Pumpkin flowers are high in nutritional value. It is harvested throughout the year in Odisha. Whenever we visit our native village, we find this flower in every nook and corner of every house’s garden.
I love natural healthy recipes. So, I curated this recipe in 2022 during a visit to my native village. I just added the cheese stuffing to make it more flavourful and give an Italian twist to a desi recipe.
Kakharu phoola pakoda (Cheesy Pumpkin flower fritters)
Pumpkin flowers – 2 pieces
Grated cheese cubes (Britannia) – 5 tsp
Grated apple – 3 tsp
Chopped onions – 3 tsp
Pepper powder – 1 tsp
Gram flour – 5 tsp
Rice bran oil – 2 tsp
Nigella seeds – 1 tsp
Salt – 1/2 tsp
To make cheesy pumpkin flower fritters, first wash the pumpkin flowers well and pat them dry. Trim off the lower part of the flower, including the stalk and stigma, keeping only the petals. For the stuffing, mix chopped onions, grated cheese, grated apple, pepper powder, and salt. Prepare a gram flour batter with nigella seeds and a little oil and set it aside.
Heat some oil on a tawa (griddle). Take one flower, fill it with the stuffing, dip it in the batter, and shake off the excess. Place it on the tawa and shallow fry. Cook each side for about two minutes, adding a little oil, until crisp and golden brown. Serve the cheesy pumpkin flower fritters hot with ketchup or chutney of your choice.
My Food Story is a collection of stories and recipes that celebrate India’s traditional plant-based ingredients sourced from local biodiversity. You can see these recipes on our interactive dashboard (https://www.cseindia.org/page/myfoodstory).
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Sucheta Bose is an entrepreneur, home chef and faculty from Odisha