Pav Bhaji is a famous street food from India. It is a delicious blend of vegetables and spices served along with bread(pav). Pav Bhaji is a popular vegetarian fast food served along with a thick curry made by using vegetables like potatoes, peas , capsicum, onions etc. Vegans can totally skip the butter or use vegan butter.
This delicious blend is cooked with a lot of butter and spices(pav bhaji masala) and is served with pav(dinner rolls).
I so miss the Maharashtra (Mumbai and Pune) Pav bhaji here in the USA. Typically the one prepared at the chowpatty. Another favourite of mine is the vada pav.
Pav Bhaji is our favorite weekend fast food menu and we have typical joints in our hometown who serve the best of it. Specially the ones made on a huge pan and freshly served along with the dollop of butter is so mouthwatering.
My mom had learnt the typical pav bhaji made at the Mumbai joints. Wherein they use only onions, tomatoes, potatoes and a little capsicum. But to make a healthier version she always added a bunch of other vegetables like cauliflower, carrots etc. to make us eat all of them secretly. Pav bhaji was the best source to mashup and hide all the possible veggies and she used to make it like a pro. We never realised the mix and ate all while complimenting the yummy bhaji and slurping our fingers.
What goes in street style pav bhaji
- Typically dried, soaked green peas (you can use fresh or frozen too) are used for street style pav bhaji.
- Well cooked potatoes are one of the key ingredient of bhaji. They should be cooked to the extent it can be mashed well.
- Onions add a great spicy flavour to it. You can either use pureed or finely chopped onions.
- Tomatoes are another key element in this dish. Well cooked mashed or pureed tomatoes can be used.
- Capsicum can also be used. but the proportion of capsicum to all other veggies is too less. (Any other veggies like cauliflower, carrots, beans etc) can be used too.
- I usually do not add the extra veggies as the taste changes and is not the same as street style.
*However you can pop in the frozen veggies you have too. When in hurry and dont have all the ingredients I just remove the mix veggie frozen packet and cook my bhaji with that.*
- All these veggies are mashed and cooked with butter and spices along with a good amount of ginger and garlic. Pav bhaji masala is easily available at any Indian grocery stores. I use the Everest Pav bhaji masala.
- This bhaji is then served with hot pav (soft dinner rolls) or masala pav.
- This bhaji has a good deep red brown colour and is attractive. It’s usually derived by soaking kashmiri red chillies and making a paste to add to it.
Colour Trick
My kids cannot have too spicy so I have a trick to colour. I don’t not add chilli paste.
Instead I boil a piece of beetroot along with rest of the veggies and it gives a natural and healthy beautiful colour to the bhaji.
Le’ts check the recipe for pav bhaji in detail. the following recipe is both the regular and the instant pot ways.
Pav Bhaji
Ingredients
- 2 large potatoes (boiled peeled and mashed)
- 1/2 cup dried green peas pre soaked and cooked until soft
- 1 medium sized onion
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1 small capsicum
- 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- A small piece of beetroot
- 2 tsp pav bhaji masala
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
- 1 tbsp butter/ Vegan butter
- 1 tbsp oil
- Coriander for garnish
- Lemon juice
- Ladi Pav (salted dinner rolls) or bread / Vegan bread or vegan dinner rolls
Instructions
- Cook potatoes, peas and capsicum and any other vegetables if using, well and mash them with a hand masher or a blender to keep it slightly coarse.
- In a deep wok heat oil and 2 tablespoon butter.
- Saute ginger garlic paste and onion until soften.
- Now add the chopped or pureed tomatoes and allow it to cook until all water dries up.
- Now add the pav bhaji masala , chilli powder and turmeric powder and stir it until it starts leaving oil.
- Now add the cooked vegetables and mash the bhaji with the hand masher.
- Add 1 cup of water and salt to taste and keep mashing until soft and well incorporated.
- Add a tablespoon of butter again and allow it to cook well. leave the piece of beetroot in it while cooking. It will keep on adding colour and enhancing the colour of the bhaji well.
- Squeeze a tablespoon of lemon juice to it and dash it some finely chopped coriander leaves.
- The bhaji is ready to serve.
Pav (Bread) (Salted Dinner roll)
- Slit cut the pav in the middle without cutting it in two parts.
- On a pan or tawa add butter, few coriander and a pinch of bhaji masala and open the pav and roast on it.
- Flip it to just to roast it lightly.If you like crispy you can leave it for longer time until it's crispy.
Now to serve the pav bhaji
- Add the Hot bhaji in the plate. Add a dollop of butter over it. keep the pav with it. and Enjoy the Utterly Butterly delicious Pav Bhaji!!!
- Serve a few diced onions and a slice of lemon at the sides.
Instant Pot Pav Bhaji
- *Do not pre cook the veggies for Instant Pot. Just chop them fine and use directly)
- Heat 2 tbsp butter/oil in the instant pot on sauté mode.
- Add Ginger garlic paste and onion and cook until soften or translucent.
- Add the chopped or pureed tomatoes and allow it to cook until all water dries up.
- Now add the pav bhaji masala , chilli powder and turmeric powder and stir it until it starts leaving oil.
- Now add the raw veggies like the soaked peas, potatoes, carrots, beetroot, capsicum, or any other of your choice.
- Press cancel and close lid with vent in sealing position.
- Set Manual or pressure cook mode at high pressure for 8-9 minutes.
- When the instant pot beeps, release the pressure naturally. Open the lid.
- Now mash the cooked veggies with a masher and squeeze lemon in it.
- Add coriander and dollop of butter and serve with onions and pav.
Notes
- For the perfect street style Pav bhaji use dried, soaked green peas. However you can use fresh or frozen too. The taste will be more sweeter than the former one.
- For Instant pot do not pre cook the veggies. Chop them well and use directly.
- For cooking on gas top cook the veggies in a pressure cooker first, mash them and then saute.
- Pav can be any should be salty not sweet.
Note:
- Vegan pav bhaji can be made using vegan butter.
- Also replace your bread with vegan bread or dinner rolls.
- You can pop in the frozen veggies you have. the peas, carrots, beans, corn all can be popped in the pav bhaji.
Also check our other Popular Maharashtrian recipes
We would like to hear from you. If you try this recipe please let us know in the comments below.
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