Preparation

• 1
  Peel and roughly grate the sweet potato and the carrots. Peel and thinly slice the carrots. Deseed and finely chop the chilli.
• 2
  Peel and crush the garlic. Peel and chop a quarter of a cucumber and chop a large handful of watercress.
• 3
  In a small bowl, mix the crushed garlic with the Greek yoghurt and add the juice of half a lemon. Stir the cucumber and watercress into the yoghurt. Season to taste, cover the raita and leave to chill in the fridge.
• 4
  Gently sauté the onion in a tablespoon of oil for 5 minutes, until soft but not browned, then add the chopped chilli and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat.
• 5
  Whisk together the gram flour and 220-250ml cold water, a little at a time, until it makes a batter. Mix in the cumin, turmeric, coriander and garam masala then season with salt and black pepper.
• 6
  In a large bowl, stir together the sweet potato and carrot with the onion and chilli. Add the batter and mix thoroughly.
• 7
  Take a heaped tablespoon of the mixture to make each bhaji, rolling it in your hands then flattening it slightly to make a patty shape. It will be rather a wet mixture so this is a bit messy!
• 8
  Pour in oil to cover the bottom of a small frying pan. Fry one batch of bhajis for 2-3 minutes on each side in hot oil until well browned, blot on kitchen towel then keep warm in a low oven. Repeat with more batches, topping up the oil as needed.
• 9
  Serve immediately, whilst still hot and crispy, garnished with watercress and lemon wedges and accompanied by the watercress raita.