Healthy and Delicious Snack - Spinach Fritters (Palakura Pakodi)

Spinach Fritters (Palakura Pakodi) is a Healthy and Crispy delicious Indian snack item for your afternoon Tea Time. The process of making Palakura Pakodi (Spinach Fritters) at home is very easy and requires minimal basic ingredients like Palakura leaves (Spinach) and Gram flour(Besan/Senagapindi). Just mix chopped Spinach(Palakura), Gram flour(Senagapindi),Rice Flour, Onion, Red chili powder and salt with a few tablespoons of water (if it is required only), and your Pakodi batter is ready, within 10 minutes, you can enjoy healthy snack- Pakodis. Follow the below given recipe of Palakura Pakodi with step by step instructions to make this Crispy Snack "Spinach Fritters"(Palakura Pakodi) at home. 

These Crispy Spinach Fritters(Palakura Pakodi) are perfect afternoon snack to serve with a cup of Tea or Coffee especially in the rainy weather or winter season. This is not only delicious snack it's quite healthy too, since it has Spinach (Palakura) in them, they are healthy as well. Let's See the Procedure step by step.

Ingredients :

Spinach - 2 1/2 cups Finely chopped 

Onion - 1 Finely chopped

Green Chillies - 1 chopped

Red Chilli powder - 1 tblsp

Salt to taste

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp

Gram Flour - 1/2 cup

Rice Flour or Corn Flour - 3 table Spoons

Oil for deep frying

Fresh Curry leaves - a handful

Baking Soda / Cooking Soda  -  a pinch

Procedure:

Clean the Spinach leaves(Palakura) and wash them under running water to remove any dirt. Transfer them to a Cotton cloth , pat them dry with that cotton towel or cloth. Make sure the leaves are dry. Else when we deep fry the oil may splatter because of the water content. 

Now Finely chop dried Spinach (Palakura) leaves and transfer to a large bowl.

Then add finely chopped onion.

Now add 1/2 teaspoon Red chilli powder, 1 teaspoon Cumin-Coriander (Jeera - Dhania Powder) powder and 1 tea spoon of Fennel seeds (Sounf/Sompu) and salt.

Add Gram flour(Besan / Senagapindi) and Rice flour (Biyyam pindi) or Corn Flour (Don't add too much rice flour/corn flour, else the Pakodi will be too oily. Adding little Rice flour to Besan will make the Pakodi crispy when fried.

Now add pinch of Baking Soda or Cooking Soda to the Pakodi batter, added Soda in pakora batter makes it crispy and puffier.

Add curry leaves to the Pakodi Batter.

Mix it well with a spoon or with your hand. As you can see the mixture turns wet because of the moisture in the Spinach (Palakura).

Add 2 tablespoons water(if it is required only) little by little and mix well, but I did not add more water for Crispy Pakodis (just add water very little  as needed to bind the mixture).The pakora batter has to be thick.

Heat oil in a deep frying pan over medium flame to deep fry the Pakodis. When oil is medium hot, drop a small portion of batter into the hot oil either by using a Spoon or your hand to make Pakodis. Drop 5-6 portions of batter in a single batch, depending on the size of your pan to make Pakodis.

Deep fry them until they turn light golden and crispy.

Remove them using a slotted spoon and drain excess oil. Transfer them to a plate lined with Paper Napkin. Now Palakura Pakodis are ready for serving !!

Tips :

Don’t stir immediately after adding Pakodi batter to the hot oil to prevent them from separating.

The Pakodi batter has to be thick, else when frying the Pakodi will absorb lots of oil.

Don't add too much baking soda, else the Pakodi will turn oily.

Do not fry them over low flame because they absorb too much oil and turn soggy. Always fry the Pakodis on medium hot oil so it doesn't burn.

Serve them hot with tomato ketch up or mint chutney and a cup of Coffee or Indian Masala Chai as afternoon snack.