Vazhaipoo Pakoda | Banana Flower Fritters

Vazhaipoo Pakoda, a delicious, crispy and spicy fritters made with banana flower, gram flour, rice flour and spices. Like Onion Pakoda this vazhaipoo pakoda is so crunchy and tempting. Each flower will be very crispy making us more tempting. 

Vazhaipoo (Banana Blossom) is loaded with fiber, protein and many more nutrients. These florets inside the blossom can be eaten raw or cooked like a poriyal, usili or vada. We can also make herbal teas with these flowers. Though this vazhaipoo has the astringent taste, it has loaded medicinal values. We can make many varieties of recipes with Vazhaipoo. Poriyal, Paruppu usili, vada are some of the common recipes made with vazhaipoo.

Tips for making Vazhaipoo Pakoda:

1. Remove the stamen till the tender layer of the vazhaipoo. Stamen doesn’t cook so its not good to eat as it will create digestive issues.
2. Soak the florets till we are ready to prepare pakoda mixture. If the florets are left outside it will become dark color.
3. If the florets are not being coated properly add more besan and rice flour. Also adjust the spices if you add more flours.
4. Sprinkle very little water and coat the spices properly. If you add more water it will become like bajji batter.
5. While deep frying, keep the flame low so the raw florets are cooked completely.

You may also want to try:

• Onion Pakoda
• Kambu Pakoda
• Raw Banana Bajji
• Masal Vada

Recipe card for Vazhaipoo Pakoda | Banana Flower Fritters:

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Vazhaipoo Pakoda Recipe | Banana Flower Fritters

Vazhaipoo Pakoda, a delicious, crispy and spicy fritters made with banana flower, gram flour, rice flour and spices. A crunchy snack to relish with hot tea/coffee. Learn here how to make this recipe with step by step pictures, video and instructions.

Course Snacks

Cuisine Indian Cuisine, Indian Recipes, South Indian Recipes, Tamil Brahmin, Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu Recipes

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 4 people

Calories 120kcal

Author Sowmya Venkatachalam

Equipment

• Mixing Bowl
• Heavy Bottomed Pan

Ingredients

• 1 small Vazhaipoo (Banana flower) approximately 2 cups of florets.
• ½ Cup Gram Flour (Besan / Chickpea Flour) 1 Cup - 250ml
• 2 tbsp Rice Flour
• ¾ tsp Salt Adjust as needed
• 1 tsp Red Chili Powder
• 1 pinch Asafoetida (Asafetida / Hing)
• Few Curry leaves
• 2 tbsp Coriander Leaves Chopped
• 2 nos Green Chili Chopped
• 2 tsp Ghee
• 2 Cups Oil For Deep Frying

Instructions

PREPARING BANANA FLOWER FOR COOKING:

• The tricky part is to remove the stamen which is nothing but a hard pink layer found in each florets. This stamen never gets cooked and hence we need to remove the same from the florets. You can easily remove the stamen from the top layers of the florets as the stamen is visible. But once you approach the inner layers, the florets are covered and hence removal of the stamen is little bit difficult. Here is the tip.. you can hold the bunch of florets on your left hand and rub the face of the florets on your right hand. This will open up the florets and you can remove the stamen easily. You might notice that the color of the bract was in dark pink color when you start the removal of the stamen and once you approach the inner portion the color of the bract changes from dark pink color to the yellow and finally end up with small white bulb. You can stop removing the stamen at this point as the florets in the inner portion will be more tender. You can cut the flower directly without removing the bracts or stamen.
• Add the stamen removed florets in a bowl full of water to prevent de-colorization.

Preparing Pakoda mixture

• In a mixing bowl, take the besan, rice flour, salt, asafoetida and red chili powder.
• To the bowl, now add curry leaves, coriander leaves, banana flower florets and ghee.
• Mix everything well. We can see the flours starts to coat the florets. Sprinkle water if needed to coat each floret properly. Vazhaipoo Pakoda mixture ready!

Deep Frying

• Heat oil in a pan. Drop a pinch of pakoda mixture to check if the oil is ready. If the pakoda mixture rises up, then the oil is ready.
• Take the pakoda mixture, before dropping, try to crumble and gently add it to hot oil.
• Keep the flame in low and allow the pakoda to fry till its golden brown. Remove the fried pakoda from oil and place in paper towel to drain excess oil. In the same way, fry the rest of pakoda mixture.

Serving

• Relish this crunchy Vazhaipoo Pakoda with hot coffee/tea!

Nutrition

Serving: 1Cup | Calories: 120kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 2g

INSTRUCTIONS WITH STEP BY STEP PICTURES

PREPARING BANANA FLOWER FOR COOKING:

• The tricky part is to remove the stamen which is nothing but a hard pink layer found in each florets. This stamen never gets cooked and hence we need to remove the same from the florets. You can easily remove the stamen from the top layers of the florets as the stamen is visible. But once you approach the inner layers, the florets are covered and hence removal of the stamen is little bit difficult. Here is the tip.. you can hold the bunch of florets on your left hand and rub the face of the florets on your right hand. This will open up the florets and you can remove the stamen easily. You might notice that the color of the bract was in dark pink color when you start the removal of the stamen and once you approach the inner portion the color of the bract changes from dark pink color to the yellow and finally end up with small white bulb. We can stop removing the stamen at this point as the florets in the inner portion will be more tender. You can cut the flower directly without removing the bracts or stamen. Add the stamen removed florets in a bowl full of water to prevent de-colorization.

PREPARING PAKODA MIXTURE

• In a mixing bowl, take the besan, rice flour, salt, asafoetida and red chili powder.

• To the bowl, now add curry leaves, coriander leaves, banana flower florets and ghee.

• Mix everything well. We can see the flours starts to coat the florets. Sprinkle water if needed to coat each floret properly. Vazhaipoo Pakoda mixture ready!

DEEP FRYING

• Heat oil in a pan. Drop a pinch of pakoda mixture to check if the oil is ready. If the pakoda mixture rises up, then the oil is ready. Take the pakoda mixture, before dropping, try to crumble and gently add it to hot oil.

• Keep the flame in low and allow the pakoda to fry till its golden brown. Remove the fried pakoda from oil and place in paper towel to drain excess oil. In the same way, fry the rest of pakoda mixture.

SERVING

• Relish this crunchy Vazhaipoo Pakoda with hot coffee/tea!

The post Vazhaipoo Pakoda | Banana Flower Fritters appeared first on Subbus Kitchen.