Pakoras can be the making of a meal and are great for using up oddments of vegetables. An invention test in the making! My fortnightly boxes of vegetables from Riverford Organic Vegetables offer great opportunities for making pakoras and even gave the recipe for this pakora, though I did add extra spices and used only gram as opposed to gram and rice flour.

Crucial to making pakoras is the amount of liquid used to make the paste. I found Riverford’s guide of 75ml of water to four tablespoons of flour ideal. Vegetables, such as courgettes which hold a lot of water need to be squeezed in a clean cloth after they are grated to remove excess liquid. You don’t want the mixture to be too sloppy or the pakoras will break.

Pakoras can be saucer size but are usually smaller. Essentially they are Indian street food, served with a dipping sauce such as raita or a green chutney. Deep frying is the norm but shallow frying in either a pan or a wok works well and, to be sure they are cooked through, they can be finished off a hot oven.

Olive oil
2 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and coarsely grated
½ red onion, peeled and finely chopped
4 tbsp gram flour
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp nigella (black onion seed or kalonji) seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
½tsp turmeric
½tsp chilli flakes or Aleppo chilies
Small bunch coriander, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon

Oven at 200°C

Put the gram flour and spices into a large bowl, Stir in 75ml water and stir around until you have a smooth batter. Add the grated sweet potatoes, onion and coriander. Season generously and add the lemon juice. Divide into 4 equal parts for large pakoras or 8 -10 for smaller ones.

Heat two tablespoons of oil in the frying pan or wok. In batches, cook the pakoras for 2-3 minutes on each side. Flatten down the larger pakoras as they cook to make them more pancake shaped.

Transfer the pakoras onto a baking tray and put into a hot oven for 6-10 minutes to be sure they are cooked through..