Cabbage Pakoda (Indian Cabbage Fritters)
Cabbage Pakoda are crispy fried fritters made with cabbage, onions, gram flour, herbs and spices. This is another quick and tasty variation of pakora made with veggies. Here the cabbage not only adds a ton of flavor but also makes the pakora crispy. Try this easy and flavorful fried snack of Indian cabbage fritters that comes together in 30 minutes. A vegan snack recipe.
About Cabbage Pakoda
Whilst growing up, mom would make different types of Pakora and cabbage pakoda was one of them. She would serve them piping hot with mint-coriander chutney and tomato sauce.
Bread would accompany them and we would finish up everything before the next batch of pakoras came.
Living and growing up in Mumbai, I was exposed to a variety of food and cuisines, not only outside, but also in my home. My mom often used to try new recipes and make them for us.
The recipe for making Cabbage pakoda is simple and easy. While making pakoras, I always avoid adding baking soda to the batter. I do not like the taste of the pakoras when baking soda is added to them.
If you want to add baking soda in this recipe, you could do so. The addition of baking soda will make these fritters soft from inside.
To make these crisp and tasty pakoras, you can either use the regular green cabbage or red-purple cabbage.
The pakoras taste good with either of them. Adding onions is optional. For a no onion version, just skip the onions.
Serve these golden crisp cabbage fritters with green chutney or mint chutney or tomato ketchup or any green chutney or a dip of your choice.
How to make Cabbage Pakoda
1. Remove the outer layer of the cabbage. Peel the onions and ginger. Rinse the cabbage, onions, ginger, green chillies and coriander leaves separately very well in water. Drain all the water and then finely chop them.
In a bowl, add ¾ cup finely chopped cabbage, ¼ cup finely chopped onions, 1 to 2 chopped green chilies and ½ inch finely chopped ginger.
Here I have used purple cabbage. But I also make this recipe with green cabbage. So feel free to use any of them. They taste equally good with any cabbage variety.
2. In a mixing bowl, take the following ingredients:
- ½ cup besan (gram flour). You can swap gram flour with chickpea flour.
- 2 to 3 teaspoons chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder (ground turmeric)
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder (or cayenne pepper)
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
- salt as required
- 1 teaspoon white sesame seeds (optional).
3. Add water in parts to make the batter. The batter should not be thin or runny. The batter should be of medium-thick consistency. Check the seasonings. If salt or the spiciness is less, accordingly add salt or chili powder.
Note that the cabbage and onions will release some water in the batter. So be mindful when adding water to prepare the batter.
I would recommend adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of water first and mix everything. This way continues to add water 1 tablespoon at a time till you get a medium-thick consistency flowing batter.
4. Heat oil in a pan or kadai. Keep the heat to medium. When the oil becomes hot, take a spoonful of the pakora batter and pour it in the oil.
You can use any neutral flavored oil with high smoking temperature. For a North Indian style taste you can use mustard oil.
5. Add 6 to 8 spoonfuls of the batter in medium hot oil, individually. So you have 6 to 8 pakoras frying at a time. Don’t overcrowd the kadai with the fritters.
When one side becomes light golden and batter firms up then turn over with a slotted spoon. Continue to fry the second side until light golden and then turn again.
Turn a couple of times for even frying and until the pakora becomes crisp, golden and cooked well from inside. Fry them in batches like this.
6. Remove the fried pakoras with a slotted spoon and place them on paper kitchen towels to absorb excess oil.
7. Serve the cabbage pakoda hot or warm with tomato ketchup or mint chutney or sweet tamarind chutney or any dipping sauce or chutney or raita of your choice.
You can also have them with bread, dinner rolls or roti. You can also make wraps or sandwiches with these cabbage fritters. They make for a nice evening snack.
More Pakora recipes
Step by Step Photo Guide Above
Ingredients
- ½ cup heaped besan (gram flour) – swap with chickpea flour
- ¾ cup finely chopped cabbage – green or purple
- ¼ cup finely chopped onions
- 1 to 2 green chilies – chopped
- ½ inch ginger – finely chopped
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing), optional
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder (ground turmeric)
- ¼ teaspoon Red Chili Powder (cayenne pepper) or add as required
- 1 teaspoon white sesame seeds – optional
- 2 to 3 teaspoons chopped coriander leaves
- water as required to make a medium thick batter
- salt as required
- oil as required for deep frying
Instructions
Making batter
- First prep your ingredients. Rinse the cabbage, peeled onions, peeled ginger and green chillies. Finely chop them and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, add finely chopped cabbage, onions, green chillies and ginger.
- Add besan (gram flour), chopped coriander leaves, turmeric powder, red chili powder, asafoetida (hing), sesame seeds and salt.
- Add water in parts to make batter and stir very well. Ensure that there are no lumps in the batter.
- The batter should not be thin or runny but of medium-thick consistency. Check the seasoning. If salt or the spiciness is less, add the salt or chili powder according to your taste preferences.
Frying cabbage pakoda
- Heat oil in a pan or kadai. Keep the heat to medium. When the oil becomes medium hot, take spoonful of the pakora batter and pour it in the oil.
- Add 6 to 8 spoonfuls of the pakora batter in the oil, individually. So you have 6 to 8 pakoras frying at a time.
- When one side of the pakora becomes light golden and the batter firms up then gently turn over with a slotted spoon. Now fry the second side until light golden and then turn over again. This fry them until golden and crisp, turning them a couple of times as needed.
- The batter as well as the cabbage should also be cooked from inside.
- Fry them in batches till they become crisp, golden and cooked from within.
- Place the fried pakoda on kitchen paper towels to remove excess oil.
- Serve the cabbage pakoda hot or warm with tomato ketchup or mint coriander chutney or tamarind chutney or any chutney or dipping sauce of your choice.
- You can also have them with bread or roti or make sandwiches or wraps with them.
Notes
- You can use any colored cabbage. The recipe works well with both purple and green colored cabbage.
- Use any neutral-flavored oil with a high smoke point. I generally make them in sunflower oil or peanut oil. For North Indian flavors fry them in mustard oil.
- Remember to finely chop the cabbage, onions, green chilies. You can also shred cabbage in a food processor.
- The recipe can be halved or doubled easily.
- Make the batter to a medium-thick consistency. Don’t make it watery or thin as a runny batter will absorb more oil while frying.
- Note that the cabbage and onions will release some water in the batter. So be mindful when adding water to prepare the batter. I would recommend adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of water first and mix everything. This way continues to add water 1 tablespoon at a time till you get a medium-thick consistency flowing batter.
- Fry the fritters in medium-hot oil. The temperature should be between 180 degrees Celsius to 190 degrees Celsius. If the oil is warm the pakora will absorb a lot of oil. If the oil is very hot then the outside batter will get cooked fast and the inside cabbage batter will be undercooked.
- To make gluten-free cabbage fritters either skip adding asafoetida or source asafoetida labelled as gluten-free.
Nutrition
Cabbage Pakoda recipe from the blog archives was first published on July 2010.
These fritters are addictive. Great for packing in lunches or as snacks.
Love all your recipes! Just wanted to check if we can make these without coriander leaves..or is there an alternate like spinach?
Thanks. You can skip adding coriander leaves. Spinach or for that matter any other greens can be added, but the taste will change.
All your recipes are delicious! Thanks also for keeping it vegetarian!
thank you gauri and welcome.
Really nice recipes
thanks priyanka.
Cabbage was never so delicious
thanks pooja.
Wonderful recipe so easy to make. I added a tbsp of rice flour to the last batch and it was all the more crispier. Thanx so much for your wonderful recipes
Welcome Pallavi. Thanks for sharing this positive feedback and your variation.
Absolutely super recipe, light and crispy pakoras, delicious flavour and not greasy at all – better than many restaurants!
thnakyou catrin 🙂 pleased to know you liked the cabbage pakoda.
Excellent, excellent recipe. I am surprised at how easy pakoras are to make, and the spices made it delicious even without a dipping sauce. I didn’t have asafoetida, so I substituted paprika (seemed to work well). Thank you for sharing!
thanks sylvia for the feedback and welcome. asafoetida can be skipped easily. paprika is similar to the red chili powder we use here. you can add paprika in pakoras as well as in most indian recipes.
I never knew pakora are so simple to make, or I do not know if you managed to show it in a simple way like you always do with all your recipes. This made a wonderful and fast snack for the evening and always amused all the gourmets at my place. Cannot thank you enough. Your recipes have become a way of life to a lot of people like me and my friends. Passing on the 5 STARS as always to the ultimate cooking STAR ! ! !
welcome hemanth. thanks for your kind words and for all your 5 star ratings. i am sure your positive feedback and ratings will inspire more readers to try the recipes. pakoras are very easy to make. only thing is that we have to be careful about temperature of oil and handling it safely or the frying part. you can make variety of pakoras with almost same method.
Hi Dassana
I just want to say that I love you recipes and I get highly inspired by them. And I was actually talking to my mom today and asking what to make with red cabbage.. and here we go! I will make these tonight 🙂
Sonja
thanks sonja for this sweet feedback. happy cooking.
Loved the recipe..would soon treat my family with it:)