This is my favourite way to consume cauliflowers. Fritters! But anything “frittered” is amazing. I learned about making batter with chickpea flour from my vegetarian friend. She made the batter with just chickpea flour, salt, curry powder and stir in enough water to form a thick and creamy consistency. It is that simple! However, I’ve decided to tweak her recipe with the addition of rice flour. What rice flour does is to give the chickpea batter a little bit of lightness and more crunchiness.
If you are looking for a vegetarian friendly and gluten free appetiser for a party, this could be the one for you. With that said, you may need to put on a shower cap (so that your hair doesn’t smell like grease) and clothes you don’t care about if you are making the fritters just before the guests arrive. After all, it is deep frying we are talking about.
Cauliflower Fritters
What you’ll need for 4 – 6 servings as appetizers:-
- A small whole cauliflower, cut into small florets
- 1 + 1/3 cups + 2 tbsps chickpea flour
- 2/3 cups rice flour
- 2 tbsps curry powder ( I used Clive Of India Authentic Hot Madras Curry Powder)
- 2 tbsps cumin seeds
- 2 tsps salt
- 2 cups of water
- Cooking oil
Method:-
Line a large baking tray with baking paper and kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil from the fritters. Set aside.
Cut the cauliflower into florets. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine chickpea flour, rice flour, curry powder, cumin seeds and salt. Then gradually stir in water until it forms a thick and creamy batter. Set aside.
Place a 20cm pot on a stove, fill the pot with cooking oil to 3/4 full. Heat up the oil over high heat. To test the oil is ready, place a small drop of batter into the oil and the oil is ready when the batter sizzles immediately.
Dunk 3 to 4 cauliflower florets into the batter, make sure they are all well coated. Then cook in the hot oil over medium flame until golden brown. Place the fritters on the lined baking tray. Repeat the same for the rest of the cauliflower florets.
If you are making the fritters a couple of hours ahead of time, reheat the fritters in a preheated oven of 180C/356F for 20 to 30 minutes until the exterior is crisp up and the fritters are heated through.
Serve with tomato sauce/ketchup.
Note – if you want to speed up the deep frying process, use a bigger pot so that you can fry more cauliflower florets in each batch. The reason I used a small pot is to save on the oil I needed for deep frying.
How about you? What’s your favourite cauliflower recipe?
Yum. I love cauliflower fritters! And lol great tip on the shower cap!
Can I use regular/plain flour?
Hi Ruzanna, I have not tried making the fritter using regular flour. To me, plain flour does not give enough depth when it comes to flavour when just add with water, seasonings and spices especially if paired with a bland vegetable like cauliflower. If you’d like to use regular flour, I have found this recipe http://bit.ly/19wCxgE may be what you are after.