Spinach Fritters aka “Spinach Pakoras”
Looking for a quick and tasty veggie appetizer for your next get-together? Well, how about giving these Spinach Fritters or Pakoras from Asha Shivakumar’s cookbook titled “Masala & Meatballs” a try!
There is this little South Asian store called Cherians in Decatur (here in Georgia) that carries some of the most exotic spices and flours at insanely budget friendly prices. My kind of shopping spree involves leisurely perusing the aisles of Cherians to check out the variety of foodstuffs that only Cherians seems to offer. Very often, my daughter likes to accompany me on my shopping sprees – mainly because they end at the little cafe that’s part of Cherians, where we usually get piping hot spinach and onion pakoras and wash them down with fresh coconut water.
This little cafe’s spinach and onion pakoras are so insanely good. I never thought to even attempt to duplicate them because why ruin a good thing – right? I’m convinced that those spinach and onion pakoras were the reason my daughter chose to tag along with me on my shopping sprees at Cherians because they were her favorite. At least they were till I made Asha’s version of them last night.
I am so delighted and honored to have known Asha since the early beginnings of this blog of mine. Back in those early years, she even agreed to let me beetify one of her dishes! And today I am so excited to share this post with y’all! Asha is the proud owner of Food Fashion Party and now a published author of the delightfully-named cookbook, Masala and Meatballs. When I received her cookbook, my daughter went through it and bookmarked several recipes such as peppery cumin buns and spring rolls with spiced potatoes and leeks but insisted we start off with the Spinach Fritters. And boyoboy, were these a hit! I had to make one small alteration to Asha’s recipe – as I didn’t have any chickpea flour and rice flour on hand, I replaced it with regular all purpose flour. Asha’s recipe said it served 4 to 6, but in our house, it only served 2! If y’all are looking for Indian recipes to suit the American palate, I urge y’all to check out Asha’s book! Y’all can purchase them on Amazon and even at your local Barnes and Noble stores!
Happy Friday, y’all – hoping this weekend is delightfully delicious for each and every one of y’all!
[Tweet “Spinach Fritters for #gameday #snacks from @ashfoodfashion #Masalaandmeatballs #cookbook”]
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh spinach washed and dried
- 1 white onion chopped
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/3 cup water or more as needed
- Oil for frying I used corn oil
Instructions
- Pour oil to 3 to 4 inches deep in a pan and heat oil to 375 degrees.
- While oil heats, add spinach, onion, flour, chili powder, turmeric, salt, cumin to a bowl and mix well with hands - when spinach and onion begin to wilt, add in water and mix well (at this point I used a spoon).
- Using two spoons, spoon mixture up and add to oil to fry. Fry 2 to 3 pakoras at a time. Drain on paper towels and enjoy as is or with apple cilantro chutney (from Asha's cookbook) or with sriracha!
Nutrition
Fried stuff is always great! Your spinach fritters look so crunchy and tempting!
Classic Indian fritters. They look amazing and I am salivating just by looking at your clicks 😛
Asha’s cook book looks phenomenal just like her recipes.
So now I want to go to Cherians too, and check out the cafe. You girls have good taste. But even more, I want to come to your house and try these scrumptious spinach pakoras! So delicious and healthy too. I’d like to try your version and Asha’s too, with the chick pea and rice flour. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead, my friend. XOXO
Hi Shashi,
The cookbook of Asha looks very interesting! As I often cook meatball for my family. On this recipe, I specially love how the meat mix the spinach to make into the balls, very healthy and delish!
I’m looking forward to seeing more recipe in this cookbook to decide whether I should buy it or not 🙂
Sincerce,
Natalie
We seriously LOVE pakoras! Definitely need to get my hands on this cookbook, I have heard its awesome!
Wow! Those fritters look amazing!! I love to cook up a batch of them!
These look seriously amazing! I love any kind of fritter, and I think I could even get my picky kids to eat these 🙂
This looks so so tasty! At my university they used to have a stall selling these outside most lunch times – this really takes me back. Yum! I’ll try making these for myself.
These fritters look absolutely delicious!
Asha’s cookbook looks awesome. Spinach fritters are one of my favorite recipes. I always make this recipe using chickpea flour. And I also prefer adding little rice flour to it to give it some crunchy taste. But this time I Think I will make it using all-purpose flour. Thanks for sharing. Pinning
This cookbook sounds amazing! And Cherians also sounds amazing. I’m seriously hoping they weren’t open back when we lived down there because I can’t deal with the thought of that store being open and us not visiting it. Guess we just need to move back south, huh? 🙂 I’m all about these pakoras! I had pakoras for the first time just a couple of years ago, and now I’m hooked…but I’ve never thought about making them at home myself. Maybe you should send Lil Shashi up here to teach us how to make ’em? Haha!
I was lucky enough to receive a day of cookery at an Indian cook school a few years ago as a birthday present and we made pakoras. I’ve made them a few times since, but always to that same recipe I learnt on that day. It’ll make a nice change to cook a different pakora recipe, so this has come in at exactly the right time! Thanks Shashi. I’d love to get a copy of that cookbook to check out the other recipes you mention too, so I’ll put it on my Amazon wishlist! 🙂