Take 200 grams of nicely washed leaves of palak or spinach and chop them finely. Leave out the stalk of the leaves. It will come to about a cup of finely chopped spinach leaves.

Also, chop ½ cup fresh coriander leaves.

Now, in a bowl, take ½ cup of water, ½ tsp of salt, 2 tsp of cooking oil, 1 tsp of coriander seeds (crushed), ½ tsp of crushed black peppercorns, ¼ tsp of carom seeds (ajwain), ¼ tsp of turmeric powder (haldi), ½ tsp of red chili powder, 2 pinches of baking soda, 2 pinches of asafetida (hing), and squeeze the juice of half a lemon to it. Mix them all very nicely.

Now, to this mixture in the bowl, add the chopped spinach and coriander leaves along with 5 pieces of green chilies (finely chopped), 8 pieces of finely chopped garlic, 1 piece ginger (1-inch size, finely chopped). Follow it up with a cup of gram flour (besan). Mix them all nicely with your hand. You may let it rest a bit.

In the meantime, heat an adequate amount of cooking oil in a kadai over a medium flame. When the oil is hot, take small portions of the batter in your hand. Put it gently and carefully in the hot oil, one by one, from one side of the kadai. Let them fry on one side for half a minute and then flip them with a strainer.

Flip them continuously and remove them after 3 to 4 minutes of frying. Fry all the pakoras in the same way.

Your tasty and spicy homemade palak pakodas are now ready to enjoy. Serve them hot on a plate along with green chutney or tomato ketchup with a couple of slightly fried green chilies.