Pakora
A South Asian fritter made by coating vegetables, meat, or other ingredients in seasoned gram-flour batter and frying them.
Besan: Besan is flour made from ground chickpeas, widely used in South Asian cooking. Its protein-rich batter binds pakora ingredients and crisps during frying.
Onion bhaji: A South Asian fritter of sliced onions coated in spiced gram-flour batter and fried. This onion-centered preparation is a familiar kind of pakora.
South Asian cuisine: The diverse culinary traditions of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Pakora belongs to a broad region with many local versions.
Samosa: A filled pastry, often triangular, that is baked or fried and widely eaten in South Asia. Unlike pakora, its filling is enclosed in a dough shell.
Chickpea: A round edible legume, also called a garbanzo bean, cultivated as food worldwide. Besan is commonly milled from this legume.
Palak pakora: A pakora made with spinach leaves or pieces coated in seasoned batter and fried. Spinach provides a leafy variation on the vegetable fritter.
Hindi: An Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in northern and central India. The word pakora is widely used in Hindi-speaking food contexts.
Vada: A savory South Asian fried food, commonly made from lentils or potatoes. Many vadas are shaped from a dense mixture rather than coated in batter.
Batter: A pourable mixture of flour and liquid used to coat or prepare foods for cooking. Pakora ingredients are enveloped in this mixture before frying.
Paneer pakora: A fritter made by batter-coating pieces of paneer and frying them. It replaces vegetables with a mild, firm South Asian cheese.