Aloo Pakora is a delectable crispy Indian snack made with sliced potatoes, gram flour and few spices. It is vegan, vegetarian and gluten free and can be enjoyed with ketchup or any dip.
These Indian style deep potato fritters, also known as ‘aloo ke pakode’ or ‘potato bajji’, are so easy, quick to make and require handful of basic pantry ingredients. You can deep fry them or make in air fryer.
When we were kids, my mom made these crispy golden brown potato pakora as Sunday brunch and my brother & I would love them with ketchup or fresh cilantro mint chutney. They are also a perfect snack to enjoy on a rainy or chilly day with a hot cup of masala tea or ginger tea.
Aloo Pakora Ingredients
Potatoes: To prep the potatoes, we will peel them and cut into medium thickness slices. You can use a sharp knife for it or a mandolin slicer.
The highlight of the recipe is soft melt in the mouth texture of potatoes from inside and crispy texture from outside. To achieve this it is important to keep the potatoes neither too thick nor too thin. If they are too thin, you will taste more of outer crust and if too thick, the potatoes may taste raw from inside.
Also, after slicing the potatoes it is important to not leave them for too long and begin to change their colour (due to oxidation reaction).
Gram Flour: To make the batter, we will use besan, also known as chickpea flour. It is a pale yellow colour gluten free flour made with split chana dal (bengal gram) and is used in mostly all traditional Indian fritters recipe.
To make them even more crispier, some rice flour, cornstarch or semolina (sooji) can also be added but it is optional.
Spices & Aromatics: Carom seeds (ajwain) and ginger paste add a wonderful aroma to the fritters and helps in digestion. Red chilli powder is added for spiciness which you can adjust as per your taste.
Baking Soda: Some people also add 1 to 2 pinches of baking soda to the batter as it makes the outer covering slightly more puffy while keeping the pakoda crispy. If you wish you can also add it.
Oil: You can use any cooking oil for deep frying these aloo pakoda like seasae oil, ground nut oil or sunflower oil. The oil should always be hot enough before frying as other pakode can soak up oil and turn out oily.
More Indian snack recipes:
Ingredients:
- Gram flour (Besan)- 1 + 1/2 cups
- Potatoes (medium)- 3 to 4
- Rice flour- 2 tbsp (optional)
- Water- 3/4 to 1 cup (as required)
- Ajwain (carom seeds)- 1/4 tsp
- Red Chilli Powder- 1/2 tsp
- Turmeric (Haldi)- 1/4 tsp
- Ginger Paste- 1/2 tsp
- Salt- 1 tsp (or to taste)
- Oil- For frying
Directions:
Step 1:
Take besan (gram flour) in a bowl and add all spices ginger paste and chopped green chillies to it. Make a smooth batter by adding water to it. Add water slowly and gradually, stirring the batter continuously such that no lumps are left in the batter leaving it smooth and creamy. The batter should neither be very thick nor it should be very thin.
As you can see in the below image, the batter is coating the spoon nicely. This indicates the right consistency of the batter.
Step 2:
Moving ahead, keep this batter aside. Peel some potatoes and cut them into thin round slices. Please make sure slices are not thick otherwise they will taste raw even after frying at a later stage. Wash them thoroughly and let them dry on a kitchen towel. Marinade them by sprinkling half teaspoon salt and one-fourth teaspoon red chilli powder over it. Keep them aside for 10-15 minutes.
Step 3:
Heat oil in a pan. Keeping the flame to medium-high, take potato slices one by one, dip them in the batter and swiftly drop them in the frying pan. After some time, the side facing the oil would turn golden brown. Carefully turn them over.
Once both the sides turn golden brown, take the ‘pakoras’ out of the frying pan and place them over the tissue paper. Repeat the process for remaining potato slices.Aloo Pakoras are ready!!
Serving Suggestion: Sprinkle some chaat masala over the pakoras and serve them with ketchup, tamarind or coriander chutney.
Tips:
- To make in advance: You can half-fry the fritters and keep aside. Fry them again at the time of serving. This will give crisper and hot pakoras.
- To check whether the oil is ready for frying, drop a pinch of batter in the oil. If it come over the top, the oil is ready for frying.
- You can use leftover batter to make besan chilla / vegetable pancakes.
If you try this fritters recipe & share pics on social media, then don’t forget to tag on Facebook or Instagram or use #kuchpakrahahai.
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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