This South Indian style onion bajji or vengaya bajji is made with onions, gram flour, rice flour, spices and herbs.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 20 minutes
  • Total time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 3
  • Category: Snacks
  • Cuisine: South Indian

Ingredients

  • 2 large onions (or 180 to 190 grams onions)
  • ¾ cup besan ((gram flour))
  • ¼ cup Rice Flour
  • ½ teaspoon ajwain ((carom seeds))
  • ¼ teaspoon red chili powder
  • 2 pinch baking soda
  • ½ cup + 2 tablespoons water (or add as required to make a slightly thick battter)
  • salt as per taste
  • oil for deep frying

Method

making vengaya bajji batter

  1. First peel, rinse and slice the onions in rounds having 0.2 to 0.3 cm thickness. Keep aside.
  2. In a mixing bowl take ¾ cup besan, ¼ cup rice flour, ½ teaspoon ajwain (carom seeds), ¼ teaspoon red chili powder and 2 pinches of baking soda.
  3. Also add salt as per taste.
  4. Add water and mix very well to a smooth batter without lumps.
  5. The batter should be slightly thick, so add water accordingly. I overall added ½ cup + 2 tablespoons water. Whisk briskly for 1 to 2 minutes to aerate the batter.

frying vengaya bajji

  1. Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or pan. Test a small portion of the batter in the oil. It should come up steadily and gradually.
  2. If it stays at the bottom, then the oil is not hot enough. If it comes up too quickly, then the oil has become very hot.
  3. Dip one onion slice in the batter and coat it very well.
  4. Then gently slid the batter coated onion slices in hot oil. Fry at medium flame.
  5. When one side is light golden, then gently turn over the bajjis and continue to fry.
  6. Turn over a couple of times and fry till they are golden and crisp.
  7. Drain them on kitchen paper towels to remove excess oil.
  8. Fry the remaining onion slices in similar way.
  9. Serve vengaya bajji hot with green chutney or coconut chutney.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.