Onion Pakoda

My 176th recipe, "Onion Pakoda", a crispy snack / side that can be made ready in 10 mins. Pakoda, in general is one of my very favorite snacks / side. If I have to call out specifically, the Cashew and Onion Pakoda are my two most favorite. During my childhood, my dad would get me a pack of hot onion pakoda for my evening snack. It would be super delicious with a cup of hot masala chai by the side. After marriage, when I first moved to RK's house, Onion pakoda was one of the very first dishes my MIL prepared for lunch. I absolutely loved it and it was better than the pakoda I had tasted thus far. While it was crispy like the other pakoda I had eaten, this one was not very hard to bite into. Which is what I loved the most about this recipe. A perfect snack which was less oily, crispy and soft at the same time. This is also a very quick and easy recipe, and is an excellent side for rice, especially with rasam. I have shared the little tricks to make the perfect onion pakoda, which I learnt from my MIL, in the notes section 😉

Onion Pakoda

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Prep Time 3 mins

Cook Time 7 mins

Total Time 10 mins

Servings 2

Ingredients

  

• Besan Gram Flour - 1 Cup
• Rice Flour - 1 Tbsp
• Red Chilli Powder - ½ tsp adjust per taste
• Salt - ½ tsp adjust per taste
• Asafoetida - ¼ tsp
• Jeera Powder - ¼ tsp Optional
• Onion - ½ medium very thinly sliced
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig
• Oil - 2 Tbsp + For frying
• Water - as needed

Instructions

 

• First add the besan flour, rice flour, chilli powder, salt, asafoetida, jeera powder to a large mixing bowl and mix well.
  
   
• Add the sliced onion, curry leaves to the flour mixture. Now heat the oil in a pan / kadai for frying the pakoda. Once the oil is hot, take 2 Tbsp of the hot oil and add to the flour mixture. Carefully, without burning your fingers, mix everything together.
  
   
  
   
• Now, sprinkle very little water over the mixture just sufficient to bring all the ingredients together.
  
   
• In batches, add the onion flour mixture to the hot oil by gently breaking them apart. Fry in medium flame until nicely golden brown.
  
   
• Drain the excess oil on a paper napkin and serve hot.
   

Notes | FAQ

- The onion should be sliced very thin for getting the right texture. My MIL uses a slicer used to make chips. I used a very sharp knife for slicing.
- Rice flour is added to give a slight crispness to the pakoda. I recommend adding it, however you can skip it if you don't have it handy.
- Hot oil is added to the flour to get a soft pakoda. If not added, the pakoda could turn out very hard to bite into.
- Add just little water to bind all ingredients together. Do not add more water. The pakoda will absorb more oil.
- While mixing the batter, do it gently and also do not over mix the batter. Else you would end up with a hard pakoda.