Palak / Spinach Pakora

Palak Pakora is a healty nutritious snack which can be made quickly. Pakoras are specially cooked in India during rainy days. As it gets a little cold and wet - hot pakoras taste even better.

You can make many kinds of pakora. The base mixture is mostly the same - besan/gram flour mix. You can dip any vegetable of your liking in this and deep fry them to make pakoras. I mostly make the besan mixture and make a little of different kinds of pakoras every time to serve everyone's tastes.

Preparation Time: 10 min
Cooking Time: 20-25 min
Serves: 5-7

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Ingredients: a bunch of palak / baby spinach leaves, washed and stems cut off 2 cups besan / gram flour 1/2 tsp turmeric 1 tsp Red Chilli powder salt to taste oil for deep frying

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Method:

1. Mix besan with turmeric, red chilli powder, salt and water well. Add water slowly - the consistency should be that of a loose paste. It needs to be mixed for long - if using hand to mix it. You can even use a hand/stand mixer. When you drop a drop of mixture in a glass of water, the drop comes up - this is an indication that its ready. This is our dip.
2. Heat oil. Dip each leaf of spinach in besan mixture and put it in the hot oil. You can fry 4-5 pieces at a time - depending the size of pan. It should not be over crowded.
3. Deep fry on slow-medium heat till golden brown on both sides.
4. Serve with tomato ketchup / any chutney.

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Tips The above palak pakoras absorb a little more oil than usual, but are very crispy. You can chop spinach and mix it with the besan. Then put medium-sized rounds of this into the hot oil. This is another variety of palak pakoras. You can dip many vegetables in the besan mixture and deep fry to make different kinds of pakoras. Sliced potatoes for Potato Pakora, chopped Onions for Onion pakora, Quartered bread slices for Bread pakoras, mixed vegetables for Vegetable pakora etc.

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