Crispy Fried Butterfly Pea Flowers

Crispy Fried Butterfly Pea Flowers are exotic and delicious Thai street food. They’re pretty rare to find but you can easily make them under 30 minutes at home!

Why We Love This Recipe

You may have seen or enjoyed my blue butterfly pea tea, butterfly pea milk, and butterfly pea lemonade recipes, but these crispy fried butterfly pea flowers are going to wow you even more.

This recipe is great as a snack, appetizer or even party food. I mean, just think edible flower snack both kids and adults can enjoy at your next family gathering. How impressive would that be?

These butterfly pea flower fritters are perfect for sharing as you can make them in large batches in a short amount of time and people can easily grab one or two from your serving plate at the same time.

Video Tutorial

Ingredients

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the recipe at the bottom for quantities.

Ingredient Notes

Tempura flour: There are many tempura flour brands out there but the most famous and common one in Thailand is GOGI. This is a cupboard staple for many Thai households. It’s good and easy to use when you want to make fried food that’s crispy on the outside. And it’s cheap as well.

Salt: I’m using refined Himalayan pink salt here, but any kind of refined salt will do.

Butterfly Pea Flowers: Unlike my butterfly pea drink recipes, you can’t use dried butterfly pea flowers here. You need to use fresh ones and rinse and dry them before cooking

Oil: You can use any frying oil you have but I recommend healthier ones for health.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1: Pour tempura flour, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl.

Step 2: Add cold water to the bowl.

Step 3: Mix with a spoon until smooth.

Step 4: Add butterfly pea flowers to the batter.

Step 5: Mix the flowers with the batter, making sure that every flower is coated on all sides.

Step 6: Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat.

Step 7: Once the oil starts to bubble, drop the flowers into the pan, one at a time and about 15-20 flowers per batch.

Step 8: Fry for 2-3 minutes. Flip the flowers with a slotted spoon constantly so that every side is equally cooked and doesn’t burn.

Step 9: Transfer the flowers to a serving dish with a slotted spoon.

Step 10: Serve immediately with Thai sweet chili sauce.

Tips

1. Using cold water to make batter makes it crispy and allows it to stay crispy for a long time too. This is because when the batter is cold, it will not absorb too much oil.

2. You can fry the flowers until the batter on the outside is brownish if you like. Personally, I prefer the blue color of the flowers because it looks more appetizing when served alongside the orangy sweet chili sauce.

Serving

These flowers are best when warm, fresh off the pan. Make sure you serve it in a dish people can easily grab them from. And don’t worry, they won’t last long enough to turn soggy!

Butterfly pea fritters are normally served with sweet chili sauce or sweet chili sauce mixed with Sriracha. However, they’re delicious on their own as well.

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