£1 Wonders
By Jamie Oliver
40 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 4
About the recipe
Bhajis are perfect for embracing any odds and ends you have rolling about in your veg drawer. I’ve gone for onion, chillies and squash here, but you could absolutely mix it up – check out the Easy Swaps section for inspiration. I’ve gone for homemade flatbreads here because it works out cheaper than buying shop-bought, and I reckon everyone needs a quick homemade bread recipe to fall back on – this one’s a cracker.
Recipe From
Ingredients
1 red onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli
1 bunch of coriander (30g)
75g paneer cheese
200g butternut squash
4cm piece of ginger
350g self-raising flour
1 lime
2 teaspoons rogan josh curry paste
olive oil
4 tablespoons natural yoghurt
1 baby gem lettuce
2 uncooked poppadoms
4 teaspoons mango chutney
Top Tip
EASY SWAPS
— Mix up the veg – coarsely grated potato, red onion or carrot would all be delicious.
— If you’ve already got a jar of curry paste in your cupboard or fridge, use it! Feel free to swap in your favourite curry paste here.
— Cooked poppadoms work a treat in place of the uncooked poppadoms, and each portion will still come in under £1.
— Swap the paneer for feta cheese, if you like.
LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS
— The next time you turn your oven on, pop the remaining butternut squash in to roast until lovely and soft, then you can use cooked chunks in soups, curries, pastas, fritters and salads.
— Freeze any leftover paneer for up to 1 month. Delicious in this easy curry or as a next-level pancake topping.
HOW TO COOK IN AN AIR-FRYER
Drizzle the bhajis with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then place in the air-fryer* in a single layer and cook at 200°C for 15 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. If your air-fryer has a basket rather than shelves, you should turn the bhajis over halfway through cooking.
*Tested in a 4.2-litre air-fryer. All air-fryers are different, so results may vary.
Method
- Peel and very finely slice the onion and garlic, deseed and finely slice the chilli, finely chop the coriander stalks, reserving the leaves. Coarsely grate in the paneer. Deseed and coarsely grate the squash (reserving the seeds for later), then peel and finely grate in the ginger. Sprinkle in 100g of the flour and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper, then squeeze over half of the lime juice, mix in the curry paste and 25ml of water.
- Drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a large non-stick frying pan on a medium-low heat, then roughly divide the mixture into 4 portions and place in the pan, flattening them out into rough rounds about 2.5cm-thick (don’t worry about wispy edges, it’ll mean bonus crunch later!). Fry for 16 minutes, or until golden and cooked through, turning every few minutes.
- Meanwhile, mix the remaining flour with 150ml of cold water, 1 teaspoon of oil and a pinch of salt to form a dough. Split the dough into 4 equal pieces, then roll into balls and stretch them with your hands or roll out with a rolling pin to about ½cm thick. Place a large non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat with 1 teaspoon of oil and, as it heats up, fry the reserved squash seeds until crispy, then remove to a bowl and sprinkle over a small pinch of salt. One at a time, cook the flatbreads in the pan for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until golden and puffed up. Wrap in a clean tea towel to keep warm.
- Pound most of the coriander leaves to a paste in a pestle and mortar, muddle in the yoghurt, then season to taste. Very finely shred the lettuce and puff up the dry poppadoms in the microwave for 30 seconds.
- Divide the coriander yoghurt between the flatbreads, then break over the poppadoms. Place a crispy bhaji on top of each flatbread, add a dollop of mango chutney, a few coriander leaves and the lettuce. Sprinkle over the crispy squash seeds and serve with lime wedges, for squeezing over.
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