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 (120 g) chopped onion
- 1/2-3/4 cup (45.5 g) broccoli florets, raw or steamed
- 1/3 cup (42.67 g) carrots, baby or chopped
- 1/3 cup (70 g) chopped potato, raw or cooked
- 1 green chili
- 1/2 inch (0.5 inch) ginger
- 1/4 cup (59.15 g) packed chopped cilantro or a small bunch
- 1 tbsp mint leaves optional
- 1/3 tsp (0.33 tsp) ajwain carom seeds or toasted cumin seeds
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) or more cayenne
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 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 (80 g) or more chickpea flour
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 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
Ann says
February 29, 2016 at 4:50 pmWhat 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 ???
Richa says
February 29, 2016 at 5:36 pmThey 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.
Mary Catherine says
February 29, 2016 at 5:02 pmAny 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!
Richa says
February 29, 2016 at 5:38 pmYou 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.
Sarah | Well and Full says
February 29, 2016 at 5:35 pmI’ve never tried pakoras before but they look delicious!! 😀
Amudha Siva says
February 29, 2016 at 11:30 pmWow! Impressive healthier version, definitely a must try! Pictures are tempting too…
Arthur in the Garden! says
March 1, 2016 at 6:12 amYummy! I love them!
Lucie says
March 1, 2016 at 8:56 amThese 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!
Richa says
March 1, 2016 at 11:14 amIf 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.
Pamela Maples says
August 20, 2016 at 3:53 amChaat 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.
Airyfairycelt says
March 1, 2016 at 1:08 pmPerfect. Oven and not fried.
Thank you, it could not be better!
Ellie says
March 2, 2016 at 10:31 amThese look so delicious.. Definitely going to try these. I don’t have oil with a spray top though, are there any other options here?
Richa says
March 2, 2016 at 10:48 amYou can brush oil on the pakoras.
Rodrigo says
March 2, 2016 at 2:56 pmEasy? Check!
Tasty? Check!
Funny name? Check!
Doing it? *ell yeah!
Richa says
March 2, 2016 at 3:55 pm🙂 Its a regular Pakora (fritter) made with onions or veggies that is available in Indian restauants. It is usually fried.
Hanna says
March 3, 2016 at 3:17 amDo you think that the batter could be made in advance and refrigerated and then baked the following day?
Richa says
March 3, 2016 at 10:37 amNo. 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.
Jen says
March 6, 2016 at 6:20 pmI made these for dinner tonight and they are really tasty. So nice that I had to stop myself from eating them. Really easy recipe too,which is a bonus. Thanks heaps.
Richa says
March 6, 2016 at 6:31 pmAwesome!!
Jen says
March 6, 2016 at 6:21 pm5 / 5
Airyfairycelt says
March 7, 2016 at 9:22 pmGood,idea. I love to bake and not fry as I am not keen on greasy food at all!
These look so good. I think thy will go,with my Buddha bowls really well!
paige says
March 12, 2016 at 7:33 pmI’ve made these 3 times in the past 2 weeks. They are amazing! Thank you for a great recipe; it has become part of my regular meal planning now!
Richa says
March 12, 2016 at 7:43 pmoh yay! so glad to hear that!!
Colleen says
April 11, 2016 at 7:14 pmI’m a big fan of pakora, but had never made them, and don’t eat often because of the deep frying. So I was so happy to make these & I love the variety of veg. Very easy to make and really delicious. I’ve made quite a few of your recipes and they’ve all turned out well and are really yummy. Thank you!
Richa says
April 11, 2016 at 8:12 pmThanks!
Carol says
April 21, 2016 at 7:34 pmmade these tonight, they turned out fabulous! I am in love! They will be a new staple in my diet. super easy and really you could put in any veg or spice combo! Great for using up those veggies that hang around the fridge sometimes. Thank you. Next I am making the cauliflower pie!
Richa says
April 21, 2016 at 8:58 pmAwesome!
PakoraStan says
April 26, 2016 at 8:38 amI want to make punjabi kadi but don’t like deep frying (waste of oil; unhealthy; and all my past attempts at deep-frying lead to black burned food)…. could I use baked fritters to dunk into the yogurt gravy/sauce?
Richa says
April 26, 2016 at 10:19 amYes you can use these fritters in kadhi. I have kadhi recipe on the blog as well with onion fritters. http://www.veganricha.com/2013/05/spiced-yogurt-gravy-with-baked-broccoli.html
Anu says
May 1, 2016 at 7:37 pmHi Richa, This is the first time I am visiting your blog! I wanted to introduce indian snacks to my 9 month old son and was looking for veggie pakoras. Your recipe and the steps are so detailed and looks like I have got a delicious end product! will have to wait for my son to give it a shot for the final verdict 😉 Thanks for the awesome recipe 🙂
Richa says
May 1, 2016 at 7:48 pmoh awesome! hope he loves them!
Chandana Jadhav says
May 26, 2016 at 12:22 amThis is a cool stuff… Children would love it and healthy too as it contains so many vegetables and it is baked not deep fried. I shall try it and very tempting snaps. Thanks for the recipe and step-by-step the instructions
Zlata says
June 2, 2016 at 12:54 pmI LOVE your recipes….. They are SO consistently great ????????????????. Cooking is my passion and I’m a bit of a Fuss-pot……. And I’ve found your recipes to be amongst THE BEST..So….THANK you!!! It’s So good getting the vegan inspiration!! Do you have a cookbook?? And it’s FABULOUS how media lets us reach far and wide. I’m in Canberra Australia????????????????????????????????????????
Richa says
June 2, 2016 at 3:20 pmHi Zlata,
Thats awesome! so glad you love the recipes! My first cookbook is available everywhere. Search for vegan richa on fishpond.nz or other online retailers there.
My second book will be out next year.
Angela says
August 19, 2016 at 12:34 pmDo you think I could make these 100% oil free?
Richa says
August 20, 2016 at 12:30 amyou can. just omit the oil
Leah says
August 19, 2016 at 10:13 pmDelicious and so easy and quick. A big hit with my omnivore friends too. Thank you yet again for your delicious inspiration!
Katie says
August 23, 2016 at 9:56 amLove this recipe! Made it twice in the last week! Took it to the cottage for my non-vegan family and they loved it!
Richa says
August 23, 2016 at 10:43 amAwesome!
Tripura says
November 12, 2016 at 12:27 pmI tried making this. But i got comments thay it was rather dry. How can I fix that?
Richa says
November 12, 2016 at 12:37 pmThey probably got a bit over baked. Add a bit more oil and bake them till just browning. Also serve them with chutneys. Baking will give a slightly dryer result than frying, which isnt as detectable when served with wet chutneys on the side to dip into.
Kyle says
December 10, 2016 at 7:41 pmI made these with a slightly altered recipe, using more cauliflower and onion than called for, no semolina, slightly different spices, slightly more oil, and I used Besan Chana flour instead of Chickpea flour. I didnt use any water and the consistency was great. They also kept their shape when baked and were just great. Thanks for this great recipe!!
Richa says
December 10, 2016 at 10:08 pmAwesome!
Harmeet says
June 30, 2020 at 6:02 pmHi Richa! I try a lot of your recipes- for this one, for some reason I couldn’t get the inside to become fully cooked. What am I doing wrong? Thank you!!
Richa says
June 30, 2020 at 9:50 pmYou might need to bake longer. Mayb your pakora size was larger or your oven is not eating enough
Lisa Hochstetler says
December 13, 2016 at 9:49 amWondering if you can triple the recipe easily as I want to make these for 4 people for Christmas
Richa says
December 13, 2016 at 10:37 amyes. you might need a bit more flour. The mixture will keep leaking moisture, so if it gets too soggy while you are making fritters, add some more flour
Catherine says
February 24, 2017 at 1:01 pmI made these tonight and they were AWESOME!
So easy and delicious. My husband and I both loved them.
I used gram flour and they worked fine. Didn’t need much water. An ice cream scoop was perfect to put evenly sized blobs on to a baking tray.
I think they might be nice next time with some frozen peas mixed in after the rest of the veg have been chopped in the food processor?
Richa says
February 24, 2017 at 2:18 pmsure, peas will work out well.
Stacy Read says
February 24, 2017 at 1:40 pmIs there a particular green chili you recommend?
Richa says
February 24, 2017 at 2:18 pmSerrano or thai
Mary-Ruth L Traver says
May 16, 2017 at 12:30 pmI am trying to make these low carb. Can i omit the wheat or rice flower?
Richa says
May 19, 2017 at 10:08 pmsure add more of the chickpea flour
just me says
July 9, 2017 at 8:27 amOMG this is amazing, thank you! I love pakoras but they are always deep fried in the supermarkets and take aways. Its too greasy and fattening. This is fab… can’t wait to make some. There is something wrong with your website though, because it took forever to type and fill in. It kept loading all the time. Could be those animated ads slowing it down
Richa says
July 9, 2017 at 9:18 amThanks for letting me know. I have rules for the number of ads on the blog for the ad service, so i will check with them if they changed anything.
it could also be a server blip, sometimes the server resets and it takes upto 5 minutes fore the site to back to usual speed
Rutu says
November 1, 2017 at 12:45 pmwhat temperature should i set the oven to?
Richa says
November 1, 2017 at 2:34 pm425 degrees F
SHriya says
December 15, 2017 at 1:03 amHi Richa ..
When I tried this out I the inner part of the pakoras did not get cooked well. I left the oven for extra 15 mins even . Could you help me with this .
Richa says
December 15, 2017 at 10:46 amhmm, maybe the pakoras were too big? you want to make small pakoras, just scoop about 1 to 2 tbsp. With bigger pakora, the moisture leaking from the veggies is more than what gets evaporated during baking. That might be the reason.
Bronwyn Haines says
September 3, 2018 at 12:33 amYum! These were delicious. I added some curry powder and omitted (forgot) the semolina and they turned out great. Will definitely be making them again. Thanks for a great recipe.
Ankita says
January 13, 2019 at 8:51 amMade these today and they turned out great.. They were flatter (maybe because I used besan and a tad too much water) but crispy and delicious. Planning to make falafel-type rolls with them for dinner. Also, found you on Facebook and the videos are fantastic. Thanks for this recipe – hate the mess of frying and baking is always a life-saver for Indian snack alternatives. 🙂
Richa says
January 13, 2019 at 10:17 amawesome! You can use a mini muffin pan or appam pan for taller pakoras.
Maya Sherwani says
August 19, 2019 at 10:05 amI used besan as I dont have chick pea flour. For the vegetables I used defrosted uncooked leaf spinach, green beans, peas and sweetcorn all finely chopped. They were very tasty. We finished them all but they stuck to the parchment paper, which I could not get off.
The next batch, I removed the parchment paper after 5 minutes which helped.
Mine turned out quite hard and very chewy.
I used rice flour. Is there a way of making them softer, should i omit the rice flour and maybe cook the veg first or cook for less time.
How
Richa says
August 21, 2019 at 10:52 amhmm i think its a combination of things. Besan doesnt absorb as much moisture as chickpea flour, so you would generally need more of besan. With the veggies you used, theres probably a lot of extra moisture if you didnt squeeze the spinach, and from the peas etc. So the mixture might have been too thin and flattened out on parchment, which explains chewyness. were the fritters very flat? Parchment should not stick too much, so you might need a different brand. i’d suggest trying out the recipe as written with besan and see if they turn out soft.
Karolina says
August 31, 2019 at 10:47 amThe flavour of these was spot on by mine didn’t look like yours. Mine flattened out at the bottom and were not crispy at all. Soft on top and middle and hard but not crispy on the bottom. Any idea how to make them crisp up a bit? I even flipped them at the end and left them in for another 5 minutes.
Richa says
August 31, 2019 at 11:35 amThis could be because of 2 things, 1.. Extra moisture. The vgegies might have had too much moisture or if you used different veggies. You might need to squeeze some of it out before adding the chickpea flour. you also want to quickly shape andbake as the veggies keep leaking moisture, 2. The flour used was different. Besan does not absorb much moisture andwill tend to flatten on baking. Flattened fritters are more chewy than crispy.
Maria Emanuele says
November 19, 2019 at 5:35 pmI made the pakoras tonight. 1/2 the size. cooked for 25 minutes at 425 degrees and they were not crunchy. Still raw inside. Should I add more flour? and no water?
Richa says
November 19, 2019 at 8:59 pmwhich flour did you use?
Maria Emanuele says
November 20, 2019 at 3:55 ami used chick pea flour and semolina.
Richa says
November 20, 2019 at 8:18 amI amnot sure why it would be raw. What do you mean by raw? can you describe the texture and flavor?
Maria Emanuele says
November 20, 2019 at 8:53 amsoft and wet inside. I will try more chick pea flour.
Richa says
November 20, 2019 at 10:33 amyes try with more flour and add some morebaking powder
Maria Emanuele says
November 20, 2019 at 1:26 pmok, I will. Thank you for your help!!
Raji says
April 18, 2020 at 8:14 pmGreat snack!!!! I baked it and even my daughter who is picky ate it!!!
Vegan Richa Support says
April 19, 2020 at 1:21 pmwow! thank you Raji!
Purvi says
July 30, 2020 at 4:11 pmGreat recipe! I modified to skip potato and they still turned out great. I used them as a base for a healthier chaat, with yogurt, chutneys, and sev
Vegan Richa Support says
August 1, 2020 at 12:41 pmgood to know – thanks
Sarah says
May 2, 2021 at 7:22 pmThese were delicious! We’ll be making them often!
Vegan Richa Support says
May 4, 2021 at 11:39 amthank you so much