Gobi 65 (Cauliflower 65)

Gobi 65 recipe – Gobi 65 is a delicious crisp fried appetizer made with cauliflower, spices, yogurt and herbs. 65 recipes are quite popular starters in South Indian restaurants. They originated from Chicken 65. There are many varieties made like Paneer 65, aloo 65. They are served as a evening snack or starter along with other South Indian foods.

We love the crisp fried appetizers made with gobi. My boys often ask for this Gobi manchurian. But I end up making this gobi 65 as it needs no bottled sauces and can be made in a jiffy.

About gobi 65

Gobi 65 is a fried cauliflower snack inspired from the popular South Indian Chicken 65. To make gobi 65, cauliflower florets are batter fried until crisp and tempered with lots of spices, garlic and curry leaves. These fried cauliflower florets are simply superb, flavorful & addictive.

Gobi 65 is immensely popular on the restaurant menus & a lot of South Indians love to serve this as a side with their meal. This also makes a fantastic tea time and party snack.

In this post I share 2 ways/recipes to make gobi 65 – one is the restaurant style and the second one is a baked recipe that is a healthier version. You can also follow the same method and make in air fryer.

In the first recipe of gobi 65, cauliflower florets are batter fried until crisp. Then they are seasoned with a spicy masala. Crisp fried curry leaves, green chilies, spice powder and yogurt bring in a magical aroma to the gobi 65.

For the second method, we just follow the easier way and coat the gobi with flour, spices and a splash of water. Bake them until crisp.

Serve this as a starter or as a side in a Indian meal. It is best served hot since the fried cauliflower bites begins to loose their crispness as they cool down.

More Gobi recipes or cauliflower recipes
Gobi masala
Gobi pakoda
Cauliflower kurma
Easy gobi curry
Cauliflower pickle

Photo Guide

How to make gobi 65 (stepwise photos)

1. Clean 2 cups cauliflower florets and add them to a pot of slightly hot water. Let sit for a while and drain them off and rinse them well in a colander. Set aside. To a mixing bowl, add

• ¼ cup all-purpose flour or wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons rice flour or cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoon ginger garlic paste
• ½ teaspoon garam masala
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder

2. In a small bowl, mix 1 tsp red chili powder with few drops of oil and little water. Make a fine paste and add it to the flour. This helps gobi 65 to get a good color. Also add 2 sprigs of chopped curry leaves.

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

4. Mix everything well to make a thick batter. Taste test and adjust salt. It has to be slightly salty.

5. Add cauliflower to the bowl.

6. Toss and coat the florets well with batter.

Frying gobi 65

7. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. 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. You can also fry some curry leaves and slit deseeded green chilies for garnishing. This way fry all of the gobi in batches ensuring the oil is hot enough before frying each batch.

8. Remove gobi 65 on a kitchen tissue or a steel colander.

9. If you do not like to use yogurt for this recipe you can serve after this step after garnishing with curry leaves and green chiles.

Tempering

To avoid the curd from splitting please use thick full fat curd that has lesser whey. For additional safety you may also stir the garam masala and red chilli powder with yogurt before adding to the pan.

10. To make a restaurant style cauliflower 65, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan. Add ½ teaspoon cumin seeds to hot oil. When they begin to splutter add curry leaves, 1 to 2 slit green chilies and 2 chopped garlic cloves. Saute for 1 to 2 minutes without burning.

11. When the garlic begins to smell good, reduce the flame to low. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons whisked yogurt (curd), ½ teaspoon red chili powder and ¼ teaspoon garam masala.

12. Stir and saute until the mixture thickens.

13. Add fried cauliflower and saute well on a high flame for 2 minutes.

Restaurant style gobi 65 is ready.

Baked gobi 65 – Method 2

Gobi 65 recipe with step by step photos – baked cauliflower 65, an healthy kids after school snack recipe. There are so many ways a 65 recipe can be prepared. Few recipes use soya sauce or yogurt. The recipe shared here is a simple gobi 65 without using yogurt or sauce. If you want you can add it while seasoning.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of cauliflower florets
Green and red bell peppers (1/2 each, optional)1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp Olive oil
2 ½ tbsps. Corn flour
1 tsp oil for seasoning
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 tbsp shredded ginger
1 tbsp shredded garlic
2 tbsp. Yogurt optional
1 onion chopped to cubes
1 green chili

Marination
Pinch of turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
½ tsp red chili powder
1 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste
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 marination ingredients and set aside for at least 30 mins to 2 hours.
• Grease a baking tray and preheat the oven to 240 C.
• Sprinkle the dry flour on the gobi, mix well.
• Add in the olive oil and a splash of water, mix well to coat the florets with the flour. Sprinkle as much water as required. Check the picture below.
• Place these on a baking tray and bake for 20 to 30 mins until crisp, time depends on the size of your florets.
• Heat oil in a tawa, add curry leaves and green leaves. Fry till they turn crisp, remove and set aside.
• Add shredded ginger garlic and fry to get an aroma.
• Add onions, capsicum and salt
• Fry on a high flame for 2 to 3 mins or till the capsicum is done. If using yogurt add now, mix and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Add in baked gobi , curry leaves, chili and mix well and fry for 2 mins on high flame.
• Gobi 65 is ready to serve as starter.

Related Recipes

Recipe card