This is a lovely way of using up all the odds and ends of vegetables and herbs that you have left in your hydrator at the end of the week and getting additional vegetables down your child's maw. Because fried vegetables; hello! I used half a bunch of asparagus leftover from a previous dinner, a small package of shishito peppers that L. had bought and forgotten to use and mint, chives and fennel from the garden. This made for an all green dish which was quite pretty. Multi-colored is even prettier.
Saucer sized pakora make a nice vegetarian dinner and smaller ones make a delicious appetizer or cocktail snack. The coriander chutney is as spicy as you want it to be. If making these for small children I would (oh sacrilege) make ketchup the condiment of choice instead.
The trick is to cook the pakora over low heat to cook the veggies properly and to then blast them at the end with higher heat to add some color.
This makes dinner for 2 or about 18 cocktail sized pakora.
3 cups assorted herbs and vegetables
3/4 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4-1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsps olive oil
Measure the chickpea flour, cornstarch and salt into a bowl. Starting with 1/4 cup, whisk in water to make a batter the consistency of heavy whipping cream.
Add the vegetables, stir well so that they are all coated with some batter.
In a large skillet, heat the oil until sizzling. Lower heat. Add spoonfuls or ladles of vegetables to the pan without crowding the pakora. You want to make sure that the batter is simply there as a glue to hold the vegetables together and not as the star of the show so make sure that you lift the vegetables up and allow excess batter to fall back into the bowl before placing the frying pan.
Cook the dinner portion sized pakora for 2 minutes on each side. Then turn the heat up to high and cook for 30 seconds more per side to add some color. Half the cooking time for smaller ones.
Set aside on a paper towel lined plate as you cook each batch. Sprinkle with lemon juice and a little salt before serving. I use salt flakes, such as Maldon salt as a finishing salt, but regular salt works too. Serve as is or with a dipping sauce of coriander chutney.
Inspiration recipe, here.