Picked onion bhajis

Wow! Regular onion bhajis are fabulous enough but with the extra flavour that comes from lightly pickling the onion slices, these are something else. Make a plateful, pour yourself a cold beer and you’ll feel mega content. Gram flour is available in supermarkets and if you can’t find any rice flour, just blitz some rice to a powder in a spice grinder or a high-powered blender. The rice flour really helps to get the batter beautifully crisp. And there’s a nice little mix of yoghurt and mango chutney on the side for dipping. This is a great vegetarian snack and if you want to make it vegan, use plant-based yoghurt.

A green bowl of crispy, golden-brown pickled onion bhajis sits on a wooden table, reminiscent of a Hairy Bikers feast, with a small plate of dipping sauce in the background.

Pickled onion bhajis

Info

Serves
4

Ingredients

Pickled onions

  • 1 tsp granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 50ml cider or red wine vinegar
  • 2 medium onions, finely sliced

Batter

  • 70g gram (chickpea) flour
  • 30g rice flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 15g root ginger, peeled and grated
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed or grated
  • 2 green chillies, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander stems
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted, or 1 tbsp coconut yoghurt
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

To fry

  • vegetable or groundnut oil

To serve

  • 200ml natural yoghurt
  • 50ml mango chutney
  • coriander leaves, finely chopped

Method

  1. First, pickle the onions. Mix the sugar, salt, chilli flakes and vinegar in a bowl. Stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved, then add the onions. Stir to coat and press them down into the vinegar, then top with just enough water to cover. Set aside for at least an hour, then drain them thoroughly and dry on kitchen paper.

  2. Just before you are ready to fry the bhajis, make the batter mixture. Whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl, then add just enough water to make a batter that’s roughly the consistency of double cream. Stir in the onions.

  3. Half-fill a large saucepan or deep-fat fryer with oil and heat it to about 180°C. Do not leave the pan unattended.

  4. Take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and drop them, a few at a time, into the oil. Fry the bhajis for 2–3 minutes on each side until they are a deep ochre brown, then drain on kitchen paper. Warning – don’t try to fry more than a few at a time or the temperature of the oil will drop, and the bhajis may go soggy as opposed to crisp.

  5. Mix the yoghurt, mango chutney and coriander together in a bowl, and serve with the hot bhajis.