Air Fryer Rice Pakora | Leftover Rice Pakora | Low Calorie Rice Pakora Recipe

Crispy, golden and delicious Air Fryer Rice Pakora recipe with detailed step by step pictures. Low Calorie Air Fryer Rice Pakora video recipe, easy low-calorie rice pakora recipe! Perfect snack or appetizer made with leftover rice!

Leftover Rice Pakora recipe is a simple and easy low-calorie snack made in an air fryer with just ½ tablespoon of oil. Making snacks in air fryer works out the best as it gets the crispiest, golden and crunchy results without having to deep-fry or use a lot of fat in the recipe. In this Air Fryer Rice Pakora recipe, we make a low-calorie delicious snack with leftover rice, using the air fryer.

Jump to:

• Key Ingredients
• Tips & Important Notes for Making Air Fryer Rice Pakora
• Substitutions & Variations
• Storing & Serving Suggestions
• Air Fryer Rice Pakora Video Recipe
• Air Fryer Rice Pakora Recipe with Step by Step Pictures
• Recipe Notes
• More Air Fryer Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Making pakoras from the leftover rice is one of the great ways to get rid of it, trust me. Every time I make this recipe at home, I use different flavoring ingredients and available vegetables at hand and the family cannot even guess that the pakoras are made with leftover rice. Air-fried leftover rice pakodas are very crispy and turn out better than the traditional deep-fried ones or even better!

Key Ingredients

Leftover Rice is one of the main ingredients to make this rice pakora. Although you can use fresh cooked rice too, it is best to get over with the leftover cooked rice. The rice should be soft and not grainy.

Gram Flour or Besan is used to bind all the ingredients for rice pakora together. You can use other binding ingredients like rice flour, corn flour or even powdered oats but besan works the best!

Fresh Coriander or Cilantro adds a burst of freshness to the pakora mix and can be easily replaced with methi leaves, spinach leaves, mint or even spring onions.

Finely Chopped Onions & Fresh Green Peas are added to give some crunch to the otherwise plain rice pakoras. You can use any finely chopped mixed vegetables along with the peas. Sweet Corn kernels also work well.

The rice pakora mix is spiced with a bunch of spice powders – Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder, Cumin Powder, Turmeric Powder, Garam Masala Powder and Salt.

We use just ½ tablespoon of Oil to prepare the rice pakora mix making it truly a low-calorie snack!

For full list of ingredients and exact measurements, check the recipe below.

Tips & Important Notes for Making Air Fryer Rice Pakora

Making rice pakoras in air fryer is very simple and the recipe is easy, beginner-friendly. If you have leftover cooked rice, making these pakoras is quite quick and straight-forward. The below tips and notes help in perfecting the recipe and yielding golden, crispy pakoras!

Use soft cooked leftover rice that is at room temperature, without any extra moisture or water to make the pakoras. Any extra moisture/water content makes it harder to shape the pakoras.

Gram Flour/Besan is used is a binding agent in this pakora recipe but using a lot of it makes the pakoras hard and not using enough makes it harder to roll out the pakoras.

If you are using any vegetables along with the rice in the pakoras, it is best to chop it as fine as possible. It makes it quicker to cook without drying out other ingredients.

Knead the pakora mix until all ingredients and spice powders are well combined, making it a uniform mixture that is soft & rollable.

When shaping the pakoras, if the mixture is sticky grease your palm with little oil to easily shape them.

Always check the pakoras after half the cooking time and brush with some oil so that they do not get dried up.

Substitutions & Variations

Apart of using leftover rice to make these pakoras, fresh cooked rice can also used. It is a must to cook the rice soft and any variety of rice can be used to make these pakoras.

In the place of gram flour, other binding ingredients like rice flour or corn flour can also be added but adjust the quantities depending on how dry or moist the mixture is. Another popular choice is to use boiled, mashed potatoes. You can also use powdered quick oats as a binding agent for these rice pakoras.

Along with fresh green peas, other vegetables like carrots, French beans, cabbage, potatoes or protein like paneer or cheese can also be added. It is best to finely chop the vegetables to allow easy cooking.

If you do not have an air fryer, you can make this same recipe in an OTG or go the traditional route of shallow or deep frying on stove top too.

Storing & Serving Suggestions

Air Fryer Rice Pakoras are best served hot/warm with a side of tomato ketchup or green chutney as a snack or appetizer. It can be served as a tea-time snack or a party snack and it is a crowd-pleaser. It does lose some of the crispness on cooling down however, it can easily be reheated in a preheated air fryer before serving again. The pakoras can be shaped and stored in an airtight container in fridge for a day or in the freezer for days. The cooked rice pakoras are best consumed the same day! Checkout more Air Fryer recipes and Low Calorie Snack recipes!

Air Fryer Rice Pakora Video Recipe

Air Fryer Rice Pakora Recipe with Step by Step Pictures

In a mixing bowl add 1.5 cups of leftover soft cooked rice. Add ¼ cup of fresh green peas, 1 onion finely chopped followed by ¼ cup of finely chopped coriander leaves/cilantro. Add 1 green chilli & 8-10 garlic cloves finely chopped.

Next add ½ tablespoon Kashmiri red chilli powder, ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon cumin powder and ½ teaspoon garam masala powder. Add salt as needed.

Mix everything well and gently mash, bring the mixture together. Add ½ tablespoon oil and mix well again.

Preheat the air fryer at 180°C for 5-7mins. And start shaping the pakoras. Make a small ball using greased fingers and roll into them small croquettes/cylinders.

Repeat this with rest of the pakora mix.

Place them in the preheated air fryer without overlapping.

Brush with a few drops of oil all over the pakoras.

Set in the air fryer at 180°C for 15 mins. Remove and gently turn/flip them around at half-way mark, brush with little oil as needed. Remove from air fryer when the pakoras are golden & crisp.

Serve hot with tomato ketchup, green chutney on the side.

Recipe Notes

• Pakoras can be sized and shaped as desired. I shaped them to croquettes as it is easier to manage and get crispier results.
• Adjust the spices as per preferred.
• The same recipe can be made in an OTG too. Alternatively, the pakoras can be shallow/deep fried as well.

More Air Fryer Recipes

You must use the category slug, not a URL, in the category field.

I would be delighted to know if you have tried this recipe, don’t forget to share your feedback and comments below. If you have any questions, you can e-mail me! I am also available on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter 🙂

📖 Recipe