Vegetable Pakora Recipe (North Indian Style)

Make crispy and tasty mixed Vegetable pakora recipe with my easy step-by-step photo guide. Easy to customize with your favorite vegetables, this veg pakora has a crispy, crunchy exterior with a soft interior. The recipe is naturally vegan and can be made gluten-free.

About This Mix Veg Pakora Recipe

Pakora are deep fried fritters that feature gram flour a.k.a besan and vegetables. Gram flour is made from skinned black chickpeas. Depending on the veggie you include, the pakora will taste different.

My family loves having pakora as a tea time snack. By now I must have posted many variations of Pakoda Recipes.

In this mix vegetable pakora recipe, I add finely chopped veggies. Including finely chopped veggies make them cook easily, so you do not have undercooked veggies in your pakora.

Bonus, they add a lovely softness to the texture. You get pakoras that are crisp from outside and nicely soft from within.

The herbs and spices that I add in this recipe like carom seeds, asafoetida (hing), garam masala and ginger, help in digestion. They also give a nice flavor and aroma.

There is also another variation I make – where the vegetables are thinly sliced and dipped in gram flour batter to be deep fried later.

This variation of making pakoras with various vegetables is good when you have picky eaters in your family. As they can choose their favorite veggie pakora which they like.

But if you want your family members to eat all the veggies in one pakora then you can make the recipe that I have shared here. For a healthy variation you can air fry the pakoras. Just keep the batter thick if air frying.

Vegetables To Add

As far as the vegetables are concerned, feel free to include any veggies you have. This way you can use up any vegetable that is remaining in your pantry in a delicious way.

I have added a mix of cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, capsicum and french beans. You can choose to add veggies like steamed/boiled corn, finely chopped or grated potatoes or sweet potato, chopped broccoli, spring onions, grated beetroot.

You can also add finely chopped green leafy vegetables like spinach, amaranth or fenugreek leaves.

You can opt to use watery vegetables like zucchini, radish, pumpkin, bottle gourd. But you will have to use less water while making the batter. As these watery veggies will release water into the batter.

Feel free to either grate or chop the veggies. If chopping, then finely chop the veggies. You do not want large chunks of veggies in the pakoda. For chopping ease, use a food chopper or a processor to do the work.

How to make Vegetable Pakora

Prep Veggies

1. Rinse, peel and then finely chop all the veggies. Take them in a mixing bowl.

For this recipe, you will need the following measure of veggies, but feel free to change the proportions as you prefer. You can definitely include the veggies you like.

• ⅓ cup finely chopped cabbage
• ¼ cup finely chopped carrot
• ¼ cup finely chopped cauliflower
• ¼ cup finely chopped capsicum
• ⅛ cup finely chopped french beans
• ¼ cup chopped onions
• ½ to 1 teaspoon chopped green chillies or 1 green chilli, chopped
• ½ teaspoon chopped ginger
• ⅓ cup chopped coriander leaves

Add Ground Spices

2. Now add the following ground spice powders one by one. The amount of spices can be altered according to your taste preferences.

• 1 pinch of turmeric powder
• 1 pinch of asafoetida (hing) – optional
• ¼ teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain)
• ¼ teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder or paprika
• ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder or curry powder
• salt as required

3. Combine and mix everything very well.

Make Batter

4. Add ½ cup besan (gram flour).

5. Mix again very well and set aside for 5 minutes.

6. Add water in parts and begin to mix.

7. Mix to a thick yet flowing batter. I added ¼ cup of water.

Tip: Keep in mind that with the kind of vegetables you use, the amount of water will vary. For leafy greens and watery vegetables, add very little water or you may not need to add any water at all.

Deep Fry Vegetable Pakora

8. Heat oil in a kadai (wok) or frying pan for deep frying. When the oil becomes hot, then drop spoonfuls of the batter in the oil. Fry pakora on a medium to medium-high heat.

Tip: Opt to use any neutral flavored oil with a high smoking point to deep-fry.

9. When one side of the pakora firms up, looks cooked and is light golden, turn over gently and fry the other side.

10. You will have to turn over a couple of times for even cooking of the veg pakoras.

11. Fry until the vegetable pakora are crisp and golden.

12. Remove the mix vegetable pakora with a slotted spoon draining as much oil as possible in the pan.

13. Place the fried veggie pakoda on kitchen paper towels to remove excess oil. Fry the vegetable pakora in batches this way.

Serving Suggestions

14. Serve mix vegetable pakora with any chutney or sauce of your choice like Mint Chutney, Green Chutney, Coconut Chutney, Cilantro chutney or Tomato Ketchup.

These crisp veggie fritters also make for a nice evening snack with a side of Masala Chai or Ginger Chai or even Filter Coffee.

They can also be had with Roti or with Bread. You can also sandwich them between bread slices and have as an evening tea time snack.

Storage and Leftovers

Pakoras are best served hot. I suggest to fry a portion from the batter as much as you need. Refrigerate the leftover batter in a covered bowl or container for a few hours or up-to a day.

Stored, leftover pakora looses their crispiness and do not taste the same like piping hot pakoras.

Expert Tips

1. Spicing: Add more or less of the ground spice powders and green chilies according to your taste preferences. For a spicier version add more green chillies or red chilli powder.
2. Frying temperature: For deep frying these vegan vegetable pakora, the temperature of the oil should be in the range of 180 degrees Celsius to 190 degrees Celsius (360 degrees Fahrenheit to 375 degrees Fahrenheit). If you do not have a deep fry thermometer to measure the temperature, then check the hotness of the oil, by adding a small portion of the batter in it. If the batter comes up steadily but quickly, the oil is hot enough. If the batter remains submerged inside the oil or comes up slowly, the oil is not hot enough. If the batter comes up rapidly and very fast, the oil is very hot.
3. Deep frying: Ensure that you fry the pakora at medium to medium-high heat. Warm oil will make for soggy oily pakora and a very hot oil, will make your pakora burn quickly leaving the veggies undercooked inside. 
4. Vegetables: Include veggies like cabbage, bell pepper, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, french beans, boiled corn, potatoes, beetroot, sweet potato, spring onions. Leafy greens like fenugreek leaves, amaranth and spinach leaves can be added. If adding watery vegetables like radish, pumpkin, zucchini, bottle gourd then either do not add any water or add very less water to make the batter. Plenty of water will be released by these watery vegetables into the batter, so add water accordingly.
5. Gluten-free option: To make these veg pakora gluten-free, omit the asafoetida or use a gluten-free asafoetida.
6. Scaling: Easily scale the recipe to suit your needs by halving or doubling it.

This vegetable pakora recipe from the blog archives was first published on September 2016. It has been updated on December 2024.