Bread Pakora (Bread fritters) are fried spicy potato filled bread slices coated with besan (gram flour). It’s a delicious street snack popular and loved across India.
What are Pokaras?
Pakora, Pakoda, Bhajiya or bhajji are different Indian names to a ‘great Indian snack’. Slicing/ chopping any vegetable (sometimes chopping/ slicing isn’t required), dunking in besan (gram flour) batter and deep-frying gives us “pakora”.
Pakoras are truly Indian in origin. It’s always been a common home snack as well as street food across the country.
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My Story…
As with any Indian household, pakoras have been a common snack in our family as well.
Be it a festival, family get together, rainy evening, a cold winter afternoon or just a lazy day, pakoras were always on my mom’s menu! Now, when I look back, I guess it was my mom’s way of getting her kids eat veggie without fuss ?
And Oh! Did I miss…hot cuppa masala chai ?
As a teenager, I had a fancy for sandwiches. I loved trying different combinations and ways to make them. It was during one such instance that I came across “bread pakora”. As always, I thought of giving it a shot and it was tastier than my expectation ?
About the recipe
Place spicy potato peas filling between 2 bread slices (whole wheat or white bread or sprouted wheat) and cut diagonally. The diagonal halves are then dunked into a gram flour batter and deep-fried (or pan-fried). It’s this simple. Every bite of crispy gram flour coating, soft bread and spicy potato filling with a chutney or tomato ketchup to accompany and hot masala chai, pure bliss
Bread Pakora
Ingredients
For the filling
- 1 Yukon gold Potato large or 2 medium sized potatoes, boiled and mashed
- 1/2 cup Green Peas boiled
- 1-2 nos Green chili chopped
- 2 tbsp Cilantro chopped
- 1/2 tsp Red chilli powder
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp Amchoor or dried mango powder (optional)
- Salt to taste
For the batter
- 3/4 cup Besan or gram flour
- 1/4 tsp Red chilli powder
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric
- a pinch Asafetida or hing (optional)
- Water as required
- Salt to taste
- 1 tsp cooking oil
Other Ingredients
- 6 slices Whole wheat bread or white bread or sprouted bread
- cooking oil for frying
Instructions
For the filling
- Pressure cook one large potato for 2 whistles. Alternatively in a medium sized pot, boil the potato for 15 minutes with the skin. (To check if potato is cooked, insert a knife. The blade should come out clean.)
- Boil the peas, strain and keep aside.
- At room temperature peel the skin and mash the potato. Add peas, all the spices, green chili, cilantro and salt. Mix well. Check the seasoning and adjust accordingly. Keep it aside.
For the batter
- In a bowl, take besan (gram flour) and all the ingredients under ‘for the batter’ excepting water. Mix them well.
- Now add around 1/2 cup of water and mix. The batter shouldn’t be too thick or thin. If the batter is too thick, add more water.
Assembling and frying
- On a chopping board, place 2 bread slices and remove it’s edges. Next slice them diagonally.
- Take one slice and evenly spread 1-2 tbsp of the potato filling on it. Cover the potato stuffed slice with another slice. You have a triangular potato sandwich. Gently press the sandwich.
- Take the entire sandwich and gently dip it in besan batter. Don’t keep the sandwich for a long time in the batter as the bread tends to break.
- Simultaneously, heat oil in a kadhai (or frying pan). Once it’s hot, slide the coated sandwich into it.
- Fry them on a medium flame, until golden brown on both sides.
- Drain them on an absorbent tissue to remove excess oil.
- Serve hot with a chutney of your choice or tomato ketchup.
- Enjoy with a hot cuppa tea/ coffee!
Notes
- Spice levels can be adjusted to your taste.
- While making the besan batter, be sure to get a smooth, consistent one. Dissolve any flour globules.
- You can skip the filling and just dip individual bread slices in the besan (gram flour) batter for a simple version of these fritters.
Nutrition
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