Baked Pakora

I don't remember the source of this recipe, we only made it once but it was pretty good, a good addition to an Indian, lentil, dahl type of meal. This recipe is for 50 (!!) pakora, so... yeah. Math as needed on this one. The "I" in the steps is the original author.

From Chef dougb

Added Mar 24, 2026

Updated Mar 24, 2026

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients
2 cups

Chickpea flour
2 tsp

Baking powder
1 tsp

Salt
2 tsp

Garam masala or curry powder
1 ½ tsp

Cumin
½ tsp

Tumeric
½ tsp

Crushed red pepper
½ tsp

Garlic powder
Veggies
½

Head of a small cauliflower, chopped into small bite-size pieces (about 3 cups worth)
1

Onion, medium, finely chopped
½ cup

peas (fresh or frozen)
1

Carrot, large, grated
1

Red potato, small, grated

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 18 min
Servings: 50
Effort: Med
Tags: —

Directions

Preheat oven to 500F. Grease a large baking sheet very well with your favorite mild, cooking oil (I used a little sesame oil and lots of EVOO)
In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Stir in enough water to create a batter, almost pancake-batter consistency, but a little thicker. It took me about 1¼ c water. Don't add extra water! Let batter sit.
Prepare veggies and then dump them all into the batter, mixing well to coat.
Using a spoon, take scoops of battered veggies and drop onto the well oiled baking sheet.
Bake for 8-9 minutes, then flip and bake another 10 minutes, until golden brown. You can spray or brush them with oil before putting them back in the oven if you're looking to resemble the deep-fried version a little more closely.
Serve hot with 'Raita' or an Indian tomato sauce or just enjoy them on their own! I like to mix garlicky, tomato sauce with a little Greek yogurt or sour cream and some curry paste to taste.

Chef's Thoughts

I'm not a fan of the 500 F oven. I don't even usually use 450 F any more - 425 F max, usually. No reason except for 425 F being the max for the parchment paper I almost always use. Further notes from the author:

Make sure you watch the pakoras carefully so that they don’t burn and keep your oven fan on.

I found using a baking stone will help prevent burning (heat it in the oven for ~10 minutes first while it preheats). I love my baking stone for homemade pizza, crisping up leftovers, homemade free-form bread etc — it is an essential kitchen item for me!

They also re-heat well in the oven (not microwave) — so hope for leftovers! If you have a baking stone, heat it in a hot oven (~10min), then place the pakora on the hot stone and reheat them in the oven for ~8-10 min at 350-375 F. This will help crisp them up again beautifully.

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