Baked Onion Bhajis

These are an amazing side dish to curry. I don’t like deep frying things usually, so when I stumbled across the possibility that you could bake bhajis, I was on it like a car bonnet. The only slightly difficult ingredient to source was the chickpea flour - but I just blitzed some dried chickpeas in the food processor

These are really simple to make, delicately spiced, and an absolute treat. To be honest, next time I might double the recipe and smother the curry directly on top of this and ditch the rice.

Also, full disclosure, I was too excited to eat these so I didn't get any pictures of them plated. Because they were already on my fork and in my mouth.

Makes 4 bhajis

Ingredients

• 2 medium white onions
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• Thumb of ginger, chopped
• Clove of garlic, minced
• Half a red chilli, chopped
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• Pinch salt
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• Pinch ground cinnamon
• 65g chickpea flour
• 1 tsp tomato puree
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 2 tbsp water

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Chop the onions in half and then slice each half into half centimetre slices.

Sweat the onions in oil for 15 minutes.

Bash the ginger, garlic, chilli, cumin seeds and salt in a pestle and mortar until you have a chunky paste.

Add this to the onions about 10 minutes into their cooking time, and stir to combine.

Then throw in the ground spices and stir again.

Take off the heat once sweated, soft, and becoming see through.

Stir in the chickpea flour, tomato puree and lemon juice and mix well.

Sprinkle over the cornflour and mix. Add enough water to get to a wet and sticky consistency.

Form into a ball with your hands. Place on a baking tray. Pour a little oil over the bhajis and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and crispy.