I love bhajis and could happily eat them by the dozen. They are a firm favourite in our house even though I don’t make them as often as I could. Whether you serve them as a starter or a side or make them as a snack because you fancy them, they are delicious little bundles of yumminess. They work well with a cooling cucumber raita.
Onion Bhajis
Ingredients
- 2 Onions, sliced finely
- 100 grams Gram Flour Check it is gluten free, not all brands are due to cross contamination in the manufacturing process
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder Check it is gluten free
- 1/2 teaspoon Chilli powder Use more or less according to taste and the heat of your chilli powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
- 1 Chilli, very finely chopped I like to use red for the colour contrast, but green chilli works just as well
- 100 ml water
- 1 pinch salt
- Vegetable oil for frying I usually use sunflower oil but rapeseed oil will work as well.
Instructions
- Chop your onions and pop them into a bowl of cold water while you make the batter
- Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.
- Into the dry ingredients, stir in the turmeric, chilli powder, pinch of salt and the finely chopped chilli
- Mix in the water to make a thick batter, you may not need the whole 100ml. If your batter is too thin sift in some more gram flour a teaspoon at a time. The batter should be thick but still drop off of your spoon.
- Drain the onions and stir them into the batter.
- Heat about 5cm of oil in a large pot. Drop in a tiny bit of the batter, once it bubbles and floats the oil is hot enough.
- Drop tablespoons of the batter into the oil, a few at a time, don't crowd the pan. Cook for a few moments and then turn, cook for a few more minutes until crisp and brown. Drain on a little kitchen paper and keep warm in a low oven while you cook the rest.
Notes
Bhajis are versatile, serve them as a snack, a starter or with your curry. They work well with a raita or chutney. We never have leftovers and even the barbarian who doesn’t eat onions likes these.