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Broccoli, Cauliflower, potatoes, carrots and greens in these Easy Mixed Vegetable Pakora. Baked Veggie Pakore Bhajjiya. Vegan Soyfree Recipe. Easily Glutenfree. The pakoda fritters are great for breakfast, as appetizers, or use to fill up tacos or wraps.
Holi is around the corner and that means garam (hot) Bhajiyas and chutneys with masala chai! These mixed Vegetable Pakora (bhajiya) are loaded with vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, potato, onions and cilantro. The veggies are processed for a few seconds until grated, then tossed in chickpea flour, spices and baked. The pakoras are crisp and delicious and can be served with any green chutneys, tamarind date chutney or sauces of choice. They come together within minutes and then it is just a wait for the oven to beep. Make these simple Veggie and chickpea flour fritters! Serve as is or fill up tacos or wraps, or over a salad with creamy or sweet dressing of choice, or use as koftas in a creamy makhani sauce.
I make these with chickpea flour and have not tried them with besan (gram flour – see differences on point 4 on this post here). If you make these with besan, use as less water as possible, and do report back with any adjustments if they were needed or if the pakoras flattened or retained their shape.
More veggie snacks and savory Holi recipes from the blog
- Zucchini Carrot Chickpea Fritters
- Baked Broccoli Pakora
- Apple Fritters
- Veggies in spiced chickpea flour sauce. – Sindhi Kadhi
- Baked Dal Samosa.
Shred/grate the veggies in a processor and mix in a bowl.
Add salt, spices, chickpea flour and mix in. Let it sit for a few minutes and then mix in oil and water if needed.
Drop scoops of the mixture on parchment lined baking sheet. Spray oil on top.
Bake until golden brown. Cool and serve with chutneys or sauces of choice.
The pakoras are great for breakfast, as appetizers, or use to fill up tacos or wraps, or over a salad with creamy dressing or sweet dressing of choice.
Mixed Vegetable Pakora Baked
Ingredients
- 1 loaded cup, cauliflower florets, raw
- 3/4-1 cup chopped onion
- 1/2-3/4 cup broccoli florets, raw or steamed
- 1/3 cup carrots, baby or chopped
- 1/3 cup chopped potato, raw or cooked
- 1 green chili
- 1/2 inch ginger
- 1/4 cup packed chopped cilantro or a small bunch
- 1 tbsp mint leaves, optional
- 1/3 tsp ajwain, carom seeds or toasted cumin seeds
- 1/4 tsp or more cayenne
- 1/2 tsp to 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp Chaat Masala or amchur, dry mango powder
- 2 tbsp semolina flour (use brown rice flour to make gluten-free)
- 2/3 cup or more chickpea flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp oil
- water as needed
Instructions
- Chop the veggies roughly into similarly sized chunks or florets (1 to 1.5 inch). Add all the chopped vegetables, green chili, ginger, cilantro and mint in a food processor and pulse a few times to make a evenly finely chopped or grated state. You can also add a 1/3 cup or more greens of choice at this step.
- Transfer to a bowl. Mix in the spices, salt, 1/3 tsp chaat masala and semolina.
- Add the chickpea flour to the bowl, sprinkle the baking soda all over and mix in (or mix the baking soda into the chickpea flour before adding). Add a tbsp or so more chickpea flour if needed. You need just a light coating of flour on all the veggies. See pictures above.
- Let the mixture sit for 2-3 minutes so the veggies can leak some moisture into the flour. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F / 220ºc.
- Add oil and a sprinkle of a water (1 -2 tsp) to the bowl and mix in. Depending on the vegetables, you might or might not need more water. The mixture should not be a batter, but should stick into balls with your hands. Add water a tsp at a time till the mixture just starts tot stick.
- Using your hands or a tablespoon or ice cream scoop, place scoops on parchment lined baking sheet. Keep the scoops small, around 1.5 inches, so the veggies can cook through. Spray oil (or brush) on the pakoras.
- Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and crisp on the outside. Cool for a minute. Sprinkle the remaining chaat masala and serve with mint chutney or tamarind date chutney or ketchup or sauces of choice.
Video
Notes
Blend 1/2 cup mint, 1/2 cup cilantro, 1 garlic clove, 1/2 inch ginger, 1/2 green chili, 1/2 pear or apple, salt, cayenne, lemon juice, chaat masala to taste. Taste and adjust salt, lemon and chaat masala and add water if needed. Variation: Add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp turmeric with the spices.
Use other veggies like zucchini, sweet potato, seasonal squash. Nutrition is without chutney. Additional values: Vit A: 62%, Iron: 10%, Vit C: 86%
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do you think that the batter could be made in advance and refrigerated and then baked the following day?
No. that will not work. The veggies will keep leaking moisture and the mixture will become a soggy batter instead of a dryish muffin kind of consistency. You can prebake for 20 minutes and bake for 5 to 10 minutes to reheat before serving.
Easy? Check!
Tasty? Check!
Funny name? Check!
Doing it? *ell yeah!
🙂 Its a regular Pakora (fritter) made with onions or veggies that is available in Indian restauants. It is usually fried.
These look so delicious.. Definitely going to try these. I don’t have oil with a spray top though, are there any other options here?
You can brush oil on the pakoras.
Perfect. Oven and not fried.
Thank you, it could not be better!
These sound totally delicious! I love that you used regular chickpea flour, Besan is pretty hard to get here. Is there any substitute for the mango powder? I might have to leave it out since Indian stores are really scarce here. Though the mighty web might save me 🙂 Anyway, thanks so much for sharing another great recipe!
If you can find chaat masala, then that is the best option. You can also use indian sulphur black salt (kala namak) just a generous pinch in the batter and to sprinkle on the baked pakoras. Or use ranch seasoning mix.
Chaat masala is a very easy to mix up, I have a huge spice pantry and when something calls for a spice blend, I never buy I just whip it up myself, if it’s something I think I will use again like Chaat Masala I make a jar full, otherwise I just cut the spice mix recipe to the amount needed for the recipe I am working.
Yummy! I love them!
Wow! Impressive healthier version, definitely a must try! Pictures are tempting too…
I’ve never tried pakoras before but they look delicious!! 😀
Any idea how/if these would work frozen? I would think you’d freeze them raw but curious if you knew for sure either way…enjoying the blog!
You might not be able to freeze them raw and the veggies will keep leaking moisture until they freeze and they will get flat and too moist when you bake. You can bake them 20 minutes and freeze. Then reheat for 5 -10 minutes and serve.
What is the difference between Chickpea flour and Gram flour , i have always under stood it was the same , Its nice to have this baked recipe instead of deep frying the pakora which is rather rich . I shall certainly try this when the flour type has been identified . Is it Gram flour please ???
They are a different chickpea. Chickpea flour in the US is ground white chickpeas(garbanzo beans), while Besan is ground brown chickpeas (Kala chana or chana dal). Besan is also ground finer than chickpea flour. Because of these differences, chickpea flour generally makes a thicker batter and needs more water to achieve the similar consistency while besan needs less. For most recipes, it doesnt really matter and they can be used interchangeably. Besan might make a slightly flatter pakora.