Bread Pakora or Bread Pakoda, a common North Indian street food, specially in Delhi and Mumbai. This is triangle cut Bread slices, slathered with chutneys, stuffed with spicy masala potato mixture, coated with chickpeas batter and deep fried until crispy and golden. It is best to enjoy with cup of adrakwali chai/ginger milk tea.
What is Pakora? Pakora is a spiced fritter originating from the Indian subcontinent, sold by street vendors and served in restaurants in South Asia and worldwide. It consists of items, often vegetables such as potatoes and onions, coated in seasoned chickpeas batter and deep fried.
The pakora is known also under other spellings including pikora, pakoda, pakodi and regional names such as bhaji or bhajiya. The word pakoṛā is derived from Sanskrit pakvavaṭa, a compound of pakva (‘cooked’) and vaṭa (‘a small lump’) or its derivative vaṭaka, ‘a round cake made of pulse fried in oil or ghee’. There is no standard recipe, so the spices used are up to the cook and may be chosen due to local tradition or availability; often these include fresh and dried spices such as chilli, fenugreek and coriander. There are pakora variants that use other flours, such as buckwheat flour or amaranth flour during fasting.
Bread Pakora, a popular street food and teatime snack from Indian cuisine. It is a perfect snack to serve with a cup of tea in cool relaxing winter evening or rainy days. There are two different ways to make bread pakora, one is with stuffing and other one is without stuffing. Today I’m sharing stuffed bread pakora. If you want without stuffing, then just skip the stuffing part. Both are taste so good. You can air fry or bake this pakora if you don’t want to eat deep fried food. For the healthier version, make with sweet potato and whole grain bread.
Ingredients
For stuffing
• 3-4 Medium Sized Boiled Potatoes
• 1 tbsp Oil
• 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
• Pinch of Hing/Asafetida
• 4-5 Curry Leaves(opt.)
• 1 tsp Coarse Green chili paste
• 1 tsp Ginger Paste
• 1 tsp Garlic Paste
• Salt as per taste
• ½ tsp Turmeric powder
• ¼ tsp Red chili powder
• ½ tsp Garam Masala
• ½ lemon Juice or ¼ tsp Amchoor Powder
• ¼ cup Chopped Coriander Leaves
For Batter
• 1 ½ cup Chickpeas Flour/Besan
• ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• ¼ tsp Baking Soda
• Salt as per taste
• ¼ tsp Carom Seeds
Other ingredients
• 3-4 Slices of Sandwich Bread
• ¼ cup Green Chutney
• ¼ cup Sweet Chutney or Tomato Ketchup
• Oil for Deep Frying
Method
For Stuffing:
1. Remove the skin of boiled potatoes and keep aside.
2. Heat the oil in a pan. Once oil hot enough, add cumin and mustard seeds.
3. When seeds start crackling, add pinch of hing, curry leaves, green chili-ginger-garlic paste and sauté it for few seconds.
4. Add red chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and stir it till mix.
5. Add potatoes, mash it with masher, add lemon juice, salt and chopped coriander leaves, mix it well and keep aside.
For Batter:
1. In a big mixing bowl, sieve the chickpeas flour. Add baking soda, salt, carom seeds, turmeric powder, mix well and make smooth batter using ¾ cup water. Add few more tbsp if needed.
2. Batter should not be too thick or thin, it should be like regular pakora batter so it can coat bread easily. Keep aside.
Process:
1. Heat the oil for deep frying in a deep pan or kadai.
2. Take bread slices, cut the edges, take two slices of bread for pair, apply 1 tsp green chutney on one bread slice and 1 tsp sweet chutney or ketchup on another.
3. Spread spoonful of spicy potato stuffing on chutney applied bread slice. Cover with another chutney slices, press it little so it sticks properly.
4. Cut stuffed bread slices into two equal triangles and keep aside. Make more stuffed triangle pieces using same method.
5. Now dip the stuffed triangle in prepared chickpeas batter and coat it all side properly.
6. Slide coated triangle piece into the hot oil carefully, deep fry it all side until golden brown and crispy.
7. Use same method for remaining stuffed slices and make more bread pakoras.
8. Bread pakoras are ready serve with cup of tea a chutney and enjoy.
Tips
• You can use sweet potatoes or grated cauliflower instead of regular potatoes.
• Air fry or shallow fry if you don’t want deep fried pakora.
• You can make this bread pakora without stuffing too, only with chutneys.
• Add shredded cheese with stuffing for cheese bread pakora.
- For stuffing
- 3-4 Medium Sized Boiled Potatoes
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
- Pinch of Hing/Asafetida
- 4-5 Curry Leaves(opt.)
- 1 tsp Coarse Green chili paste
- 1 tsp Ginger Paste
- 1 tsp Garlic Paste
- Salt as per taste
- ½ tsp Turmeric powder
- ¼ tsp Red chili powder
- ½ tsp Garam Masala
- ½ lemon Juice or ¼ tsp Amchoor Powder
- ¼ cup Chopped Coriander Leaves
- For Batter
- 1 ½ cup Chickpeas Flour/Besan
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- ¼ tsp Baking Soda
- Salt as per taste
- ¼ tsp Carom Seeds
- Other ingredients
- 3-4 Slices of Sandwich Bread
- ¼ cup Green Chutney
- ¼ cup Sweet Chutney or Tomato Ketchup
- Oil for Deep Frying
- For Stuffing:
- Remove the skin of boiled potatoes and keep aside.
- Heat the oil in a pan. Once oil hot enough, add cumin and mustard seeds.
- When seeds start crackling, add pinch of hing, curry leaves, green chili-ginger-garlic paste and sauté it for few seconds.
- Add red chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and stir it till mix.
- Add potatoes, mash it with masher, add lemon juice, salt and chopped coriander leaves, mix it well and keep aside.
- For Batter:
- In a big mixing bowl, sieve the chickpeas flour. Add baking soda, salt, carom seeds, turmeric powder, mix well and make smooth batter using ¾ cup water. Add few more tbsp if needed.
- Batter should not be too thick or thin, it should be like regular pakora batter so it can coat bread easily. Keep aside.
- Process:
- Heat the oil for deep frying in a deep pan or kadai.
- Take bread slices, cut the edges, take two slices of bread for pair, apply 1 tsp green chutney on one bread slice and 1 tsp sweet chutney or ketchup on another.
- Spread spoonful of spicy potato stuffing on chutney applied bread slice. Cover with another chutney slices, press it little so it sticks properly.
- Cut stuffed bread slices into two equal tringles and keep aside. Make more stuffed triangle pieces using same method.
- Now dip the stuffed triangle in prepared chickpeas batter and coat it all side properly.
- Slide coated triangle piece into the hot oil carefully, deep fry it all side until golden brown and crispy.
- Use same method for remaining stuffed slices and make more bread pakoras.
- Bread pakoras are ready serve with cup of tea a chutney and enjoy.
Air fry or shallow fry if you don’t want deep fried pakora.
You can make this bread pakora without stuffing too, only with chutneys.
Add shredded cheese with stuffing for cheese bread pakora.
