Vegetable Pakoda with Mint Yoghurt Dip [1]

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Ingredients

Mint, yoghurt and onion dip

You will need:

Half an onion

A small green chilli

A small piece of fresh ginger

8 heaped tablespoons of plain yoghurt

A large handful of fresh mint leaves

1 lemon

Salt and black pepper

Vegetable pakoda (makes roughly 20)

You will need:

100g besan or chickpea flour

170ml cold water

A small onion

1 carrot

1 large potato

Half a green pepper

Servings

4

Person

Preparation

1

For the dip:
2

Peel and chop the onion. Deseed the chilli and chop. Peel and coarsely grate the ginger.
3

Place the vegetables in a food processor or blender with the yoghurt and blitz a few times. Roughly tear then add the mint leaves and blitz again briefly. Tip into a bowl, stir in 3-4 teaspoons of lemon juice, season to taste with salt and black pepper then chill until needed.
4

Garnish to serve with a few mint leaves and perhaps a light dusting of chilli powder.
5

For the pakoda:
6

In a large bowl, whisk the flour and water together to make a smooth batter, making sure there are no lumps. Leave to one side for 15-20 minutes and prepare the vegetables.
7

Peel and finely chop the onion. Peel the potato and cut into small dice. Peel the carrot and ginger and grate them. Deseed the pepper and chop into small pieces.
8

Season the batter with a sprinkling of salt and black pepper, add all of the spices and whisk again. Stir in all of the prepared vegetables. [The batter looks fairly thin at this point, but the mixture will bind together when heaped in the hot oil.]
9

Preheat the oven to very low so that you can keep cooked batches of pakoda warm.
10

Pour sunflower oil into a small frying pan, about 3 cm. deep, and heat. Carefully place about a tablespoon of the mixture into the hot oil, pushing the edges in so that it all clumps together into a patty, then repeat another 4-5 times
11

don’t overcrowd the pan, you will need to do several batches. Leave them to cook for roughly 2 minutes before gently turning them and cooking the other side
12

they should be crisp and golden. Lift out onto an oven tray lined with kitchen paper and keep warm.
13

Serve hot, as soon as they are all ready, with chutney or mint and yoghurt dip.

Cooks Note

Pakoda, also known as pakora, are a popular tasty snack in Nepal, often eaten at lunchtime and usually served with a dip or chutney. These crisp lightly spiced fritters vary greatly, using many different vegetables and types of spice, and taking the form of flat patties made from finely cut ingredients or being far more rustic in appearance with chunky vegetables, as mine are.

Serves 4-5

Tags:
pakoda [6]
vegetables [7]
yoghurt [8]