Beetroot pakoda is a scrumptious and comforting recipe for pakoda which is quite popular in the subcontinents of India. It has the perfect bite of crispiness with a beautiful red color. This deep-fried fritter is the amalgamation of grated beetroot, chopped coriander leaves, onions, ginger-garlic paste, green chillies, gram flour, rice flour, a few spices, and seasonings which are mixed and then deep-fried in small portions. Beetroot pakora recipe is a perfect companion for evening snacks with a cup of tea.
Table of Contents
About the recipe
Health Benefits of Beetroot
Tips and Suggestions
How to make Beetroot pakoda (step wise photos)
Recipe Card
Indian snack recipe
Recipe for pakoda plays a major role in Indian snack recipe. A huge range of Indian snacks recipes are fried items and pakora is one of the most reliable items among them. Pakoda recipe is basically a deep-fried snack prepared with gram flour, seasoning, spices, and different varieties of veggies or herbs. Though pakoda is a very simple dish, but its simplicity makes it more popular among people. Myriad pakoda recipes are prepared and sold in every corner of India every day by street vendors and snack centers.
Any pakoda recipe has always been one of my favourite Indian snack recipes. I have grown up eating different varieties of these crispy delights. Whenever I talk about any pakoda recipe, I always feel nostalgic. I still remember how I used to ask my mom to prepare different varieties of recipe for pakoda during monsoon. Nothing can beat the charm of garma garam pakoras with a hot cup of tea on a rainy afternoon. Of course, the addition of a little gossip can convert these moments into beautiful memories.
The main hero of the beetroot pakoda recipe is of course – beetroot. Honestly, beetroot is one of the backbencher vegetables which get ignored most of the time, especially because of its strong earthy flavour. For every mom, it is a huge challenge to make their kids eat beetroot without any fuss.
When I was a kid, I was not an exception. I did all possible things to skip beetroot from my meal. For that reason, my mom used to go innovative with this vegetable and put all possible efforts into making me eat this healthy vegetable. Now, after becoming a mom, I have realized why moms get desperate to make their kids eat healthy vegetables.
Beetroot is one of the most versatile vegetables that is used to prepare different ranges of food like soup, curries, fries, salad, flatbreads, desserts, oven-baked items, and many more. I have prepared multiple dishes with this healthy vegetable and when I served the dishes to my family, they complimented my cooking a lot. I know this beetroot pakoda is a deep-fried snack item so I could not consider it a healthy dish.
Beetroot pakoda recipe is very simple and easy to make. It only requires a few handfuls of ingredients to get prepared. It is a perfect recipe for a novice. The best part of the recipe is that it gets prepared very quickly without investing much time.
Beetroot pakoda with step-by-step photos and instructions have been provided in the ‘Instructions’ section. If you follow the steps carefully, you will get the perfect crispy beetroot fritters. But before directly jumping into the recipe, let me share a few interesting facts about the key ingredient – beetroot and about the recipe.
Health benefits of Beetroot
- Beetroots are an excellent source of nutrients. They are very good sources of vitamin A, vitamin C, manganese, potassium, etc.
- Beetroots are a powerhouse of folic acid which is an important component to resist birth defects in children.
- They contain iron and reduce many health issues like anemia.
- Beetroots are low in calories and fat which is perfect for a weight loss journey.
- Beetroots are high in fibre which improves our digestion.
- It contains a high concentration of nitrates, which helps reduce blood pressure levels.
- They are a good source of antioxidants.
- Beetroots help to increase our white blood cell count too.
In short, Beetroots are a powerhouse of healthy content. Regular consumption of it can make our lives healthier and happier.
How to make perfectly crispy pakoda?
Many people face problems in preparing crispy pakoda because they turn soggy. If you take care of a few things, then you will get perfectly crispy pakodas.
- Use a small portion of rice flour with gram flour. It helps to make your pakoda crispy.
- Don’t add water to the batter initially. Add salt and let the veggies and coriander leaves release their moisture. After that, only add a little water if required.
- Always deep fry the pudina pakoda. Shallow frying makes the pakoda soft and soggy.
- Fry the pakodas on medium or medium-high flame. Don’t fry them in low flame or else the batter will absorb more oil and pakodas will become soggy.
How to make Beetroot pakoda?
To prepare the Beetroot pakoda, I first peeled the beetroots and grated them. I have used a hand grater to do this job. If you have a food processor with a grater blade, then don’t hesitate to use it.
Take a large mixing bowl and then add grated beetroot into it. Then add chopped onion, green chillies, ginger garlic paste, and coriander leaves, one by one into the bowl. Then add salt, red chilli powder, cumin powder, black pepper powder, gram flour, rice flour into the bowl and mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Cover the bowl and keep it aside for 15-20 minutes to release moisture.
Then again mix all the ingredients thoroughly and make soft but not runny pakoda batter. Add some water if required. I have not used excess water.
Now, put a pan on flame and add enough oil to deep fry them. Once the oil is hot, add the pakoda batter in small portions into the pan over medium flame. Fry them till crispy and until a dark red color comes. Strain the pakodas and transfer them to a tissue-lined plate.
Many pakoda recipes have already been shared in my previous posts. You can check a few of them like
Paneer pakoda
Gobi pakoda
Cabbage Pakoda
Spinach pakoda
Pudina pakoda
..And Many more…
Ingredients:
1 cup = 250 ml
- 1 cup grated Beetroot
- ¼ cup Coriander leaves (Dhaniya patta), finely chopped
- 1 medium Onion, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon Ginger-Garlic paste
- 2 green Chillies, sliced
- ¼ cup Gram flour (Besan)
- 2 tablespoons Rice flour (Chawal ka atta)
- ½ teaspoon red Chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon Cumin powder (Jeera powder)
- ¼ teaspoon Black pepper powder (Kali mirch powder)
- Salt to taste
- Oil to deep fry the pakoda
Instructions:
- Wash the beetroots and trim both the edges. Peel the skin off. Either grate them with a grater manually or run them into a food processor.
- Transfer 1 cup grated beetroot into a mixing bowl.
- Add chopped onions, 2 sliced green chillies, 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste and ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves, one by one into the bowl.
- Add salt, ½ teaspoon red chilli powder, ½ teaspoon cumin powder and ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder, one by one into the mixing bowl.
- Add ¼ cup gram flour, 2 tablespoons rice flour into the bowl and mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Cover the bowl and keep it aside for 15-20 minutes to release moisture.
- Again, mix all the ingredients thoroughly and make soft but not runny pakoda batter. Add some water if required. I have not used excess water.
- Put a pan on flame and allow it to become completely dry. Add enough oil to deep fry the pakodas. Put the flame in high and let the oil become hot.
- Once the oil is hot, put the flame on medium and drop small portions of the pakoda batter slowly into the hot oil with the help of your hand or with a spoon. Keep space in between each pakodas. Don’t overcrowd the pan.
- Fry them evenly over medium flame for 2-3 minutes from both sides till crispy until dark red color comes. Flip the pakodas in between the time of frying a couple of times.
- Drain the excess oil and transfer the beetroot pakoda to a plate lined with kitchen tissue. The kitchen tissue will absorb the excess oil from the pakodas.
- Serve hot with some chutney.
Serving Instruction
Transfer the beetroot pakoda to a serving plate. Serve the hot pakoda immediately with some tomato ketchup or chutney with a cup of tea and enjoy your evening snacks.
Ingredients
1 cup = 250 ml
- 1 cup grated Beetroot
- ¼ cup Coriander leaves (Dhaniya patta), finely chopped
- 1 medium Onion, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon Ginger-Garlic paste
- 2 green Chillies, sliced
- ¼ cup Gram flour (Besan)
- 2 tablespoons Rice flour (Chawal ka atta)
- ½ teaspoon red Chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon Cumin powder (Jeera powder)
- ¼ teaspoon Black pepper powder (Kali mirch powder)
- Salt to taste
- Oil to deep fry the pakoda
Instructions
- Wash the beetroots and trim both the edges. Peel the skin off. Either grate them with a grater manually or run them into a food processor.
- Transfer 1 cup grated beetroot into a mixing bowl.
- Add chopped onions, 2 sliced green chillies, 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste and ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves, one by one into the bowl.
- Add salt, ½ teaspoon red chilli powder, ½ teaspoon cumin powder and ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder, one by one into the mixing bowl.
- Add ¼ cup gram flour, 2 tablespoons rice flour into the bowl and mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Cover the bowl and keep it aside for 15-20 minutes to release moisture.
- Again, mix all the ingredients thoroughly and make soft but not runny pakoda batter. Add some water if required. I have not used excess water.
- Put a pan on flame and allow it to become completely dry. Add enough oil to deep fry the pakodas. Put the flame in high and let the oil become hot.
- Once the oil is hot, put the flame on medium and drop small portions of the pakoda batter slowly into the hot oil with the help of your hand or with a spoon. Keep space in between each pakodas. Don’t overcrowd the pan.
- Fry them evenly over medium flame for 2-3 minutes from both sides till crispy until dark red color comes. Flip the pakodas in between the time of frying a couple of times.
- Drain the excess oil and transfer the beetroot pakoda to a plate lined with kitchen tissue. The kitchen tissue will absorb the excess oil from the pakodas.
- Serve hot with some chutney.
