Pakoras are a traditional East Indian appetizer that are naturally gluten and dairy free. They use gram or besan flour, made from chickpeas in combination with rice flour. You can get big bags of bean flour at East Indian markets – and they will be inexpensive too. It’s also a great place to get the spices for the recipe.

For this particular recipe, I used Bob’s Redmill garbanzo bean flour in combination with brown rice flour. I also want to point out that this recipe is vegan as it does not contain any eggs.

Here’s what you will need.

Batter:

1 ½ cup garbanzo bean flour (besan/gram)

½ cup rice flour

¾ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon coriander powder

About 1 cup of water (add slowly to get a thick consistency)

Vegetables:

Small Cauliflower florets

Red Pepper

Onions

First, place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and use the Masha to blend them.

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Next, slowly add water as you use the Masha to blend the dry with the wet ingredients.

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Blend until smooth yet still thick. You don’t want the batter to be too thin here.

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I chopped the onions into strips then halved them once like so.

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Chop red pepper in the same fashion then prepare small cauliflower florets.

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Chop about 3 tablespoons of fresh cilantro and add it to the batter and stir it in.

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Next, heat about an inch of oil in a pan on medium to medium high. If the oil is too hot, it can splatter and burn the pakoras. I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You can also use grape seed oil.

Next, take a couple of red pepper strips, a couple of onion strips and a cauliflower floret and drop them into the batter.

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Take a spoon of some sort to move the veggies in the batter. Then scoop them out and place it in the pan. The batter will make the pakoras stick together.

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Repeat that until the pan is filled.

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After a few minutes, flip them in the pan – when you have a deep golden brown color. The outside should be crispy and golden.

When they are done, serve them with a mango chutney or a tamarind chutney (pictured here).

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These make an easy appetizer that has great flavor. It’s super easy and they are a crowd pleaser.