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.
If you’re counting the calories, you might also like to try my air-fryer onion bhajis and baked onion bhaji recipe.
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 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
International & UK Orders
How To Make British Indian Restaurant (BIR) Style Onion Bhajis
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.
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Des
Saturday 3rd of December 2022
I have tried your onion bhaji recipe but for the air fryer. They turned out very good and tasted amazing. I did not use a lot of gram flour, maybe 5 tablespoons, the batter looked more thick that yours? Could I use a drp of water to thin it out?
Dan Toombs
Wednesday 7th of December 2022
As long as you enjoyed them I would stick to what worked for you but of course add more water if you want the batter to be thinner. Thanks Dan
Mandy
Saturday 16th of April 2022
Hi Dan Thanks for this recipe. Gonna try it today Can the onion bhajis be frozen? Mandy
Dan Toombs
Monday 18th of April 2022
Hope they turned out well. Yes, the onion bhajis freeze quite well I believe. Thanks Dan
Denise
Monday 7th of March 2022
Just made this recipe.. I did add extra 5 spice and chili.. these came out delicious... Really tasty.
Dan Toombs
Thursday 10th of March 2022
Great to hear, thank you for letting me know. Dan
Dave
Saturday 12th of February 2022
Can the onion bhajis be frozen
Dan Toombs
Tuesday 15th of February 2022
Yes, you should be able to freeze them before cooking. I think that should work. Thanks Dan
Rosie
Friday 22nd of October 2021
Finally a bhaji that I am happy to put my name to!! These are absolutely delicious. Many thanks for sharing this.
Dan Toombs
Friday 22nd of October 2021
Great to hear, thank you so much for letting me know. Dan