As the winter season starts, we use/combine the spinach or palak in many different recipes whether it is dal palak, aloo palak, chole palak, palak soup. Spinach is healthy green leafy vegetable that should be included in our diet. Apart from making healthy recipes using spinach, I make this palak pakoda sometimes. During the cold wintery days, this is the best snack with cup of tea on weekend afternoons. This can be enjoyed on rainy days as well. Sometimes we need to satisfy our cravings and it is ok to make deep fried or indulging food once in awhile. When it comes to the deep fried, my family prefers the pakoda, meaning any kind of pakoda. Hence you will many pakoda/pakora recipes here on the blog. This spinach leaves pakoda has really crispy texture (if you have made it correctly). To get the perfect crisp texture, the batter should have medium thick consistency. If it has too much water then pakora will absorb more oil and become soggy. Also make sure to pat dry the spinach leaves before dipping into the batter. You can take this one step further and make palak chaat.
Step By Step Photo Instructions:
- take spinach leaves, remove the hard stalk. Rinse them well carefully. Pat it dry using kitchen towel or paper napkin.
- Keep the cleaned, dry spinach leaves aside.
- To make the batter, take besan, rice flour, salt, ajwain, turmeric powder, red chili powder and coriander powder in a bowl.
- Mix well.
- Now make the batter by adding little water at a time. The consistency should be medium thick. I have used ⅓ cup of water. You may need more or less depending on the freshness and quality of the besan. If you dump all the water at once, you will have too many lumps in the batter and we need lump free medium thick batter.
- Now heat the oil in a pan for deep frying on medium heat. Once it is hot, take one spinach leaf, dip into the batter.
- It should be coated from all the sides.
- Gently slide the batter coated spinach leaves in the hot oil. Fry 4-5 pakodas at a time.
- Once fried from one side, flip it and fry another side. It should be crispy from both the sides.
- Using slotted spatula, drain the excess oil and remove them on a paper towel lined plate. Sprinkle some chaat masala and red chili powder on top. Serving suggestion: Serve this crispy palak leaves pakoda hot/warm with chutney like green coriander chutney or mint chutney, tamarind date chutney, ketchup. It can be served as a snack with a hot cup of tea/coffee. Did you try this palak pakoda recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a review in the comment section below.
