Snakegourd pakora is a deep-fried snack item, prepared with the snake gourd(Pudalangai) vegetable, besan flour, rice flour, and spices.
Pudalangai or Potlakaya(as in Telugu) is a common gourd vegetable found in Southasia, is a great source of Vitamins A, B and C. This water vegetable also has a considerable amount of Riboflavin, magnesium, calcium, iron, Iodine and Magnesium.
Studies are supporting this vegetable’s counteractive role in treating diabetes, detoxifying qualities, cholesterol control, acidity, cancer and gut problems.
Info source: https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/snake-gourd/
How to serve? Are these Snakegourd pakoras healthy?
This Pudalangai pakoda is a simple vegetable snake that you can serve with simple tomato sauce during tea time. Since this snake gourd is a vegetable with lots of water content, making crispy pakoras out of them would be tricky. Of course, these won’t be as crispy as onion pakora or cashew pakora and will be soft inside. As this is a deep-fried snack, enjoy pakoras once in a while only. Do not overcook the vegetable by pouring lots of water(or giving too many whistles) into the pressure cooker. If you are unsure about this, just cook 5mins with very little water(a few tbsp) in an open pan.
Stepwise picture explanations are given for beginners and do check out the video uploaded in the recipe card.
Ingredients:
- 250 g Snake gourd Oil to fry
- 1 tsp salt (to cook & fry)
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 3 tbsp water
- 1 tsp gg paste
- 3 tsp besan flour
- 2 tbsp rice flour
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 1 pinch asafoetida
- ¾ tsp chilli powder
- 1 sprig of curry leaves
Steps to make Snakegourd pakora:
- Wash and de-seed the snake gourd.
- Chop it up into ring shapes.
- Take the pieces along with a pinch of turmeric powder and some salt in a pressure cooker/pan.
- Add only a few tbsp(3-4) of water, cover and pressure cook for only one whistle. If cooking in a pan, cover and cook for just five minutes.
- Squeeze out the extra water completely and take the cooked snake gourd in a mixing bowl.
- Take half-cooked pudalangai in a mixing bowl and add ginger garlic paste.
- Also, add besan flour and rice flour.
- Add cumin seeds, chilli powder, salt and asafoetida.
- Mix everything together properly with your fingers.
- As this is pakora, no need to add water and the moisture from the vegetable is enough to make the dough. Ideally, the mixture should be holdable(not too dry) at the same time not too wet like bajji batter.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in another pan to a high temperature (not until smoky). Spread the pakora dough gently into the hot oil.
- Don’t disturb until the bottom becomes a golden color. Let the bottom sides fried properly and flip them all.
- Cook the other sides too to golden brown color.
- Since this is a watery vegetable, it will not be super crispy like onion pakora. These pakoras will be slightly soft and if you want them really crispy you can fry them for few more minutes without burning them.
- I usually like these pakoras just to be soft and mild crispy. Remove from the hot oil and place on kitchen tissue to avoid excess oil if any. If you want extra crispier, you may have to cook longer in hot oil.
- Serve Snakegourd pakoras hot with chai/tea and tomato sauce.
Tips:
1) First of all, squeeze out the water completely from the vegetable before mixing. Otherwise, the Snakegourd pakora will drink more oil to get roasted. The dough should be dry but holdable like onion pakora dough.
2) Moreover, make the slices as thin as possible to get separate strands of pakodas.
3) Furthermore, I didn’t add any baking soda/baking salt for this pudalangai pakora. You can add a pinch of it if you like extra crispness.
Snakegourd pakora | Pudalangai pakoda | Vegetable pakora
Equipment
- Frying pan
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 250 g Snake gourd
- Oil to fry
- 1 tsp salt (to cook & fry)
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 3 tbsp water
- 1 tsp gg paste
- 3 tsp besan flour
- 2 tbsp rice flour
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 1 pinch asafoetida
- ¾ tsp chilli powder
- 1 sprig curry leaves
Instructions
Preparation:
- Wash and de-seed the snake gourd.
- Chop it up into ring shapes.
- Take the pieces along with a pinch of turmeric powder and some salt in a pressure cooker/pan.
- Add only a few tbsp(3-4) of water, cover and pressure cook for only one whistle. If cooking in a pan, cover and cook for just five minutes.
- Squeeze out the extra water completely and take the cooked snake gourd in a mixing bowl.
Recipe:
- Take half-cooked pudalangai in a mixing bowl and add ginger garlic paste.
- Also, add besan flour and rice flour.
- Add cumin seeds, chilli powder, salt and curry leaves.
- Mix everything together properly with your fingers.
- As this is pakora, no need to add water and the moisture from the vegetable is enough to make the dough.
- Ideally, the mixture should be holdable(not too drat the same time not too wet like bajji batter.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in another pan to high temperature (not until smoky).
- Spread the pakora dough gently into the hot oil.
- Don't disturb until the bottom becomes a golden color.
- Let the bottom sides fried properly and flip them all.
- Cook the other sides too to golden brown color.
- Since this is a watery vegetable, it will not be super crispy like onion pakora. These pakoras will be slightly soft and if you want them really crispy you can fry for few more minutes without burning them.
- I usually like these pakoras just to be soft and mild crispy.
- Remove from the hot oil and place on kitchen tissue to avoid excess oil if any.
- Serve hot with chai/tea and tomato sauce.
Video
Notes
1) First of all, squeeze out the water completely from the vegetable before mixing. Otherwise, the pakoras will drink more oil. The dough should be dry but holdable like onion pakora dough.
2) Moreover, make the slices as thin as possible to get separate strands of pakodas.
3) Furthermore, I didn't add any baking soda/baking salt for this pudalangai pakora. You can add a pinch of it if you like extra crispness.
