Leftover Rice Pakora (Chawal Ke Pakore)

Rice Pakora Recipe or Chawal Ke Pakore Recipe – deep fried snack made from leftover cooked rice, besan (gram flour), spices and your choice of vegetables. Very simple and easy to make delicious snack.

I am back after a very very long break. We have been busy with moving from one place to another of course with full time job (it’s really tough to get time for blogging). Yes we are still in NJ. Now everything is settled down and I am back to my routine.

So recently at new place, I was unpacking the boxes. I found a cookbook written in Gujarati which I have forgotten that I own it. Yesterday I was going through the recipes in that book and I found this rice pakora recipe. And I thought ‘yes this is simple and I can make and shoot with no time’. So here I am with quick and easy recipe to use leftover rice.

I have made this chawal ke pakore from leftover rice. I do use leftover rice in other recipes like vagharelo bhaat, bhaat na rasawala muthia, phodnicha bhaat.

These pakora are crispy from outside while soft and fluffy from inside. The additions of peas and carrots makes it colorful and beautiful looking also adds lots of flavors to the pakora.

This is such a delicious snack for cold wintery weather or rainy evenings. I like to have it with a cup of coffee.

Check out more pakora recipes
Onion pakoda  //  Aloo pakora  //  Dill leaves pakoda  //  Palak pakora

Step By Step Photo Instructions:

 1) Take Cooked rice in a bowl. Any kind of rice (short grain or long grain) works for this.

2) Add grated ginger, chopped green chilies, cilantro, peas and carrot.

** For cooking peas and carrots:

• Boiling – boil plenty of water on medium heat, add big pinch of salt. Once its rolling boil, add peas and chopped carrots. Cook till soft, drain all the water and let it cool down. Instead you can use pressure cooker.
• Steaming – Steam the veggies in a steamer for about 10 minutes.
• Cook in Microwave – Take peas and chopped carrots in a microwave safe bowl, mix pinch of salt and add a tablespoon of water. Cover it partially and cook for 3-4 minutes. drain excess water and let it cool down. I prefer to cook in microwave as it is quick and convenient for me.

3) Mix them well.

4) Add besan, red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt.

5) Mix well and let it sit for 10 minutes. By this time vegetables leaves its water and besan will get little moistened.

6) Then add little water at a time.

7) and make lump free thick batter.

8) Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat for deep frying. Once hot add spoonful of batter using your hand or two spoons. Fry few pakora at a time.

9) After few minutes, flip them or move them around to get even cooking and browning.

10) Once they get golden brown and crispy from all sides, remove it to a paper towel lined plate using slotted spatula.

Pakora are ready to serve. It is best served hot or warm.

Serving suggestions: Serve rice pakora as a snack with cilantro chutney or ketchup or your choice of dipping. On the rainy day, you can serve with hot cup of tea or coffee.

Expert Tips:

• No need to add any baking soda to pakora batter to make it fluffy. Because this pakora are made from rice. Rice makes it fluffy without adding baking soda.
• For the variations, skip the veggies and add some chopped onions. Or you can add other veggies like cabbage or corn. Mix and match the veggies as per your liking.
• If you are Jain, then skip ginger in the recipe.

Did you try this rice pakora recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a review in the comment section below.

Adapted from – Gujarati Cookbook