Pakora is one of the absolute must-haves on a rain pouring day if you are in India. If you are at a restaurant I am sure this id a universal item on the Indian menu even in restaurants. We have all grown up with this gluten-free, deep-fried deliciousness served at tea. Hot warm pakoras are often made with pretty much any veggies that you have at home
Pakora and me
Pakodas to me mean my mom was home. It is one of the tell tale signs that my mom had a day off from work. I could smell the fried goodies down at the street and couldn’t wait to blow and have a few as mum made them. I guess this trait passed on real well with me too. The kids know I was home early from work if it is pakoras and if there are pakoras and chutney they know mom is been home long enough for her cup of tea.
The winter months in Sydney really make me crave these warm pakoras, so make them with the veggies I have around in the kitchen. Most of the time it is Onions or spinach. This time I had a lot of leeks and thought being the onion family they surely will taste delicious. So here we are.
Here are a couple of must have with this pakora
-
- green chutney dip
Leeks
- Know to the as a producer of a great singing voice, leeks are a basically a member of the onion family by the Greeks and Egyptian civilizations.
- More subtle than the flavour of onions, these are very helpful in the reduction of liver Fatty acid.
- Though the kaempferol content is lesser than onions the white portion of the leeks has a good concentration of this flavinoid.
- Leeks do have a good content of Folate in them.
- The antioxidant polyphenols found in leeks are protective to the blood vascular system
This is one of the few recipes, I don’t seem to mind the deep frying. But it works perfectly baked as well. See the footnotes for the baked version.
This recipe is added to the foodie for feast blogger group towards their attempt to create fabulous pakoras. Here are some of their creations
Don’t miss to tag us as you make this absolute monsoon must-have. Hold up that cup of chai and let the kids dance around you. Now that’s the best a mum can do. Do subscribe to this website for stories, places, recipes and more.
See you soon…
Crispy Leeks Pakora
Monsoon must have
Ingredients
For the batter
- 1 cup chickpea flour (besan/ kadalamaav)
- 1 tbsp Raw rice flour
- salt to taste
- 1 pinch Asafoetida (hing)
- 11/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (use cayenne if you need the heat)
- 1 cup drinking water (use as needed)
for the leeks
- 1 cup leeks thinly sliced
to fry
- 2 cups cooking oil for deep frying
to serve
- green chutney
Instructions
- Wash clean and thinly slice the green and the white portions of the leeks to obtain a cup of leeks. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl add the chickpea flour, rice flour, salt, chilli powder, hing and salt and mix well. Add a little water at a time and mix together to create a lump less batter
- Add the sliced leeks into the batter and mix well. the batter is now in a honey consistency, not pouring.
- Heat oil to moderately high in a wok ( try and use less oil at a time so you dont recycle the oil)
- drop spoon fulls of the batter into the hot oil.
- Deep fry on one side, flip over and fry the other side too.
- When golden brown and the bubbles around each spoonful of batter have reduced considerably, the pakoras are ready.
- Remove on adsorbent paper
- Serve hot with green chutney and chai
Notes
Baked leeks pakora Preheat the oven to 180 (not fanforced). The baked pakoras need a bit less runny batter, so reduce the water to form a thick batter( about half cup water) based on the ingredients given above. Add a tbsp of oil to this batter and then add the leeks. This gives a crispy pakora. Spray a sheet pan with oil, drop spoonful batter on the sheet pan with enough spreading space between. Bake for about 10 minutes and brush them with a bit of oil. Bake them again for about 10 more minutes and they are ready to serve.
Nutrition
Calories: 180kcalCarbohydrates: 21gProtein: 6gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gSodium: 216mgPotassium: 305mgFiber: 4gSugar: 4g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Pakoda looks super crispy and yummy.. never heard or tried Leeks Pakoda but definitely I will try very soon. What a lovely share. Beautifully written post…
Never thought of Leeks pakoda. These pakodas look so crispy and d delicious.
Pakoda with leek sounds appetising and delish. I always wanted to try baked version but never dared to try somehow. I will try baked version of this lovely pakoda.
Wow!! Great idea to use up those extra leeks; I am sure gives an amazing flavor too! Fab share <3
Using leeks in fritters is an amazing idea ! Would love trying your baked version soon.
Never tried leeks pakoda. But these look perfectly crispy and tasty. This is such a new dish for me… A perfect dish to surprise your guests with your culinary skills.
Pakoda using leeks is a great idea !! Looks really so crispy and yumm, love to have with some ketchup 🙂
Pakoda with leeks sounds so interesting and they look really crispy and delicious. Thanks for sharing a new recipe with leeks.