Vegetable Pakoras

I recently discovered the great flavors of Indian food when my husband brought home an assortment from a new Indian food truck parked by his work.  We tried a few different dishes each week and loved the fresh flavors, the dishes were full of fresh veggies and herbs and nicely spiced.  But when we were just getting into it the truck was gone!  My husband found out someone bought it and it was going to be used in the city for catering parties.  My new love was gone, just like that :( :(   We will have to explore some Indian restaurants now.  But in the meantime I recreated one of the dishes at home.  It is like a fritter - chock full of vegetables and mixed with chickpea flour then deep fried.  It's so good!   I made this one with cauliflower and spinach, but you can try different combos.

 Recipe
1 cup chickpea flour 
2 tsp oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
3 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 potato
1 small cauliflower chopped
1/2 of a 10 oz package frozen spinach - thawed and drained well, or fresh spinach leaves chopped
1 onion chopped
vegetable oil for frying

Boil the potato until just tender, then peel and chop.  Mix flour, oil cumin, salt and water in a food processor for about 3 minutes to incorporate air.  Remove this batter transfer to a large bowl and let rest about 1/2 hour.   In the food processor process the cilantro, potato, cauliflower, spinach and onion until a finely chopped consistency.  Mix the vegetables into the batter until well blended.  Fill a heavy saucepan with vegetable oil about 1 1/2 inches deep, set to medium heat.  While the oil is heating form the batter into small round "meatballs" or patties.   Use a candy thermometer attached to saucepan and when temp reaches 375 degrees start dropping in the pakoras several at a time.  Deep fry until a deep golden brown, let remove and drain on paper towels, continue until all pakoras are fried.  

Serve immediately with a desired dipping sauce.  When we got it from the truck they had some type of cilantro sauce.  I used Harry and David relishes I had:  Charred Pineapple Relish with Candied Peppers and Chunky Mango Relish with Candied Peppers - they are sweet and spicy and went really nicely with these.

I hope to try some more Indian dishes and share them with you :)