I copy paste into the thread topic itself? Just let me know for future reference.

 

[medtran49]

On the next line down from the "tags," you can use "thread tools" to edit your title. There's a drop-down box for the "recipes, retro recipe, etc" tags. You should still be able to edit your post/title.

 

[Morning Glory]

@medtran49 has answered your query - they are Pre-fixes rather than tags. Tags are the items which are listed top left of the post. 'Thread tools' is top right.

A lovely recipe - I will be making these!