How Did The

Pakora

Recipe, India's Most Favourite Monsoon Food, Evolve Through The Ages?

Quick Summary

Every pakora recipe made in an Indian kitchen today traces back to a fried gram-flour snack that Sanskrit and Tamil texts described more than a thousand years ago, long before the dish became synonymous with monsoon food and a cup of hot chai. The word itself comes from the Sanskrit ‘pakvavata’ meaning ‘cooked lump’, and over centuries of trade, migration and intermingling with regional ingredients, different pakoras emerged, while the world deep-fried their own like the Japanese tempura and African akara.

Deep Dive

Pakoras were invented to make the most of seasonal vegetables using pantry staples like besan, flour and spices to produce something with a kick. Anything deep-fried tends to taste better, despite it potentially turning into junk food, but an occasional indulgence is perfectly alright, with you eating your usual nutritious whole foods. Pakoras are so loved for their crispy texture and spiced nature, with typical ground spices like cumin, coriander and chilli powder, along with whole spices like ajwain or carom seeds in it.

How Old Is India's Favourite Fried Snack?

The pakora recipe did not exist until cookbooks became a thing, and this monsoon food existed in memory for many households. Some accounts point to the Mughal era, between the 16th and 19th centuries, as the period when Persian and Central Asian cooking techniques reshaped the fritter into something closer to what's eaten today. Richer spicing, besan, and a wider variety of vegetables and proteins were folded into the batter. 

Street food culture started taking a foothold in the country, just around the time the Mughal rule was declining, which carried the pakora recipe out of royal kitchens and into everyday life. Different regions had cooks with different talents who further gave creative spins on the pakora. Onion and potato versions became a North Indian staple, while southern kitchens developed their own besan-and-vegetable fritters. No matter the region, most pakoras were loved alongside a beverage, usually tea or coffee.

Pakoras are Inseparable From Monsoon In India

The pairing of pakora and rain feels almost instinctive to most Indians, and the reason is because of a few practical and sensory habits rather than being shaped by its origin:

• Weather cravings: Cooler, damp air tends to increase appetite for hot, salty, energy-dense food. This is exactly what a freshly fried pakora caters to.

• A ritual around chai: Tea only became a part of everyday Indian life in the 19th century, popularised through British colonialism, with plantations in Assam and Darjeeling. Once masala chai became a household habit in the 20th century, pakoras naturally fit into the same tea-time ritual.

• Seasonal monsoon food: Onions, potatoes, spinach, and gram flour are all available readily and inexpensive during the rains, so making pakoras is a practical way to use what's in store.

• Comfort food during the seasonal shift: Grey skies and slower days inspire the blues in your mood, where comfort eating inherently makes you want to reach for oily foods that tend to be deep-fried like pakoras, crispy fried chicken or fried snacks. These are the perfect treats to munch on while enjoying the rain.

The World’s Version of the Pakora Recipe

Deep-frying spiced or seasoned batter isn't unique to India, nearly every culture has its own version of the same idea, differing by local ingredients and, in some cases, they have a separate history entirely.

Japan's Tempura 

It shares the same rationale as the pakora of the batter where protein or vegetables are dipped and deep fried, but they do not resemble the pakora. The tempura batter yields a pale fritter despite deep frying it, lacy and has an almost transparent coating. Portuguese Jesuit missionaries introduced a practice of coating food in flour and frying it to Japan in the 16th century, as a way to eat satisfying meals during Lent, when meat was forbidden. Japanese cooks adapted this technique using local ingredients, for a lighter, egg-and-ice-water batter, developing it into the tempura recipe known today.

Indonesia’s Bakwan Sayur

Very close to the pakora recipe that is a monsoon food in India, Indonesia has their bakwan sayur, which is vegetable fritter made by mixing shredded vegetables (shredded cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, spring onions, and sometimes corn or shrimp) into a seasoned flour batter and deep-frying it. It is commonly sold as a street food snack and part of the wider category of Indonesian gorengan (fried snacks). It’s flavour comes from fromm garlic, white pepper, salt, and other aromatics, with sauces served alongside, adding more of it.

West Africa’s Akara

Besan is crucial to a pakora recipe, and some regions in Africa uses the same pakora technique to make a fritter called akara. Instead of besan, black-eyed peas is used, not as a flour but whole beans that are peeled, washed and ground with pepper, onions and other seasonings, then the batter is whisked to make it airier, before frying. It's a common breakfast item across Nigeria and some of the neighbouring countries. It travelled to Brazil, where it is called acarajé through the transatlantic slave trade, becoming a dish with its own separate cultural significance there.

Burma’s Akyaw

Quite similar to what Indian pakora recipe produces, there’s the Burmese akyaw, with the term ‘a-kyaw-sone’ broadly referring to ‘assorted fried fritters’ in Burmese. It is one of Myanmar’s most popular street foods and enjoyed right off the frying vat of oil, with lettuce leaves, and just like pakoras, enjoyed alongside tea or for breakfast, enjoyed with dips. Burmese pakora recipe does not limit itself to just seasonal vegetables, it also uses seafood, something the region is rich in. Common versions include fritters made with black tiger shrimp, potato, bottle gourd, onions, and split chickpeas. The batter usually features rice flour, wheat flour, glutinous rice flour, and besan (chickpea flour), with just oil and salt to make it.

Turkey’s Mücver

You could call this a Turkish pakora recipe, that most often features zucchini that is grated, mixed with herbs, eggs and flour, then fried. It is often served as part of a mezze spread or as a homely dish. But, unlike pakoras, mücver is usually shallow-fried as small patties, like Korean jeon, rather than deep-fried in a loose batter. The name originally referred to a broader Ottoman cooking technique, but over time, it transitioned to being mainly associated with zucchini-based fritters.

Pakora Batter vs Tempura Batter

Given how both are universally loved, it deserves a closer look, and comparison on what drives their texture and impeccable taste, despite both being fried-batter snacks using similar ingredients.

The two techniques essentially aim for opposite textures on purpose with pakora batter made to have body and more adhesion, while tempura batter was created to disappear into a whisper-thin shell.

Try This Onion Pakora Recipe This Monsoon

Ingredients

• Large onions, thinly sliced: 2

• Besan (gram flour): 1 cup

• Rice flour (for extra crispness): 2 tbsp

• Red chilli powder: 1 tsp

• Turmeric: ½ tsp

• Ajwain (carom seeds): ½ tsp

• Baking soda: a pinch

• Fresh coriander leaves, chopped: a few

• Salt: to taste

• Water: as needed

• Oil: for deep frying

Method

1. Slice the onions thinly and place them in a large mixing bowl with a generous pinch of salt. Let them sit for 10 minutes so they release moisture.

2. Add besan, rice flour, chilli powder, turmeric, ajwain, baking soda and coriander to the onions.

3. Mix everything with your hands, using the moisture released by the onions to make the batter. Add water only if the batter feels too dry. It should be just thick enough to coat the onions, not free-flowing.

4. Heat oil in a deep pan on medium-high heat.

5. Drop small clusters of the onion mixture into the hot oil using your hands or a spoon.

6. Fry until golden brown and crisp, turning occasionally, then drain on paper towels.

7. Serve hot with mint or tamarind chutney and a cup of chai.

This simple fritter goes by different names across the country called piyaji in Bengal, kanda bhaji in Maharashtra, irulli bajji in Karnataka, and vengaya pakoda in Tamil Nadu.

Pakora Recipe Through the Ages

It was more of a memory and simplifying complicated cooking knowledge be it ingredients or the technique that shaped the evolution of pakora and its make recipes today. What hasnt changed is its monsoon appeal and simplicity that makes its chai’s good ole BFF over which conversations happen with great zeal, or something just enjoyed solo as the mind drifts in rumination.