Bhajiya - Omani Zanzibari Black Eyed and Mung Bean Falafel

It’s funny the assumption we have on regions and food. Whenever I tell people I’m from the Middle East or Oman most will instantly ask me if I know how to make great falafel. I don’t know when falafel became famous, but I remember attending a talk at the British Library which was discussing food that connected us to our roots and the wonderful Imad from Imad’s Syrian Kitchen in London spoke on how cooking falafel helped him survive in Calais before coming to England, after fleeing Syria. Falafel acted as his form of communication and currency. The conversation reminded me that generalising cultures, suppresses our stories and history, especially when we have come from colonised and conflicted countries. Food is our resistance to holding onto our culture, so while we in Oman love falafel, we leave it to our neighbours and instead make something called Badjiya which I guess we can compare to falafel to make sense of its method and elements.

Bajiya in fact comes from the Omani-Zanzibari diaspora and is seen across other parts of the swahili coast using pulses native to them. For us, black eyed beans and mung beans are used. Either together or separately. The word stems from the hindi word bhaji which means fried vegetable. The islands influence of people from India played a big part on many of our fried dishes and using what they had on the island they were able to make this. A simple 3 ingredient bajiya.

Ingredients:

• 200g/1 Cup Black Eye Beans or Mung Beans (If using black eyed beans you need to remove the skin or by skinless ones. If not the skins will cause the bajiya to absorb more oil when frying)

• 60g Fresh Coriander

• 2 Green Chillies (optional to your heat preference)

• 2 Onions

• 2 TSP Baking Powder

• Salt

• Neutral Oil for Frying

Dip Ingredients:

• 150g Desiccated Coconut

• 50g Fresh Coriander

• 15g Fresh Mint

• Juice of 2 Lemons

• 1 Green Chilli (optional)

• Salt, to taste

• 450ml-500ml boiling water

Method:

1. Soak your pulse overnight in warm water.

2. The next day drain your pulses well and pat dry as we want to make sure there is as little water possible.

3. In a food processor combine the pulse, coriander, chili, salt and one onion and blitz till it’s as smooth as possible.

4. Take your second onion and chop it up into small pieces and it into your mixture and mix through to evenly distribute. - this second onion helps to make the bajiya fluffy.

5. Heat up some oil in a pan, you’ll need enough oil to allow the bajiya float and not sit on the bottom of the pan.

6. While you wait to heat add in your baking powder, mix through and leave it to sit. Again the baking powder helps to make these light.

Dip Method:

1. Add all the ingredients to a blender and blitz for at least 1 minute till the coconut has broken down and you have a smooth-ish texture.