Delicious deep-fried Indian style zucchini fritters are popularly known as zucchini pakoda or pakora. Enjoy your tea/coffee time with this simple and easy to make zucchini pakoda.
For the last alphabet ‘Z,’ I am presenting these Zucchini Pakoras, one of kiddo’s favorite. Zucchini Pakoras are perfect tea-time snacks or party/potluck appetizers, and it is made with zucchini(obviously), onion, and chickpea flour combined with other spices. It’s a quick fried snack that you can make under 30 minutes.
As I wrote a lengthy post for the past two days (Xanthan Gum and Yam Roast), I thought I will keep this post short and sweet err savory. :-)
In Tamil, zucchinis are known as Seemai Suraikai. zucchini is a versatile veggie like potatoes and it aptly fits in any cuisine.
As I mentioned in my first post of this BM journey, I wanted to cover all the meals and menu items of TN cuisine as much as I can. Pakoras are one of the popular items in a roadside tea stall. You can find thool pakoda, onion pakoda and many other varieties.
The addition of fennel seeds gives a nice masala flavor to this pakoda. Also, rice flour adds crispiness and baking soda helps in puffing up the pakoda while frying.
For this recipe, I didn’t use much water. Zucchini has a lot of water content and I didn’t squeeze the water from the grated zucchini. I used the zucchini water to mix the batter. Do not let the batter sit for a long time. Fry the pakoda right away as zucchini oozes out a lot of water.
Without any further delay, here is the recipe for Z – zucchini pakoda.
Zucchini Pakoda Recipe with Step-Wise Pictures-
Ingredients:
- Zucchini – 1
- Chopped Onion – ¼ cup
- Besan/Chick Pea Flour – 1 cup
- Rice flour – 1 tbsp.
- Baking Soda – ½ tsp
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Red chili powder – 1 tsp
- Fennel Seeds – 1 tsp
- Water – 3 to 4 tbsps
- Oil – for frying
Prep Work:
- Sift the besan/chickpea flour.
- Peel the zucchini skin and grate them.
- Finely chop the onions and we need about ¼ cup of chopped onions.
Steps:
- In the pan or kadai heat the oil for frying in medium flame. Meanwhile, you can prepare the batter.
- In a wide bowl, add the besan/chickpea flour, salt, red chili powder, rice flour, baking soda, fennel seeds, chopped onion, and grated zucchini. (Everything except water and oil)
- Do not add water initially. Mix them well. The water from zucchini will help to bind and bring all the ingredients together. If you feel, the batter is still thick, drizzle some water and mix again.
- Once the oil is hot, take a small portion of the batter and slowly drop it in oil. In one batch I tried up to 4 small Pakoras.
- Let them fry till they turn golden brown or until the oil bubble sound ceases.
- Take them out and let them sit in the tissue paper to remove the excess oil.
- Repeat the same with the remaining batter.
That’s it. Yummy pakodas are ready. I served this with ketchup. You can also serve this with peanut chutney or coconut chutney
Recipe Notes-
- Adjust the salt and spice according to your preference.
- Make sure the oil is medium heat before frying. This ensures soft, crispy, and well-cooked pakodas.
- Do not let the batter sit for a long time. Fry the pakoda right away as zucchini oozes out a lot of water.
- Also if you feel the batter is soggy, add more rice flour or chickpea flour. In that case, adjust the salt and spice.
- Fennel seeds and baking soda are optional.
- If you are adding water, just drizzle and mix the batter.
- Other veggies can be added to prepare mixed vegetable pakoras.
📖 Recipe
Zucchini Pakoda | Pakora | Indian Style Zucchini Fritters
Equipment
- Mixing bowl and fry pan
Ingredients
- 1 Zucchini grated
- ¼ cup Onion chopped
- 1 cup Chickpeas flour Besan
- 1 tbsp Rice flour
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Red chili powder
- 1 tsp Fennel Seeds
- 3 tbsp Water use only if required
- ½ cup Oil or as required for frying
Instructions
Prep Work
- Sift the besan/chickpea flour.
- Peel the zucchini skin and grate them.
- Finely chop the onions and we need about ¼ cup of chopped onions.
Steps
- In the pan or kadai heat the oil for frying in medium flame. Meanwhile you can prepare the batter.
- In a wide bowl, add the besan/chickpea flour, salt, red chili powder, rice flour, baking soda, fennel seeds, chopped onion, and grated zucchini. (Everything except water and oil)
- Do not add water initially. Mix them well. The water from zucchini will help to bind and bring all the ingredients together. If you feel, the batter is still thick, drizzle some water and mix again.
- Once the oil is hot, take small portion of the batter and slowly drop it in oil. In one batch I tried up to 4 small Pakoras.
- Let them fry till they turn golden brown or until the oil bubble sound ceases.
- Take them out and let it sit in the tissue paper to remove the excess oil.
- Repeat the same with the remaining batter.
- That’s it. Yummy pakodas are ready. I served this with ketchup. You can also serve this with coconut chutney.
Notes
- Adjust the salt and spice according to your preference.
- Make sure the oil is medium heat before frying. This ensures soft, crispy, and well-cooked pakodas.
- Do not let the batter sit for a long time. Fry the pakoda right away as Zucchini oozes out a lot of water.
- Also if you feel the batter is soggy, add more rice flour or chickpea flour. In that case, adjust the salt and spice.
- Fennel seeds and baking soda are optional.
- If you are adding water, just drizzle and mix the batter.
- Other veggies can be added to prepare mixed vegetable pakoras.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
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Zucchini is certainly the hero for Z. Your pakodas look so amazing. I could finish them all with a mug of hot chai!
Thanks a lot.. :-)
great innovation… love this pakora and will try it soon
Thanks Priya :-)
Good one Vidya, love the zucchini pakoda with a cup of tea! I use to make pakoda with zucchini flowers, never attempted with the veggie…. ok, now on my list to try!
Thanks pa. wow zucchini flowers? Amazing mullai. Can we find it here?
Delicious pakoras, perfect choice for the alphabet. It was great running this marathon with you.
Thanks a lot Vaishali.
looks crispy and tasty…. and its a new kind of pokoda…..
Thanks Bharani. :-)
That’s an amazing idea Srividhya. Love those crispy pakodas anytime:)
Thanks a lot Amara.
An addictive snack indeed. Zucchini is the popular choice.
Thanks and yes Harini. Zucchini ruled the day.
Zucchini pakoda is quite an innovative and interesting dish. Nice pick for the letter Z.
Thanks Pavani.
Zucchini pakoda looks so crispy and tasty.Nice choice and wonderful series for the marathon.
Thanks a lot Sapana. :-)
Nice evening snack, will try it sometime Vidya…
Thanks a lot Swapna. Please do try.
Wow,those pakoras will definitely satisfy my crave for deep fried foods, never knew that Seemai suraikai is the tamil name of Zucchini and simply loved all your dishes for this marathon.
Thanks a lot Priya. :-)
Didn’t know that zucchini has a Tamil name. The pakoras are so crispy and would make a nice snack with a cup of coffee.
Thanks Gayathri.
If they have a Tamil name, does that mean zucchini were available in India in the past too?
BTW, these zucchini fritters make an awesome teatime snack. Loved your interesting Tamil recipes this marathon.
Not exactly. These days you can find them in India too. When I went through couple of food books, they just provided the name and I didn’t see any reference to being used in the past. Need to dig more.. Thanks a lot suma.
I never tried Indian fritters with zucchini. It is a nice idea and should try it sometime.
Thanks a lot Usha. Please do try… :-)
What a wonderful choice srividhya! I am sure these pakoras would have been do delicious. I enjoyed all your posts for this marathon very good efforts.
Thanks a lot Valli. :-)