Bread Pakora Recipe (Stuffed Bread Pakoda)
Bread Pakora is a popular North Indian street food snack or an evening snack made by dipping bread slices, often stuffed with spiced mashed potatoes, in a seasoned gram flour batter and deep-frying until crispy and golden. Crunchy on the outside and soft inside, this delicious tea-time treat is served hot with chutneys and a cup of chai.
Servings: 3
Calories: 456kcal
Ingredients
For Stuffing
- 2 medium or 1 large or 175 grams potatoes
- 1 teaspoon green chillies - chopped or swap with serrano peppers
- 1 tablespoon coriander leaves - chopped (cilantro)
- 2 teaspoons mint leaves - chopped, optional
- ¼ teaspoon Red Chilli Powder or cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon Garam Masala
- ½ teaspoon dry mango powder (amchur powder) or add as required
- salt as required
For Batter
- 1 cup (100 to 110 grams) besan (gram flour)
- ½ teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain) - skip if you do not have
- ¼ teaspoon Red Chilli Powder or cayenne pepper
- 1 to 2 pinches turmeric powder - optional
- ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
- 1 to 2 pinches baking soda - optional
- ½ to ⅔ cup water or add as required
- salt as required
Other Ingredients
- 4 to 5 whole wheat bread slices or brown bread or white bread
- oil for deep frying - as required
Instructions
Making potato stuffing
- Boil or steam the potatoes in a stovetop pressure cooker or a steamer, adding water as needed, until they are softened and fork tender.
- When the potatoes becomes warm, then peel them. Grate and keep aside. You can also mash the potatoes and keep aside.
- Add the chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves and green chillies, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, dry mango powder, salt to the grated potatoes.
- Mix the spices & herbs very well with the mashed potatoes. Check the seasonings and adjust accordingly. Set the mashed potato stuffing aside.
Making Batter
- In a bowl, take the besan (gram flour), carom seeds, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, asafoetida, baking soda (optional) and salt.
- Add about ½ cup of water and mix thoroughly to make a smooth batter without any lumps.
- The batter should not be very thick nor too thin. If it is too thick, then add more water.
- Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of hot oil when you keep the oil for deep frying in the batter. Mix well. Next, whisk briskly non-stop for 1 to 2 minutes to incorporate some air into the batter.
Assembling
- On the chopping board, slice the bread into triangle or rectangle slices.
- Take around 2 to 3 tablespoons of the mashed potato mixture and spread it on the bread evenly.
- Cover this potato stuffed slice with another slice. You now have a triangular bread sandwich. Just slightly press the sandwich.
- Take the entire sandwich in your hand and dip it in the gram flour batter.
- Coat the stuffed bread sandwich evenly with the besan batter. Be gentle with the sandwich. Take care not to keep the stuffed bread sandwich a long time in the gram flour batter as the bread can become soggy and fall apart.
Frying
- By now, your oil is hot and you can easily slid the besan batter coated bread sandwich in the oil.
- Fry on a medium heat till the bread pakora are crispy and golden.
- Place them on kitchen paper towels so that excess oil is absorbed.
- Serve bread pakoda hot or warm with tomato ketchup or with any green chutney of your choice, or even sweet tamarind chutney.
- Enjoy the bread pakora with a cup of indian ginger chai or masala chai.
Notes
Ingredient Notes
- Potatoes: Potatoes which have a hight starch content like Idaho or Russet potatoes work best. Avoid using new potatoes.
- Gram Flour: Indian fritters are usually made with gram flour which is flour made from husked and split chana dal. Chana dal is also called as bengal gram. Basically these are brown chickpeas which have been hulled and split. That said, you can even use chickpea flour which is made from white chickpeas (garbanzo beans or kabuli chana).
- Spices and Herbs: You can make a number of variations in the recipe by adding different combinations of spices and herbs both in the gram flour batter as well as in the potato stuffing. Add fresh herbs and spices like mint leaves, cilantro (coriander leaves), ginger, garlic or ginger-garlic paste, green chillies, ground cumin, ground coriander powder, red chilli powder, black pepper powder, curry powder or garam masala and chaat masala. You can increase or decrease the number of spices as per your taste.
- Cheese or paneer: Some grated cheddar or processed cheese or paneer in the potato stuffing also gives a good taste.
- Oily Pakora: Fry at medium heat in the oil so that the pakoda do not absorb too much oil. Do not fry on a low heat as then the pakoda will absorb more oil. Frying on a high heat will cook and brown bread pakora from outside leaving the insides raw and uncooked. Adding 1 to 2 teaspoons hot oil to the besan batter helps in making the pakoda crisp and reduces the oil absorption.
- Batter Consistency: Make a medium consistency batter. A thick batter will be dense and not have a soft, fluffy outer texture. A thin batter will make the pakoda soggy by absorbing too much oil.
- Scaling: You can easily halve or double the recipe.
- Substitute for Dry Mango Powder: Substitute ½ teaspoon lemon juice or ½ teaspoon dry pomegranate powder for dry mango powder.
- Carom seeds: Skip carom seeds if you do not have them.
- Asafetida: Omit adding asafetida if you do not have it.
Nutrition
Calories: 456kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 1064mg | Potassium: 950mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 116IU | Vitamin B1 (Thiamine): 1mg | Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): 1mg | Vitamin B3 (Niacin): 3mg | Vitamin B6: 1mg | Vitamin C: 28mg | Vitamin E: 6mg | Vitamin K: 7µg | Calcium: 58mg | Vitamin B9 (Folate): 41µg | Iron: 11mg | Magnesium: 63mg | Phosphorus: 156mg | Zinc: 1mg
