Onion Bhaji - do I cook the onions?

I am a former chef and slice mine paper thin, soak them in a spice mix with cumin, and pepper with a yougart thinned with water base, they toss them in chickpea flour and cook mine like a pancake like disk, I have seen them done in a brick form.

Pakoras are something if you use potatos or other hard veg that need a blanch, but onions, peppers, peas, shredded carrots, zucchini, eggplant or other sof veg can go in raw, but cut in a similar size piece, for the Bhaji the thinner the better and it will cook crisper with less moisture leeching out.

No you don't have to cook the onions or potatoes or any vegetable to make a bhaji/pakora. Just chop,mix and fry...

The MOST IMPORTANT thing is don't forget to make some for me...Yummm......

Don't cook the onions. You can buy the special flour in Tesco (sorry, forgot what it's called) and it has a recipe on the back which I think is really nice.

we didn't in cooking school but I would as I prefer the flavour of sauteed onions