Gobi 65 (Cauliflower 65 Fry)

Gobi 65 is a delicious crisp fried restaurant appetizer made with cauliflower, spices and curry leaves. It’s one of the most ordered vegetarian appetizer in the South Indian restaurants and in the recent years it even made to most of the wedding and celebration menus. In this post I show how to make the best crispy, delicious and flavorsome Gobi 65 aka Cauliflower 65.

About Gobi 65

Gobi 65 was inspired from Chicken 65 that originated in Hotel Buhari, Chennai in 1965. Though the original version was made with chicken, several vegetarian versions like this Gobi 65, Paneer 65 and aloo 65 were invented by vegetarian restaurants.

You will find numerous versions of 65 dishes but all are made adapting the same deep frying method. To make Gobi 65, cauliflower is battered & deep fried for a crisp texture. Though you can bake or air fry you won’t get the same flavor & texture as the fried cauliflower. So while making Gobi Manchurian or Gobi 65, deep frying is best.

---

However I’m sharing fried, air fried and oven baked Gobi 65 versions. If you are making a large batch or for an occasion, I highly recommend deep frying, so they come out crisp.

Though the original Buhari Chicken 65 never consisted of an additional tempering, many restaurants improvised the original with a special tempering made with curry leaves, plenty of garlic and little yogurt for a unique taste. This additional step takes your Gobi 65 to the next level, by imparting better flavor and color.

But if you just want crisp fried cauliflower, you may omit the tempering and garnish with some crisp fried curry leaves.

Gobi 65 is eaten on its own & in restaurants it is usually served with some raw onion slices and lemon. It is also eaten as a side in a South Indian meal consisting of rice & curries/ sambar or with biryani, pulav, ghee rice or Lemon rice meal. You may serve with ketchup or mint chutney but that totally takes away the South Indian flavors from your meal.

Ingredients & Substitutes

• Flour – All-purpose flour and cornstarch are most commonly used. But you can use wheat flour for all-purpose flour and rice flour for corn starch. Just make sure your wheat flour does not have too much bran because that imparts a nuttier flavor.
• Curry leaves – Fresh curry leaves are the heart of a 65 dish. Dried leaves are not the best for this recipe.
• Spices – Garam masala, red chili powder, cumin are the main spices used. Fresh ground ginger garlic paste is best. If not use them in grated form. Dried / ground versions of the same do not work well.
• Yogurt or vinegar – I love a very tiny amount of yogurt or vinegar which I add to the tempering. This one really makes a huge difference to your dish. To prevent splitting you will use very thick yogurt/ strained or Greek yogurt. While making without yogurt I use apple cider vinegar. You won’t taste the yogurt or vinegar in your Gobi 65.

More gobi recipes
Gobi Paratha
Gobi Masala
Gobi Pakoda
Cauliflower Kurma
Easy Cauliflower Curry
Cauliflower Pickle

Photo Guide

How to make Gobi 65 (stepwise photos)

This recipe serves only 2 to 3 people. To make more servings you may use the recipe card below to scale up.

1. Clean and cut a medium sized cauliflower. You can use about 2.5 cups florets in this recipe. Heat 4 cups water in a pot until medium hot (not boiling) & turn off. Add the florets and let sit for 5 mins. Drain to a colander and rinse under running water. Shake the colander to drain off all the water. If you want spread them on a kitchen towel to drain out the excess moisture. To a mixing bowl, add

• ¼ cup all-purpose flour or wheat flour
• ¼ cup rice flour or cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoon ginger garlic paste (or 1 tsp each grated ginger & garlic)
• ½ teaspoon garam masala
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

2. Also add 1 teaspoon red chili powder and 2 sprigs of chopped curry leaves. (To get a good bright red color I mix Byadgi red chili powder with few drops of oil and little water, before adding in here. If you want you may do that).

3. Pour water little by little. Start with ¼ cup water and add more only as required.

4. Mix everything well to make a medium thick batter. Taste test and adjust salt & spice to your preference. It has to be slightly salty & spicy.

5. Add cauliflower to the prepared batter. (Make sure there is no water drippings in your cauliflower florets else the excess water will thin down your batter)

6. Mix to coat the florets well with batter.

Frying Gobi

7. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. I use about 1½ cups here. When the oil is hot enough, drop a small portion of batter to the oil. It has to sizzle and come up without browning. This is the right temperature. If your oil is not hot enough, the coating will come off the gobi while frying so make sure it is hot.

Pick up the florets one by one and gently slide to the hot oil. Do not disturb for a few minutes. Then stir and deep fry until golden and crisp.

8. Remove to a steel rack or a colander or kitchen tissues. This way fry all of the gobi in batches ensuring the oil is hot enough before frying each batch. If you want optionally, pat dry 2 sprigs of curry leaves and deseed 2 green chilies. Add them to the spider strainer and fry them in the hot oil. Don’t forget to pat dry and deseed else they will splash oil.

9. If you prefer to omit the tempering step, serve them right away with the fried garnishes. These will be medium hot and are great for kids or people who prefer low heat.

Tempering

Yogurt with higher amount of whey is likely to split so use thick full fat yogurt, strained yogurt or Greek yogurt. In a small bowl, whisk together

• 2 to 3 tablespoons thick yogurt (Greek yogurt) or 1½ tsp vinegar + 2 tbsp water
• ½ teaspoon red chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon garam masala. Reserve this aside.

10. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan. Add ½ teaspoon cumin seeds. When they begin to sizzle add

• 1 sprig curry leaves (pat dry)
• 1 to 2 slit green chilies
• 2 to 3 chopped garlic cloves.

11. Fry until the garlic begins to smell aromatic, for 1 to 2 mins. Add

12. Stir and saute on a low heat until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick.

13. Add the fried cauliflower and saute well on a high flame for 2 minutes. Do not add the cauliflower too early else your it can get soggy. Wait until the mixture is really thick as seen in the above picture.

Restaurant style Gobi 65 is ready. It is best served hot.

Air Frying

To air fry, add a tablespoon of oil to the batter ingredients and make the batter slightly thicker (not too thick) by adding lesser water. This way there won’t be many batter drippings in the air fryer.

Preheat your air fryer at 400 F / 200 c for 5 mins. Meanwhile spray or grease your air fryer basket or tray with oil and place the florets spacing apart. Air fry for 12 to 14 mins, shake the basket after 6 mins. Adjust the timing depending on your model. Repeat frying in batches.

Baked Gobi 65

The method of making oven baked gobi 65 is different from the deep fried and air fried versions. Gobi is dry coated with flour and spices. A splash of water and oil help the dry ingredients adhere to the cauliflower.

Ingredients

• 1½ cups cauliflower florets
• Green and red bell peppers (1/2 each, optional)
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 ½ tbsps cornstarch
• 1 to 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 tsp oil to temper
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• 1 tbsp sliced ginger
• 1 tbsp sliced garlic
• 2 tbsp. Yogurt optional
• 1 small onion or shallot chopped to cubes, layers seperated
• 1 green chili slit

To marinate

• Pinch of turmeric
• 1 tsp garam masala
• ½ tsp red chili powder
• 1 tbsp. ginger garlic paste (or half tbsp each grated)
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• Lemon juice as per your taste

Instructions

• Add cauliflower florets to salted warm water and set aside for 15 minutes. Drain off.
• Wash and pat dry the cauliflower florets.
• Marinate them with turmeric, garam masala, red chili, ginger garlic paste, sea salt and lemon juice. Set aside for at least 30 mins.
• Grease or prepare a baking tray and preheat the oven to 240 C/ 460 F.
• Mix together cornstarch and all-purpose flour. Sprinkle all over the gobi.
• Add olive oil and a splash of water, mix well to coat the florets with the flour. Sprinkle as much water as required so the flour is no longer dry.
• Transfer these to a baking tray and bake for 20 to 30 mins until crisp, time depends on the size of your florets. Halfway through shake the try.
• Heat oil in a pan, add curry leaves and green leaves. Fry till they turn crisp, remove and set aside.
• Add chopped ginger garlic and fry until aromatic for a minute.
• Add onions, capsicum and salt. Fry on a high flame for 2 to 3 mins or till the capsicum is cooked slightly. If using yogurt add it, mix and fry for 2 to 3 minutes until most of the liquid evaporates.
• Add in baked gobi, curry leaves, chili and mix well and fry for 2 mins on high flame.
• Oven baked Gobi 65 is ready.

Related Recipes

Recipe Card