Deep Fried Chickpea Dough Curry Snacks (Pakoda)

Pakoda is a savoury South Indian fried snack made from gram flour, spices and onions. This simple recipe is for Pakoda as made in Tamil Nadu, India.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (240 g) besan or gram flour
• ½ cup water
• 2 tsp rice flour (for crunch)
• 2 tsp green gram flour (optional, for added crunch)
• Salt to taste
• ¼ tsp asafoetida
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• 8–10 curry leaves
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp crushed black peppercorns
• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped finely
• ½ cup peanuts, preferably roasted
• 1 tsp oil
• Oil to fry

Steps

1. Combine all the dry ingredients except the salt, peanuts, and onions. Mix well.
2. Add the onions, peanuts, 1 tsp oil, and salt. Mix well, then keep aside for about 10 minutes. The moisture from the onions will ooze out into the batter.
3. Adding a little bit of water at a time, make a dough that will form chunks but break into pieces with a little bit of pressure. The consistency should be the same as when making scones. Too much water and the pakoda will not be crunchy.
4. Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed cooking vessel.
5. Shape the dough into chunks, and deep-fry them in medium-hot oil until golden-brown and crispy. Too much turmeric might give it a darker color.
6. Serve hot or room temperature.

More recipes with chickpea flour, rice flour, asafoetida, turmeric, cayenne pepper, curry leaves, cumin, onion or peanuts

Adapted from “Deep Fried Chickpea Dough Curry Snacks (Pakoda)” in the Wikibooks Cookbook by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Reformatted for this site; this page's recipe text is shared under the same license.