Bread Pakora is a popular North Indian street food snack or an evening snack made by dipping bread slices, often stuffed with spiced mashed potatoes, in a seasoned gram flour batter and deep-frying until crispy and golden. Crunchy on the outside and soft inside, this delicious tea-time treat is served hot with chutneys and a cup of chai.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 25 minutes
  • Cook time: 40 minutes
  • Total time: 65 minutes
  • Yield: 3
  • Category: Breakfast, Snacks
  • Cuisine: North Indian

Ingredients

  • 2 medium or 1 large or 175 grams potatoes
  • 1 teaspoon green chillies (- chopped or swap with serrano peppers)
  • 1 tablespoon coriander leaves (- chopped (cilantro))
  • 2 teaspoons mint leaves (- chopped, optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder (or cayenne pepper)
  • ¼ teaspoon garam masala
  • ½ teaspoon dry mango powder ((amchur powder) or add as required)
  • salt (as required)
  • 1 cup (100 to 110 grams) besan ((gram flour))
  • ½ teaspoon carom seeds ((ajwain) - skip if you do not have)
  • ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder (or cayenne pepper)
  • 1 to 2 pinches turmeric powder (- optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon garam masala
  • 1 pinch asafoetida ((hing))
  • 1 to 2 pinches baking soda (- optional)
  • ½ to ⅔ cup water (or add as required)
  • salt (as required)
  • 4 to 5 whole wheat bread (slices or brown bread or white bread)
  • oil (for deep frying - as required)

Method

Making potato stuffing

  1. Boil or steam the potatoes in a stovetop pressure cooker or a steamer, adding water as needed, until they are softened and fork tender.
  2. When the potatoes becomes warm, then peel them. Grate and keep aside. You can also mash the potatoes and keep aside.
  3. Add the chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves and green chillies, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, dry mango powder, salt to the grated potatoes.
  4. Mix the spices & herbs very well with the mashed potatoes. Check the seasonings and adjust accordingly. Set the mashed potato stuffing aside.

Making Batter

  1. In a bowl, take the besan (gram flour), carom seeds, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, asafoetida, baking soda (optional) and salt.
  2. Add about ½ cup of water and mix thoroughly to make a smooth batter without any lumps.
  3. The batter should not be very thick nor too thin. If it is too thick, then add more water.
  4. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of hot oil when you keep the oil for deep frying in the batter. Mix well. Next, whisk briskly non-stop for 1 to 2 minutes to incorporate some air into the batter.

Assembling

  1. On the chopping board, slice the bread into triangle or rectangle slices.
  2. Take around 2 to 3 tablespoons of the mashed potato mixture and spread it on the bread evenly.
  3. Cover this potato stuffed slice with another slice. You now have a triangular bread sandwich. Just slightly press the sandwich.
  4. Take the entire sandwich in your hand and dip it in the gram flour batter.
  5. Coat the stuffed bread sandwich evenly with the besan batter. Be gentle with the sandwich. Take care not to keep the stuffed bread sandwich a long time in the gram flour batter as the bread can become soggy and fall apart.

Frying

  1. By now, your oil is hot and you can easily slid the besan batter coated bread sandwich in the oil.
  2. Fry on a medium heat till the bread pakora are crispy and golden.
  3. Place them on kitchen paper towels so that excess oil is absorbed.
  4. Serve bread pakoda hot or warm with tomato ketchup or with any green chutney of your choice, or even sweet tamarind chutney.
  5. Enjoy the bread pakora with a cup of indian ginger chai or masala chai.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.