Recipe for Veggie Pakora with sweet potato and broccoli, served with a homemade Cilantro Coconut Sauce. Vegan and gluten-free. YUMMY!
I just love Indian food… everything from creamy curries to garlic naan, chapati, basmati rice, papadum to pakoras. Yes, pakoras, awesome chickpea battered fried veggies. I haven’t had restaurant veggie pakora in such a long time, so I decided to make them at home.
Usually, I avoid making fried foods at home but for these Veggie Pakoras, I had to make an exception. I tried a baked version once, but it wasn’t like the real deal at all and they couldn’t satisfy my pakora cravings.
These fried Veggie Pakora are crunchy and flavorful (and naturally vegan and gluten-free). I served them with a homemade finger-licking-good Cilantro Coconut Sauce and with additional chopped fresh cilantro on top. It’s the perfect appetizer or snack!
The Veggies For Pakoras
You can use pretty much any veggies you like for pakora, but I used boiled sweet potato cubes, steamed broccoli, finely chopped spring onions and red onion. I really loved that combination and the sweetness of the sweet potato was amazing with the savory chickpea batter. I steamed the broccoli florets in a strainer in the pot where I boiled the sweet potatoes, so that’s a win-win situation right here.
The Batter
The chickpea batter is really easy to make. Sift the chickpea flour, add the spices, give it a quick whisk, slowly add in the water and whisk it until it’s a creamy batter. Toss in the veggies, give it a good mix and place spoon-sized bites of the veggie-chickpea-mix into the oil. Take them out once they got a nice golden color and are crunchy on the outside.
- 1 cup chickpea flour , sifted
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon kala namak
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 sweet potato
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- 1 red onion
- 2 spring onions
- frying oil
- 1/2 can full-fat coconut milk
- 2/3 cup sunflower seeds
- lemon juice from 1 lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt + more to taste
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro + more cilantro to garnish
- 1/4 cup water
- Add all the ingredients for the sauce in a high-speed blender and blend until completely smooth. If you want the sauce to be thinner, you can always add more water.
- Peel and dice the sweet potato and boil it until soft, meanwhile steam the broccoli florets.
- Once the broccoli is softer, cut it even smaller. Peel and dice the red onion and cut the spring onion thinly.
- Mix the sifted chickpea flour, kala namak, garam masala and curry powder and slowly add the water. Whisk until it's a smooth batter.
- Add all the veggies in the chickpea batter and give it a good mix.
- In a small pot heat up the frying oil. Use a spoon to carefully load portions of the vegetable-batter-mix into the hot frying oil and fry them in there until the pakora is crisp and golden brown. Place them on a kitchen towel to remove excess oil.
- Once all the pakoras are ready, drizzle them with the Cilantro Coconut Sauce and with fresh cilantro if you want to. Enjoy!
Note: Strain the frying oil and save it for future uses.
Have you tried this Veggie Pakora recipe? I’d love to hear how it turned out for you! Leave a comment or post a picture on instagram, use the hashtag #elephantasticvegan and tag me via @elephantasticvegan to make sure I’ll see it ^.^ I love to see all your lovely creations! Thanks! <3
Well if I ever think of actually eating a fried food, I will make this ;) So fun!
While I try to stick to baked versions of pretty much anything, pakoras are one of the few things I make an exception for. :)
What if you dont like cilantro? What would you recommend as substitute? Thanks! Looks amazing!
For cilantro-haters, I think a parsley (with a splash of lemon juice) or a basil sauce would be a good match! Or, we’ve already tried them with a sweet chili sauce and it was a good dip for the pakora! :)
I’ve never had pakora (not surprising :D) so correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks very reminiscent of tempura. Which I love! Although I suppose it’s different because these are little clumps of a mixture of veggies all fired together as opposed to each one individually. But still sounds so incredibly delicious! And I cannot think of two better veggies to make it with :)
Natalie, I see you don’t have a lot of Indian food experience! :D But you’re absolutely right, it’s not too far off from tempura. I always thought tempura was made with rice flour, but a quick search told me that usually wheat flour is used. For pakora however, chickpea flour aka besan flour aka garbanzo flour (.. that thing has too many names) is the norm and of course, like it’s usual in the Indian cuisine, the batter has a lot of spices and is super flavorful. I was so pleasantly surprised by the sweet potato and broccoli combination ^.^
These look incredible! And that sauce sounds divine too! Yum!!
Thank you so much, Jenn! They were super crispy and flavorful, perfect as an appetizer. And the sauce is amazing, I’ve made it a few more times since then. I’ve used it for fries, tortilla chips and tacos and everything is so good with it.
I made pakoras for the first time a few weeks ago, although they have been my favourite item from Indian restaurants since I can remember :D I really like your version Bianca, the sweet potato and broccoli would make excellent pakoras! Will definitely be making these <3
Thank you, Kyra! Which veggies did you use for the pakoras? Did you fry them in oil or did you make an oven-baked version? I was really lucky that I had sweet potato and broccoli to use up, because the combination turned out so great.
What is a good substitute for chickpea flour if you can’t get it?
that’s a hard one because pakoras are typically made with chickpea flour and would taste completely different when another flour is used. Asian or Indian speciality stores do have chickpea four, or maybe you can find it in “foreign food aisles” in supermarkets, if all fails I’d recommend buying it online.
it’s even better with cabbage! i make it for my family and is especially good with grilled chicken
Looks delicious! Could I bake these instead… how long and at what temperature?
You could, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I’ve tried baked veggie pakora before and it wasn’t comparable to the fried ones. If you still want to give the healthier, oven-baked version a try, I’d suggest baking them at 400°C until golden and crispy. The time depends on the size of the pakoras :)
Thank you! I’ll give it a shot :)
How long will the coconut sauce keep in the fridge for? Thanks.
My guess is 3-4 days if stored in an air-tight jar/container.