By: Author Dan Toombs
Posted on Published:
Restaurant style onion bhajis at home!
Are you ready to start making the best onion bhajis around? Look no further than this onion bhaji recipe. It gets outstanding results.
These are the onion bhajis that feature in m cookbook ‘The Curry Guy’ and so many people have tried and loved it. The thing I like most about this onion bhaji recipe is how crispy they get on the exterior while being super soft on and hot in the centre.
If you’re counting the calories, you might also like to try my air-fryer onion bhajis and baked onion bhaji recipe.
BE SURE TO check out the step by step photos below and your onion bhajis will be better than anything you can purchase. I promise!
So crispy and delicious. You’re going to love this one.
These are real onion bhajis, not a lot of stodge!
So often, you go out and order onions bhajis just to find they are like little balls of gram flour bread without much onion in them. More often than not, it is the ready made meals that have these stodgy onion bhajis in them.
You won’t find that with this recipe!
The onions are first salted to extract moisture out of the onions. Then, that liquid is used to make the batter. The batter really just holds them together. What you find inside is almost all onion!
So here you have my famous and authentic restaurant style onion bhaji recipe!
Make the recipe your own:
Feel free to play with the recipe some. If you like them spicier, add chilli powder or more fresh chillies. Want to try different spices…? Why not?
If it sounds good, it probably will be.
Just in case you aren’t familiar with panch phoran – it is Indian five spice. You can purchase it at most Asian shops or you could make it yourself if you have the ingredients on hand.
Just take equal measures of fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, black mustard seeds, onion seeds and cumin seeds.
Give the mixture a good mix and you have panch phoran. Add as much or as little as you like. Play with the recipe and have fun!
If you like cooking by photos, I have step by step pics below.
The written recipe is at the bottom of this page.
Sprinkle the salt over the onions and leave for an hour. Then add the remaining ingredients.
Form the onion mixture into small onion bhajis.
Get you bhajis all ready before frying.
Cook in batches. This is important. Add to many and it will lower the oil temperature.
Transfer the onion bhajis to a paper towels after the first frying.
Raise the heat and fry the bhajis for a few more seconds.
These are so good!
Dig in!
If you love this recipe check out these other similar ones:
BIR Style Cooked Onion
Onion Fried Rice
Chicken Curry with Onions
Yield: 15
How To Make British Indian Restaurant (BIR) Style Onion Bhajis
Prep Time40 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Ingredients
- 3 white onions slightly larger than tennis balls
- Oil for deep frying
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon garlic paste
- 3 green chillies - pounded to a paste
- 1 tablespoon panch poran*
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 4 tbsp rice flour
- 140g (approx) sifted gram flour
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves
Instructions
- Cut the onions in half and then finely slice them. Mix the salt into them and set aside for an hour or so.
- After an hour the onions will be limp and moist. Add the remaining ingredients to the onions, being careful not to add to much gram flour. You should easily be able to pick up a ball of the onion mixture.
- Divide the mixture in to small bhajis.
- Heat some oil for deep frying to 160c (320f).
- When this heat is reached, cook the bhajis in batches until they turn light brown. Transfer to a plate while you cook the remaining bhajis. At this stage, you are not cooking the bhajis through. You just want to get them started.
- Turn the heat up until your oil reaches 180c ((356f)
- Add the bhajis in batches and cook for a further couple of minutes until they are crispy and deep brown in colour.
- Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain excess oil and serve hot.
- If not serving immediately, place in a warm (not hot) oven.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
These onion bhajis are great served with my mint raita recipe.
