Fenugreek leaf Pakora

Hey friends,

Today as I went to the kitchen for making some fried rice in dinner, my mother came and challenged me to make something new as I always make fried rice. So I decided to make a new dish, Fenugreek Leaf Pakora or as Indians called it “Methi bhaji pakora”. Also, I have now decided that I will write blogs about all the dishes I have learned till now. I will be adding pictures for each step that I will take while preparing the dish. I hope my food blogs will help you getting Indian cuisine better.

Fenugreek is a type of herb with three leaves at the top of every stem. It is called as “Methi” in Hindi. Fenugreek leaves are bitter in taste. Fenugreek seed is a prominent spice in Indian cuisine. Fenugreek seeds are used in curries and lentil soup. Also if you are a really into fitness and want something healthy and nutritionally good to eat then fenugreek leaves are best for you. Fenugreek contains 1% fat, 40% calcium and 89% water. Every 100 grammes of fenugreek leaves consist of 98% dietary fibre, 186% iron and is rich in vitamin B. This plants comes in the winter season and at my home it’s like a celebration of fenugreek nowadays as my mum is using this plant in a lot of dishes every day. She is teaching me all of them. Here is how fenugreek seed and leaves look like-

So, Methi bhajI pakora is crunchy and delicious snack served with a sweet sauce mainly. I also made a tomato sauce to go with the pakora. Here goes the recipe with each step.

Ingredients :

Fenugreek leaves (half a bundle) Note: Fenugreek leaves comes with the whole stem also containing the roots so you first need to separate the roots from leaves. Try plucking the 70% of the stem and keep only 30% of the stem with leaves intact to it.
500 gms Gram flour
Two medium sized low starch potatoes cut into medium sized french fries shape.
One medium sized red onion sliced into medium wedges.
Two green chillies cut into 1-centimeter pieces
Red chilli powder
Water
Salt

Recipe

First of all take all your leaves in a bowl and wash them thoroughly to get off all that dust and impurities out of the leaves.

Chop the leaves in small pieces. Here is a video I made while cutting Fenugreek leaves in the most traditional way possible. Also, let me inform you that I have a record of never injuring my fingers while using a knife and I learned this skill of cutting from my mother
Now strain all the water in a strainer.

Pour the strained leaves into a big bowl and add sliced onion, potatoes, chillies and gramme flour. Also, add salt and red chilli powder according to your taste. This is how your bowl will look before adding water to it.

Now add water in batches and mix it all with your hands.
Keep in mind that the mix should be a tight one with every leave nicely covered in gramme flour, that is why it’s better to use your hand for mixing rather than any kitchen tool. I know it is going to be very messy with your hands and also it is going to be hard for the beginner but it is an important step to do this. The mix looks like this after all the mixing is perfectly done.

Now in a “kadhai” take oil just like shown in the picture below. Keep it on high flame so that the oil heats up. I used this brand of oil to use for cooking.

Now put the made batter into the oil in any shape you like. You can use the two spoon technique for making oval shaped pakora or you can also make small balls out but the rule for pakora says that they should be shapeless. So you pick the mix using three fingers and thumb.

Now keep the flame to medium low to cook the pakoras well. Also covering the whole surface of oil with pakora while putting in batches.

This is how the pakoras will look while frying them. You can increase the flame to medium once you have put all the pakora into the oil.
Take them all out once they look like this.

Now let’s prepare the tomato sauce. All you need for it is a half a teaspoon of cumin seeds, four tomatoes and salt according to taste. Put two teaspoon oil to heat, cumin and then tomatoes. Also, add two big spoons of jaggery to make it sweeter. Given below are the pictures of three stages of the tomato sauce. Add salt per taste and the sauce is ready.

Your dish is ready to serve.

Spice Time

At last, I would like to tell you about a spice used in almost every Indian curry. This is my favourite spice, it is called Coriander. Whether it’s coriander leaves or coriander powder, I love both of these flavours and coriander leaves are the best garnish in the world. But coriander powder, this spice is like the base of every curry we eat here in India. I personally like preparing homemade coriander powder from coriander seeds. This is how coriander seeds look like and these are the three stages of grinding them into coriander powder. Now you are set to make this tasty pakora and enjoy it with your dear ones in this cold weather.

You can also try festive delights with moong rolls and palak chat , Homemade crispy Dosa , Chicken 65 hash brown frankie .

Be happy

Be My Aficionado

Fenugreek leaf Pakora