Red onion bhajis with minted raita

Bring a little bit of Bollywood into your kitchen with these exotic vegetarian morsels. Bhajis are the Indian version of vegetable fritters, and are perfect as a colourful entrée or canapé at your next backyard soiree.

Credit: Steve Brown

• makes

  10-12

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 120 g (1 cup) superfine besan (chickpea) flour
• ½ tsp gluten-free baking powder
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
• Celtic sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 4 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil or ghee, for frying

Minted raita

• 130 g (½ cup) full-fat Greek yoghurt (see Note)
• 2 tbsp chopped mint
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed

Instructions

To make the raita, mix all the ingredients together and place in a serving bowl. Set aside.

To make the bhajis, sift the besan and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the spices, garlic and ginger and season with salt and pepper. Add 150 ml cold water to make a thick batter, then add the onion and stir until it is well coated. 

Heat the coconut oil in a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Add a tiny bit of mixture to test the oil temperature – if it bubbles the oil is hot enough. Cooking several bhajis at a time, add a heaped tablespoon of mixture and shallow fry until golden brown on each side; I like to form a tablespoon of the mixture into a patty before frying to help keep the shape.

Transfer to a paper towel to soak up the excess oil, then cook the remaining batter.

Serve with the minted raita.

Note

• To make the recipe vegan, replace the yoghurt with coconut yoghurt.

Recipes and images from Supercharged Food: Eat Clean, Green & Vegetarian (Murdoch Books, $35, pbk).

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.