Okra or Lady’s fingers is one of the widely used vegetable in Indian Cuisine and it is commonly known as Bhindi /Bhendi. There are variety of amazing recipes using this humble vegetable and I like to share one of simple and my favourite recipe in this blog – Bhendi or Okra Fry.

This Bhendi fry recipe is a crispy side dish that can be served with dal-rice or chapati. Preparation is easy where each okra’s are slit and covered with spice mixture. Marinated okra’s then coated with semolina and shallow fried. Spices you can adjust as per choice; I like to add little chaat masala in this mixture as it adds tangy flavours and balances the spicy taste. Also; chaat masala helps to prevent sliminess of bhendi once fried. Enough marination and mixture of semolina-rice flour used for coating are keys to make super crispy okra. Serve them hot and fresh to enjoy its crispy texture as they might turn soggy once cold. But you can reheat okra’s either over the griddle or oven before serving. Though I like to enjoy this side dish with plain steamed rice and dal; one can serve them on its own. Either ways these fried okra’s are super tempting and tastes delicious.

Ingredients :

16-18 Okra

1/4 cup rice flour

1/4 cup thin semolina

1 & 1/2 tsp coriander powder

1 & 1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp chaat masala

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

5-6 tbsp oil for frying

salt as per taste (approximately 1 tsp)

How to make :

Wash each Okra throughly and pat dry with cotton cloth.

Once Okra’s are dried, either make slits or cut into thin slices (Refer images).

Combine all dry spices along with ginger garlic paste and mix with sliced okra’s.

Coat okra throughly with masala mixture. Let it rest for 30 minutes or so.

Next add rice flour – semolina mixture to marinated okra’s. Cover sliced Okra nicely with this mixture. I prefer thin semolina but even coarse semolina goes well in this recipe.

Turn on the gas over medium-high heat and add oil into it.

Once oil is hot, add okra mixture along with any leftover rice flour-semolina mixture to the hot pan. Ensure pan and oil are hot before transferring marinated okra’s. This ensures that coating sticks to okra slices; otherwise it separates.

Add little more oil to the pan if required and gently toss okra slices. Turn heat to medium and fry them over medium heat.

As okra starts cooking it changes colour and shrinks in size.

Keep tossing in between so that it won’t stick to the pan and gets cooked thoroughly.

Add oil as necessary. Once it’s ready, it will turn crispy and brown.

Okra fry is ready to serve hot with your meal.

I am hoping you enjoyed this Bhendi or Okra fry recipe and would love to give it a try.

Your feedback is valuable; so if there are any suggestions for me, do let me know in comments. As always thanks for stopping by and reading this post; do like, share and subscribe to my blog. You can also connect with me on Pinterest || Instagram || Twitter for some amazing food.

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Recipe