Methi na gota Or Methi pakora is a Gujarati deep fried snack. Basically these are fritters made with besan/gram flour and fenugreek leaves. they are usually served as a snack during tea time.
I have had Methi na gota many times while living in Mumbai. Whenever we would buy mix pakora platter from the Gujarati snack shops, they would also add methi na gota in the pakora mix. The texture used to be so soft and spongy, unlike the Onion pakora or Aloo pakora that used to be there in the platter… And I would always wonder how they make such soft pakoras.
I checked a few cook books which I have, to get the authentic recipe and also one, that would give that kind of soft texture and taste in the methi na gota. Finally I made my own adaptations after seeing a couple of recipes.
In this methi na gota recipe, ripe bananas are added and they help in making the pakora having the soft and porous texture. You can skip bananas but I would not suggest it… Since they do add a lot of taste, texture, flavor and sweetness in the pakoras.
The bitterness of the methi leaves also gets balanced due to the sweetness of the bananas. Also the pakoras will brown quickly when frying due to the sugars in the bananas, so you will have a slight darker brown shade in the pakoras. You can also check this Methi pakora recipe.
Serve Methi na gota with any green chutney or mint chutney or raw papaya chutney. I served these with tomato sauce. A cup of masala tea will add more, when you are having the methi na gota . Enjoy the monsoons snacking these crisp, soft and porous pakoras.
Few more snacks recipes for you!
methi na gota
Ingredients
- 1 or 1.25 cup besan (gram flour)
- 1 cup methi leaves (fenugreek leaves)
- 1 medium sized ripe banana
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi)
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon red chili powder (lal mirch powder)
- 1 teaspoon white sesame seeds (safed til)
- 8 to 10 whole black pepper (sabut kali mirch) - crushed
- ½ teaspoon coriander seeds (sabut dhania) - crushed
- 2 pinches of asafoetida (hing)
- 2 to 3 pinch of baking soda or ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon oil
- 1 green chili + ½ inch ginger - crushed into a paste in a mortar and pestle
- ½ teaspoon sugar (optional)
- salt as required
- oil for deep frying the pakoras
Instructions
making methi na gota batter
- Rinse and then chop the methi leaves finely.
- Mash the banana in a bowl. Add the methi leaves to it.
- Add all the ingredients including the 2 tsp oil.
- Add very little water, about 1 or 2 tbsp and make a thick batter, like a thick cake batter.
- We are making a thick batter first so that later, the batter will become thin as the methi leaves will start to leave water. This also depends on how much water content the methi leaves have.
- Keep this batter covered aside for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes check the batter.
- The batter should be of smooth, flowing consistency.
- If the batter is still thick then you can add a few tbsps of water.
frying methi na gota
- Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or deep fryer.
- When the oil is medium hot. Drop the batter from 1 tbsp measuring spoon into the oil.
- Take care not to touch the spoon with the hot oil. You can also use a regular spoon.
- As soon as you drop the spoonful of batter in the oil, they will start puffing up and expand a bit and becoming brown.
- Since we have added bananas the browning happens faster. So fry on a medium hot oil.
- Fry the methi pakoras till golden and crisp all over.
- Drain the methi pakoras on paper towels to remove excess oil.
- Serve methi na gota hot with any green chutney or tomato sauce.
Hello
Just wanted to know… is there any simpler and quick version of methi pakoras
you can check this recipe – https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/methi-pakora-recipe-methi-pakoda/