Suitable for: vegan, low sodium (12mg), low phosphorus (131mg), low potassium (316mg), gluten-free, soy-free – measured for 5 balls
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A low potassium potato recipe? That’s right! The trick is to soak the potatoes overnight and discard the water in the morning, as it divides the amount of potassium by two. This step is not recommended to people who aren’t on a low potassium diet, as potassium is healthy for most people!
So, poha balls. A friend brought me this recipe so that we would cook it together to get over her fear of deep frying, and I think it went very well! I have never eaten poha balls before, so unfortunately I cannot attest to them tasting “authentic” or not, but I would say that they were delicious!
Poha balls are an Indian dish made of deep fried potatoes and rice flakes. It’s not very spicy despite the chilies, so if you want it hot maybe keep that in mind and add more heat! I’ve served it with some quinces chutney and that fit absolutely perfectly, so I would recommend that or some other chutney!
If you’re not comfortable with deep frying, I believe this is a good recipe to start with because the balls are small enough to handle easily, and there’s no sticky dough getting everywhere like in tempura-style deep frying. My friend was able to make it all by herself, even though it was her first time deep frying anything! The only caveat is that unlike some other type of deep frying, the balls sink at the bottom of the pot, so you have to fish them out regularly to check on their progress.
The recipe we used as a base was this Potato and Rice Flake Kebabs by Naznin Shahabuddin Modasiya. We didn’t use salt as I’m on a low sodium diet, and we didn’t have zeera powder, but otherwise we followed it quite well I believe! We also doubled the doses, and finished all the balls in one go between 3 people. You can go and check the original recipe for more pictures.
Recipe
Makes 26 balls.
You can find the nutritional information for the ingredients at the bottom of the article.
Ingredients
- 5 (450g, 2 cups) medium sized potatoes
- 2 (130g, 1 cup) onions
- 2 green chillies
- 150g (2 cups) rice flakes
- 60ml (1/4 cup) homemade veggie broth / stock (optional)
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 6 Tbsp fresh coriander
- 1l of frying oil (I used peanut oil)
Instructions
- Peel and cut the potatoes in cubes. If you are on a low potassium diet, soak the potatoes in water overnight and discard the water in the morning before boiling them with fresh water – this step is completely unnecessary if you are not on a low potassium diet.
- Boil the potatoes with the stock until soft, then drain and mash well.
- Take the seeds off the chillies, then cut them and the onions very finely.
- Rince the rice flakes three times and drain – do not soak them.
- Mix together the mashed potatoes, the rice flakes, the onions and the chilli, then add the spices and mix some more.
- Form balls the size of a golf balls (3-4cm or 1.5 inch diameter) with the mixture. The balls need to be very smooth, without cracks.
- Heat up the oil on high heat in a high walled pot and wait until hot (I put a wooden chopstick or spoon in the oil and wait until I can see bubbles forming around it – that’s when the oil is ready).
- Deep fry the balls a few at a time, and put the fried balls on a pepper towel afterwards to absorb some of the oil.
- Serve immediately, preferably with a good chutney on the side!
Nutritional informations
Total measurements (for 26 balls):
- 450g potatoes soaked overnight is ~765mg potassium, ~202mg phosphorus, ~11mg salt
- 130g onions is ~286mg potassium, ~52mg phosphorus, ~12mg salt
- 100g green chillies is ~340mg potassium, ~46mg phosphorus, ~18mg salt
- 150g rice flakes is ~165mg potassium, ~357mg phosphorus, ~15mg salt
- 5g fresh coriander is ~26mg potassium, ~2mg phosphorus, ~5mg salt
For a total of (for 26 balls): ~1582mg potassium, ~659mg phosphorus, ~61mg salt, no gluten, no soy, no animal products.
And for one portion (5 balls): ~316mg potassium, ~131mg phosphorus, ~12mg salt
Shelf Life 