When the street food cravings peak we grab our recipe of bread pakoda and head to the kitchen to make everybody’s favourite street snack. Our favourite variation is the bread pakoda with aloo version. Bread pakora or bread pakoda, is a deep fried treat made with simple white bread stuffed, coated in a spicy batter and deep fried. It makes for a perfect breakfast or anytime-of-the-day snack.
Bread Pakora ingredients: To prepare bread pakoda with aloo, you will need white bread, potatoes, hari chutney (green chutney), and gram flour or besan, along with a few staple spices of the Indian pantry. For the bread pakoda batter you need to combine besan with rice flour, salt, red chilli powder, baking soda and water to make a thick paste.
The filling in our bread pakoda recipe is made with boiled potatoes, mashed and combined with green chillies, fresh coriander leaves, red chilli powder, ajwain (carom seeds), amchur (dried mango powder), garam masala, asafoetida, and salt. All these spices when combined make a delicious hot, tangy, and slight spicy aloo masala.
As detailed in our bread pakora recipe, sliced bread pieces are slathered with fresh hari chutney, and a stuffing of aloo masala added and then topped with another slice of bread. This stuffed sandwich is then coated in the spiced besan batter and deep fried till crispy and done. The bread pakoda thus made, is crunchy on the outside, yielding soft bread inside, and a spicy aloo masala stuffing, which just melts in the mouth. Take a look at our bread pakoda video above for step by step instructions.
The ubiquitous street food, Pakoras or bhajjis or bajjis, can be found at stalls or kiosks across all Indian cities in some form or the other. They are also served in restaurants, and are prepared often in the home kitchens as well.
The word 'pakora' comes from the Sanskrit word pakvavata which is a combination of 'pakva' denoting 'cooked' and 'vataka' meaning a roundel of fried pulses cooked in ghee.
The beauty of making a pakoda lies in the easy availability of ingredients and the versatility of their use. One can make pakodas with just about any vegetable they desire such as cauliflower, broccoli, onion, eggplant, tomato, or mixed pakodas etc. And when you’ve started thinking why stop at these? Use flowers to make pumpkin flower pakodas or use dairy products such as paneer to make paneer pakodas, the possibilities are endless. Southern India has plantain bhajjis too. The version of our plain bread pakora recipe with chutney and spicy potatoes is more filling and makes for a mini-meal in itself.
To prepare our bread pakoda recipe you need to take utmost care in making the batter. The gram flour batter for bread pakoda with aloo should never be too thin or your bread will go soggy. If the batter is too thick, then chances are it will remain uncooked on the inside after deep frying. So having a thick pouring consistency is ideal to make bread pakodas. If you want to prep the bread pakodas ahead, you could half or partially fry them and set them aside. Then just before you want to serve the bread pakodas, fry them in hot oil again till done and serve. You can watch our Yummefy-ed bread pakoda recipe video for a complete demo of how to do it right.
Rice flour adds crispiness to the final bread pakoda. Also add a pinch of baking soda to the batter so that the batter puffs up nicely. If you omit these two ingredients, you will still get a lovely bread pakoda, albeit a little less crispy and airy.
Serve bread pakodas for breakfast or as an evening snack. You could also make them any time of the day when you feel hungry and want a satiating snack. Serve them with hari chutney, tomato chutney, or tomato ketchup. You could also serve them with a dip of your choice. It is best had with a side of our favourite masala chai or you could even have it with some hot coffee (try our dalgona coffee) if that is what you prefer.
To make a variation of this bread pakoda with aloo, swap the aloo for a size of seasoned fresh paneer. You could even make a plain bread pakoda without any filling. Just coat the bread with the seasoned gram flour batter and deep fry.
If you enjoyed our bread pakoda recipe you will also love our:
Aloo Chop
Bombay Sandwich
Vada Pav
Keema Pav
Veg Spring Rolls
Or see all our Street Food Recipes right here!
Makes 4 pakodas