Courgette flowers have a beautiful taste and are delicious in these more-ish Indian snacks.

You can replace the courgette flowers with courgette, spinach, kale, carrot, beetroot – try any vegetable that doesn’t need to be cooked for too long.

Ingredients

  • 100g gram flour
  • 50g courgette flowers
  • 1-3 green chillies
  • ½ tsp hot chilli powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • 50 ml water

Method

  • Prepare the courgette flowers by carefully opening them and snipping out the stamen in the middle with a pair of scissors. The stamen is edible but bitter so best to get rid of it. Clean them with a mushroom brush.
Chop the stamen out of each flower, shown here already cut
  • Chop flowers into small pieces.
  • Sieve the gram flour into a bowl.
  • Add the other ingredients and flowers into the bowl and mix together. Whisk it to get a bit of air into the mixture if you have time.
  • If the mixture is too runny add a little flour and if it’s too dry add a little water. It should be a thick consistency, so that it doesn’t run off a spoon.
  • Heat an inch of vegetable oil in a frying pan, until a cube of bread fizzes when you drop it in.
  • Place a teaspoonful of mixture in the oil, and repeat until you have filled the pan.
  • Leave them for 2 minutes.
  • Turn them over, they should be golden and crispy. If they’re dark, turn the heat down, if they’re not crispy turn it up.
  • Fry for another 2 minutes until golden on both sides.

Serve

  • Best served warm, but are also good cold.
  • Serve with natural yogurt or mango chutney.