Vij’s Black Chickpea Pakora’s – vegetarian, gluten-free and fabulous

I’ve had pakora’s before but I’ve never had fresh pakora’s and wow, are they ever delicious. I got this recipe from Vij’s At Home, Relax Honey cookbook.

The original recipe calls for 1 cup of dried black chickpeas which you soak in 3 cups of water for 6 to 10 hours. Then add 4 more cups of water, bring to a boil in a medium pot and let simmer for 40 to 50 minutes. I couldn’t find black chick peas so I used one can of regular chickpeas. I’m told that freshly cooked is a thousand times better but anyways…these were still fabulous.

My slightly amended version goes like this:

1 can chickpeas strained and rinsed
1 large cooked and peeled Russet potato
1 cup chickpea flour
1 medium onion finely chopped
3 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 cups finely chopped cilantro
1 cup cooking oil for deep frying

Place chickpeas in a blender or food processor and grind to a grainy paste. Add 1 or 2 tbsp of water if the mixture is too dry (and it will be so I ended up adding a bit more than that) and grind to a grainy paste. Set aside.

Mash the potato. Do not add any more liquid to mash the potato. In a large bowl, combine ground chickpeas, mashed potato, chickpea flour, onion, ginger, salt, cayenne, coriander, cumin and cilantro until well mixed.

Scoop 1 Tbsp or more of the chickpea batter into your hands and roll it between your palms to make a thin patty 21/2 to 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. Whatever you you, don’t make these too big which I did with the first few I tried. They tend to fall apart and become unmanageable. Place on a large baking sheet until you have 50 to 60 fritters.

To deep-fry fritters, pre-heat a deep fryer to high. Using a slotted spoon, drop fritters into the deep fryer, making sure not to crowd them. Cook for 1 1/2 minutes or until crispy. Using the slotted spoon remove them to the baking sheet.

To pan-fry heat 4 t 6 tbsp oil in a heavy bottomed pan on high for one minute. Add fritters and cook on one side for 2 minutes, turn and cook on the other side for 2 minutes. Remove them from the pan and place on cookie sheet. Let cool and dig in! I ate these with Cilantro Chutney and a Tomato and Onion chutney. Fabulous. They’re great cold the next day too.