Beetroot Leaves Patra: A Delicious Indian Snack Recipe

Recently, when I harvested my first beetroots for the season, I also harvested a bunch of fresh beetroot leaves. Beetroot leaves are edible. They are rich in potassium, fibre, and Vitamin C, so its a good idea to include them in our meals.

Beetroots are commonly available in supermarkets in Germany, but the leaves are not as common. You can either get them in farm shops or at the weekend farmers market. Another alternative is to grow them during the summer months. I usually do the latter and treat myself to fresh beets and their nutritious leaves throughout the summer.

After my first harvest this year, multiple ideas came to my mind as I considered what I could make with these leaves. The first recipe I decided to try was this delicious tea-time snack, which takes inspiration from Patra, a popular snack that originated in the western parts of India. The traditional recipe for patra requires colocasia leaves, which are smeared with a spicy and tangy gram flour batter, steamed, and shallow fried.

In my recipe for Beetroot Patra, I replaced colocasia leaves with beetroot leaves and deep-fried them instead of shallow-frying them.

Let’s check out the recipe in detail.

Equipment Needed:

Mixing bowl
Kadhai/Pan for deep frying
Steamer
Knives and Cutting Board
Whisk

You can learn about all the kitchen equipment I use in my article: Setting Up My Indian Kitchen in Germany.

Ingredients for Beetroot Patra:

25-30 Big Sized Beetroot Leaves
1 Cup Gram Flour (Besan)
½ tsp Asafoetida
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Ginger and Green Chilli Paste
1 tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp Carom Seeds (Ajwain)
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Dry Mango Powder (Amchur)
Water to make a thick batter
Oil for deep frying

Method to make Beetroot Patra:

Wash the beetroot leaves thoroughly. Cut off the stems and separate the leaves. Keep them aside.
In a bowl, combine gram flour with salt, asafoetida, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, carom seeds, dry mango powder, and ginger-green chilli paste.
Add water and whisk it to get a smooth, thick batter.
Take one beetroot leaf. On its backside, spread the gram flour batter.
Then, place another beetroot leaf on it. Spread the batter on it.
In this way, stack about 6 leaves. Then, roll up the leaves.
This way, make all the rolls.
Grease the steamer plated. On high heat, steam these rolls for about 15 minutes.
Turn off the steamer and let the rolls stay in the steamer for 10 minutes. Then, remove them and let them cool completely.
Once they are cooled, cut them into thick slices.
Heat oil in a pan, and fry them on high heat until they turn crispy. Once done, transfer them to a paper towel.
Sprinkle some chat masala and serve with ketchup or chutney.

Some additional tips about the recipe:

You can try the same recipe with spinach, Kale or pumpkin leaves. Make sure you take big-sized leaves.
The gram flour batter must neither be too thick nor runny. It should be of medium consistency.
You can even use your Idli steamer to steam the Patras.
The frying part is only done to crisp up the patras. No additional cooking is required. So, fry the patras on high heat and remove them when they turn crispy.