Vegan Kadhi Pakora

Ingredients

For 4 portions

• 🥛 400ml soy yoghurt alternative
• 🍋 25ml lemon juice
• 🍚 135g chickpea flour
• 🥤 1,000ml tap water
• 🪴 2g turmeric
• 🧂 8g salt
• 🧅 150g onions
• 🌶️ 4g kashmiri chilli powder
• 🧂 1g bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 🏺 95ml sunflower oil
• 🌿 3g cumin seeds
• 🌿 2g mustard seeds
• 🌿 1g fenugreek
• 🪴 10g ginger
• 🧄 9g garlic
• 🌶️ 8g green chilli peppers
• 🌿 2g curry leaves
• 🌿 0.3g asafoetida
• 🌿 2g kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
• 🌿 10g fresh coriander

Method

1. Whisk the unsweetened soy yoghurt and lemon juice with 60 g of the gram flour until completely smooth, then whisk in 900 ml of the water, the turmeric, half the chilli powder and 5 g of the salt. The lemon gives the sourness that dairy yoghurt would.
2. Heat 15 ml of the oil in a large pan. Add the cumin, mustard and fenugreek seeds and let them sizzle, then the grated ginger, chopped garlic, slit chilli and asafoetida.
3. Pour in the yoghurt mixture and bring slowly to the boil, stirring all the time.
4. Lower the heat and simmer gently, uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring now and then, until it's the thickness of single cream and tastes cooked rather than floury. Thin with water if needed, and add a little more lemon to taste.
5. For the pakoras, mix the rest of the gram flour with the thinly sliced onion, the bicarbonate of soda, the rest of the salt and enough of the remaining water to make a thick batter that coats the onion.
6. Heat 65 ml of the oil in a frying pan and shallow-fry spoonfuls of the batter for 3 to 4 minutes, turning, until golden. Drain on kitchen paper.
7. Add the pakoras to the kadhi and simmer for 5 minutes, so they soften and soak it up.
8. For the tempering, heat the rest of the oil in a small pan, add the curry leaves and the rest of the chilli powder and pour over the kadhi straight away.
9. Crumble over the dried fenugreek leaves and coriander and serve with rice. Check the asafoetida is gluten-free if that matters to you.