Patra or pattarveliya is a very famous Gujarati snacks. It has a blend of sweet, sour and spicy. It is prepared using colocasia leaves (arbi patta) and besan. They are steamed first and then shallow fry. I love patra but since I moved to Canada I have not prepared it at home. We do get ready made patra in freezer section and I buy that all the time. It’s hard to get colocasia leaves here in grocery store. My mom used to make really yummy patra growing up. I called her and asked her the recipe as I wanted to document her recipe. I like to preserve my mom and MIL’s recipe for the future generation. Shortage of ingredients never stopped me … 😄. So this time when I bought spinach and the leaves were quite big, I immediately thought of preparing patra using spinach leaves. It turned out super delicious and one could not tell the difference between colocasia leaves and spinach. Even my husband said the same thing. It was a success! You can use the same recipe for original patra using colocasia leaves. This is known as aloo vadi in Maharashtra, Patrode or Pathrode in Himachal Pradesh.
Please note that you can see printable version at the end. You need to use chrome browser to print or save copy of the recipe.
Preparation Time: 20-25 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
Handful jaggary
2 marble size tamarind
2 cup besan (gram flour)
1 tbsp wheat flour or oat flour (skip for GF)
Salt to taste
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp slightly crushed coriander seeds
15-20 crushed black pepper
3-4 crushed cloves
Around 50 big spinach leaves
Tempering:
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Small pinch of asafoetida
8-10 curry leaves
Procedure:
1. Select big leaves of spinach. Remove the stem. Clean with water and let it dry on cloth for 30-40 minutes.
2. Soak jaggery and tamarind in 1/3 cup water for around 1 hours. Then blend it with hands and discard tamarind veins. You can add more or less jaggery depending on your taste. We like it sweet and savory.
3. In the same bowl, add rest of the ingredients except spinach leaves. Make paste like consistency adding little water at a time. Mix everything well and keep it ready.
4. Now on a flat bottom, lay one spinach leaf and spread little paste, then slightly over lay another leaf spread little paste. This way both leaves are glued at the side. Then do the third leaf same. This was there are 3 leaves on sideways. Then continue next row but make sure each leaf is slightly over the other one and glued with paste. This way it will be easier when you roll them. I put around 8 spinach leave and made the shape of colocasia. Now do the second layer on top of 1st layer. Layer 8 spinach leaves and spread besan paste. You need to roll this like burritto, so carefully and slowly make the roll and stick the end with besan paste.
5. Put each roll in charani (steaming tray). I made 3 rolls using around 48 leaves. You can use pasta post and steamer to do this.
6. Heat 2 glass of water in a steamer or a big pot and steam patra (covering the lid) on high for 15 minutes and then low to medium heat for 20 minutes. Once done, turn off the heat.
7. Remove tray from steamer and let patra cool down completely before you cut in pieces. You can even freeze this for couple weeks if you made extra. Then thaw an hour before doing the next step.
8. Cut patra in 1/2 inch thick slices.
9. To stir fry, heat a wide pan with 2 tbsp oil. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds and then sesame seeds. Once mustard seeds starts to pop, add asafoetida and curry leaves. Lower the heat to medium. Then add patra slices. Do not over crowd the pan. You can do this in 2 batches if pan is not big enough. Saute on both sides on medium heat until slightly crispy outside. Stir this occasionally, don’t let it burn.
10. Patra are slightly crispy from outside. Some people even deep fry but I personally like it shallow fry or just sauté in pan. You can eat these for breakfast, snacks or light supper. We also serve this as a side dish with Indian thali. It is very healthy as it is steamed. Serve it with masala chai or fresh home-made yogurt or masala chhas (spiced lassi). This stays good for 2-3 day. Keep it in fridge and warm it before eating.
Patra has a wonderful flavour coriander, black pepper and cloves. It is vegan and nut free. You can skip wheat flour to make it gluten free. Please do leave a comment or let me know if you have any questions regarding this dish.
Thank you for visiting my blog. Until next time!
Thank you for visiting my website. Until next time!
You can follow me on social media using any of the link below.
Facebook Bhavna’s Food Journey
YouTube Bhavna’s Food Journey
Twitter @BhavnasFoodJrny
Pinterest Bhavna’s Food Journey
Instagram Bhavna’s Food Journey
Spinach Patra
Ingredients:
Handful jaggary
2 marble size tamarind
2 cup besan (gram flour)
1 tbsp wheat flour
Salt to taste
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp slightly crushed coriander seeds
15-20 crushed black pepper
3-4 crushed cloves
Around 50 big spinach leaves
Tempering:
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Small pinch of asafoetida
8-10 curry leaves
Procedure
1. Select big leaves of spinach. Remove the stem. Clean with water and let it dry on cloth for 30-40 minutes.
2. Soak jaggery and tamarind in 1/3 cup water for around 1 hours. Then blend it with hands and discard tamarind veins. You can add more or less jaggery depending on your taste. We like it sweet and savory.
3. In the same bowl, add rest of the ingredients except spinach leaves. Make paste like consistency adding little water at a time. Mix everything well and keep it ready.
4. Now on a flat bottom, lay one spinach leaf and spread little paste, then slightly over lay another leaf spread little paste. This way both leaves are glued at the side. Then do the third leaf same. This was there are 3 leaves on sideways. Then continue next row but make sure each leaf is slightly over the other one and glued with the paste. This way it will be easier when you roll them. I put around 8 spinach leave and made the shape of colocasia. Now do the second layer on top of 1st layer. Layer 8 spinach leaves and spread besan paste. You need to roll this like burritto, so carefully and slowly make the roll and stick the end with besan paste.
5. Put each roll in charani (steaming tray). I made 3 rolls using around 48 leaves. You can use pasta pot and steamer to do this.
6. Heat 2 glass of water in a steamer or a big pot and steam patra (covering the lid) on high for 15 minutes and then low to medium heat for 20 minutes. Once done, turn off the heat.
7. Remove tray from steamer and let patra cool down completely before you cut in pieces. You can even freeze this for couple weeks if you made extra. Then thaw an hour before doing the next step.
8. Cut patra in 1/2 inch thick slices.
9. To stir fry, heat a wide pan with 2 tbsp oil. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds and then sesame seeds. Once mustard seeds starts to pop, add asafoetida and curry leaves. Lower the heat to medium. Then add patra slices. Do not over crowd the pan. You can do this in 2 batches if pan is not big enough. Saute on both sides on medium heat until slightly crispy outside. Stir this occasionally, don’t let it burn.
10. Patra are slightly crispy from outside. Some people even deep fry but I personally like it shallow fry or just saute in pan. You can eat these for breakfast, snacks or light supper. We also serve this as a side dish with Indian thali. It is very healthy as it is steamed. Serve it with masala chai or fresh home-made yogurt or masala chhas (spiced lassi). This stays good for 2-3 day. Keep it in fridge and warm it before eating.
Patra has a wonderful flavour coriander, black pepper and cloves. It is vegan and nut free. You can skip wheat flour to make it gluten free. Please do leave a comment or let me know if you have any questions regarding this dish.
Bhavna's Food Journey 
Hi great patra recipe.
LikeLike
Thank you, do try!
LikeLike