Onion Bhajis are the UK's most ordered Indian starter — ahead of samosas, poppadoms, and chicken tikka. Every pub, every Indian restaurant, every buffet table, every Bonfire Night, every cricket match — bhajis are there. And the beauty is in the simplicity: sliced onions, gram flour, a few spices, and hot oil. That's the entire ingredient list. No eggs. No wheat flour. No dairy. Naturally vegan and gluten-free before either of those terms existed. The technique is the recipe — get the batter thickness right and the oil temperature right, and you'll produce bhajis that shatter when you bite into them, with layers of sweet, caramelised onion inside.
Gram flour (besan/chickpea flour) is the ingredient that makes bhajis possible. It binds the onions without gluten, crisps without becoming heavy, and adds a nutty, savoury depth that wheat flour can't match. At Pick N Save, we stock six different gram flour brands — Fudco, KTC, Jalpur, Virani, TFS, and Heera — in sizes from 1kg to 2kg. Every single one of these products currently has zero recipe connections on our site, which means none of our gram flour customers are being shown what to make with it. This recipe changes that. We've been selling gram flour by the bag to our Harrow customers for bhaji night, pakora parties, and Diwali celebrations since 1999.
Take 3 large onions (White Onions Prepack 4Kg) and slice them into very thin half-rings — about 2–3mm thick. Thinner is always better for bhajis: thin slices create more crispy surface area and cook faster, while thick slices stay raw inside and produce heavy, doughy bhajis. Spread the sliced onions in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt. Toss with your hands and let them sit for 3 minutes. The salt draws out moisture from the onions — this is important because you want as little water as possible in the batter to maximise crispiness.
This is the technique that separates great bhajis from average ones: don't make a batter and dip the onions into it. Instead, build the batter directly ON the onions. To the bowl of salted, slightly softened onions, add 100g of gram flour (Fudco Gram Flour 1kg or KTC Gram Flour 1kg — any brand works identically), 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds (Fudco Cumin Seeds 300g), ½ teaspoon of turmeric (TFS Haldi Powder Rajapuri 100g), ½ teaspoon of Kashmiri chilli powder (TFS Kashmiri Mild Chilli Powder 100g), ½ teaspoon of garam masala (TFS Garam Masala 100g), a pinch of asafoetida / hing (Ramdev Hing 100g), 1 green chilli finely chopped (Indian Chilli 400g), and a small handful of chopped fresh coriander (Fresh Coriander Bunch).
Mix everything together with your hands. The salt will have drawn enough moisture from the onions to create a paste that starts binding the gram flour. Now add water — very sparingly — 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing between each addition. You want JUST enough water to make the gram flour stick to every onion ring. The batter should coat the onions but not pool at the bottom of the bowl. If you add too much water, your bhajis will be soft and oily instead of crispy. Too little water is always better than too much — you can add more, but you can't take it away.
Pour sunflower oil (KTC Pure Sunflower Oil 5 Litres) into a deep pan or kadhai to a depth of at least 5cm. Heat to 180°C — test by dropping a small pinch of batter into the oil. It should sizzle vigorously and rise to the surface within 2 seconds. If it sinks and sits silently, the oil is too cold. If it instantly browns, the oil is too hot.
Take a small handful of the onion-batter mixture (about 2 tablespoons) and gently lower it into the hot oil using your fingers or a spoon. Don't compress it into a tight ball — let the onions splay out loosely. The loose, ragged edges are what create the signature shatter-crisp texture. Fry 4–5 bhajis at a time — don't overcrowd the pan or the oil temperature drops. Fry for 3–4 minutes, turning once or twice, until deep golden-brown all over. The bhajis should be dark golden — not pale (undercooked) and not brown-black (burnt).
Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Sprinkle with a pinch of chat masala (Shan Chat Masala 100g or TFS Chaat Masala 100g) immediately while hot — the tangy, slightly sour masala is the finishing touch that makes bhajis addictive.
Bhajis must be served within 5 minutes of frying — they lose their crispness rapidly. Pile them on a plate and serve with mint chutney (Sagar Coriander Chutney 200g), tamarind chutney (Rishta Tamarind Date Chutney 400g), and Cucumber Raita for dipping. A squeeze of lemon over the top adds brightness. Bhajis are traditionally a starter before a main curry, but in British-Indian culture they're equally at home as a pub snack, a party canapé, a cricket-watching companion, or a late-night treat.
Every single ingredient for this recipe is available at picknsave.co.uk with home delivery across London and the UK, or click and collect from our store in Harrow. Here's your shopping list:
*RI = Reference Intake. Values are approximate and may vary based on ingredients. Fat content depends on frying time and oil temperature.
