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.
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
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Fantastic Dan!! I am going to try this ….
… but not yet. I am going to treat myself soon to a blow out day of eating (whatever I want), but I am not ready for these just yet as it will blow the diet in one go.
Will post again when I do get around to cooking and eating!
MArk
Great Mark.
My diet is starting tomorrow.
Dan
I always start a new diet ‘tomorrow’ 🙂
These look great. As an Indian cook – I am impressed that you use all the authentic spices like asafoetida and ajwain for the bhajias. I use similar spices but never use egg as I am a vegetarian.
Thank you Mina.
You have inspired me to try my recipe without egg. Thanks for stopping by.
Dan
I have to admit I have never done curry but this makes me want to try. Looks really fantastic.
Thank you Kim.
I hope you get a chance to try the recipe. I really like it. Please let me know if you have any questions.
I WILL be trying this recipe, they look great.
We call it Pakoda but we don’t use egg in this mix but we use it another type of pakoda and have it with chai (Indian Tea) 🙂 BTW homemade lime pickle..very impressive 🙂
Thank you very much for stopping by Sanchita.
I would love to try your recipe. Is it like mine but without the egg? I am always looking for new recipes.
I’ve just been looking at your blog again. Can’t wait to try some of your other recipes.
Dan
Hi Dan
In your “method” you mention baking powder, but in the ingedients you don’t list it – how much to put in?
I’ll make it anyway, with my guess….! Sounds great!
Cheers, Rob
I made these last week and they were great. Perhaps a bit salty so I may rinse the onions before cooking them next time (although my guests said they were perfect!)
I’ve been experimenting with this recipe for years. Sometimes it is a bit salty. Other times it’s perfect. Try not to rinse the onions. Instead, just use a little more salt. The idea of the salt is to get as much moisture out of the onions as possible. Thanks.
Looks so delicious!
I’m hungry 😉
Thank you. I hope you get to try the recipe soon. I love it. 🙂
Wow, I’m salivating!!! Just back from hols and need to lose a couple of pounds…..but what the heck, I can start the plan again the day after trying this delicious sounding recipe out. 😉
Thanks Lesley. I hope you find it worth the calories! I love this recipe. 🙂
Hi Dan, Going to try these in next few days, my last efforts left alot to be desired, but recipe never said to soften onions. How much Baking powder do you put in? its not listed in your ingredients….
Hi Dan, will be trying these today as i have a curry party to go to toinght and i want to take these! It’s nice to find a recipe which uses the traditional gram flour. will pass on your recipe to my father who makes a fantastic sri lanken curry. Kind Regards, Charlotte Hounslow
Thank you very much Charlotte. Hope you enjoy the bhajis. That’s my favourite recipe for them.
Enjoy.
Dan
Well i never use sr flour,mango powder or egg in mine. In fact i have never heard of that before. I will certainly give them a go . Sounds interesting 🙂 and its nice to have a change. P.s. have you ever tried panch puran in your bhajis or pakora? If not , try one time and see what you think.
Hi ive just taken your tikka masala curry to make tonight. I am going to try to do your onion bahjees another time. What i would like to know please is how to make the mint sauce like they do in the restaurant to go with bahjees.
Thank you
Sharon
Dan,
The onion bhaji recipe as given in your book includes baking powder but fails to specify the quantity. Can you enlighten me please?
Sorry about that. About a teaspoon will do just fine. I’ll have to fix that.
Thanks
Dan
Hi Dan
You say your recipe takes 4 hours to prepare, how come it takes that long? As I see it, it should only take around 10 to 15 minutes to prepare. Do you have to let the “golf balls” to stand? I’m somewhat confused on the amount of time.
Cheers
b.t.w Great website
Make potato bhajias using the very same paste. The potato’s must be very thinly sliced. Place thinly sliced potato’s in the paste and fry 5 or 6 slices at a time.
This sounds lovely and really tasty. Thank you for sharing this.
Simon
Wow made these from recipe in your ebook they are the real deal. Thanks I now live in Portugal you gave me the taste I remember from the indian snack shops in the UK.
Really good to hear Jon. Thank you.
Dan
Hi Dan
I like your recipes and I am going to try your onion Bhajis. Wondering whether to add panch poran as whole or powdered.
Thanks
Rajam
Hi Rajam
I use the panch poran whole. It adds a lot to the texture. Thanks.
Dan
Hi Dan,
Just finished baking, and tasting of course, your recipe. My first Bhaji’s ever and I like them a lot. They’re very tastefull. Thank you very much for this recipe!
Kind regards,
Dory
Hi Dory
I’m really glad you liked the recipe. Thank you.
Dan
This is great. I followed slimming world style of making them but substituted their spices with yours. 100% better and still SW!
PS, hope you don’t mind!
Love it! Thanks Simon.
Dan
Hi Dan
Preparing to try this recipes in next couple of days. Managed to get the PP and Asafoetida but where I live I can’t get hold of fresh coriander. All I have is the powdered stuff. Would that be ok to use and could you recommend how much I should add? thanks
I am also wondering if I can use hot pepper paste which is locally available but is red rather than using fresh chillies?
Hi Kim
Coriander powder is made from the seeds of the coriander plant and tastes completely different to the leaves. That said, a teaspoon or so wouldn’t hurt. Just omit the coriander leaves and the bhajis will still be fine.
Thanks,
Dan
Dan, great to see you at Newcastle today. We really enjoyed your demo.
Looking forward to recreating some recipes over the coming weeks. Thankyou for being so inspiring and making it look really achievable.
Hi Tom
Thank you very much. It really means a lot to me. I hope you enjoy the book and look forward to seeing some pics if you post any. 🙂
Dan
Great recipe. I bought your new book this week and this is the first thing I tried. Had them last night with a cucumber and mint raita and it all worked out well. Looking forward to trying more.
Great to hear Tom. Thank you very much. I hope you enjoy cooking from my book. Much appreciated.
Dan
Hi Dan, I recently tried an Indian fusion recipe which was bhaji based but they used butternut squash – would this work with your recipe? Will it cook the same – have you tried this recipe with vegetables other than onion? Thanks for your time 🙂
Hi Joanne
That sounds interesting. I’ve never tried it with squash but have used the same recipe with many other vegetables. Vegetable pakora! Love it.
Dan
Hi Dan,
Tried these twice now following the recipe. While I love the flavor I cant seem to get the onions to bind together when cooking they just sort of fall apart. Any ideas?
Hi Scott
That sounds to me like you need to add a drop more water. With enough moisture, they should stay together.
Thanks,
Dan
Hi Dan, have made these before but would like to know if they can be frozen? How to reheat? Many thanks Alex
Hi Alexandra
They can be. I recommend just browning them in the oil first so that they are about 90% cooked through. Then cool and freeze them. Let defrost and then fry once more until cooked through.
Thanks,
Dan
Thanks Dan 😊
Hi made them tonight the out side looked lovely the inside how ever wasn’t did exactly as the recipe not sure what I did wrong
Hi
I am sorry the recipe did not work well for you. If you join my Facebook group Curry Chit Chaat there is a lot of help and information from other members on my onion bhaji recipe which you might find helpful.
Thanks
Dan
Finally a bhaji that I am happy to put my name to!! These are absolutely delicious. Many thanks for sharing this.
Great to hear, thank you so much for letting me know.
Dan