Pakoda or Pakora is a simple dish made with chickpea flour along with various vegetables and deep fried. Incredibly tasty and simple dish.

Spicy vegetable pakoda (or vegetable fritter) is one of my favorite appetizer. The are made with chickpea flour (known by the name of besan). They are spicy and are made with various herbs and spices. Depending on the region of India it is from, different spices are substituted or added. Coriander powder, black onion seeds, carom, fennel seeds etc are added depending on the region of the country it is made in.

When I used to live in Minnesota, three of my co-workers and I used to cook a ethnic meal every quarter in the company we used to work for. We used to cook Indian, Vietnamese and Indonesian appetizers and entrees and finish off with an American dessert at the end. It became so popular, that even people who had never tried ethnic food enjoyed the food. We used to make the appetizer in the company’s kitchen using fryers and the entrees were made the previous night at home. The event became so popular that we were featured in the Star Tribune, the local newspaper.

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