Pav Bhaji – Mumbai street food
Pav Bhaji is India’s iconic Mumbai street food. It’s Indian answer to vegetarian sloppy joes.
Bhaji is a dish made with boiled and mashed vegetables spiced up and served with diced red onions, cilantro and butter, ohh and a squeeze of lime. It is eaten with Pav/Pao aka dinner rolls.
Pav Bhaji is a very filling food. It uses up a lot of vegetables and thus mom’s favorite food to feed kids as they can sneak in so many vegetables. The fun part, the vegetables are all mashed up. So, even adult picky eaters can also eat it without knowing what vegetables are in the dish.
Did you know, Pav Bhaji was originated as a quick meal option for lunch for textile mill workers? Because it was filling and nutritious at the same time and kept people full until next meal.
My mom always made Pav Bhaji at home, very rarely we ate it outside. Its relatively easy dish to make too. I usually have all these veggies in my fridge at a given time. Every time we are traveling, and I need to clean out my fridge, this is what I end up making. If I end up making a lot, then I will freeze it for future meals as it freezes well. Once we are back from vacation and if I am lazy or tired to cook fresh meal, this frozen bhaji comes so handy.
Let me quickly tell how its made –
The best part of bhaji making is you just roughly chop all the vegetables. NO precision required.
Then the vegetables are boiled until they can be mushed up. Then added to a mirepoix situation with pav bhaji masala and spices. There are two ways this can be prepared.
1 Method – You first boil vegetables, mash them up and mix them up with cooked onion tomato base with spices. I usually adapt to this method if using a pressure cooker.
2 Method – You cook onion tomato base with spices, add the uncooked chopped vegetables and then you cook everything. Once its cooked you mash it. I usually adapt this method when using Instant Pot.
Both methods yield same delicious Bhaji.
This dish has one main ingredient or spice masala. It’s called Pav Bhaji Masala. It’s really important that you have this. As you know, in India we have lot of different mixes of spices. Pav Bhaji masala is also distinct to this dish. I buy store-bought pav bhaji masala. The brands I like are either Badshah or Everest. I love both.
Pav Bhaji as the name suggests is served with some buttered dinner rolls or as we call them Pav/Pao. You need something soft and fluffy to soak up all that spicy bhaji. They are buttered and then toasted in a skillet until they have light toasty color on them. You can use any kind of dinner rolls available in the market. I have also used potato rolls, sweet buns, or bread interchangeably. Whatever bun/rolls variety you decide to use, they should be soft rolls.
Bhaji is always served with side of or topped with finely diced onions, squeeze of lemon, chopped cilantro and a dollop of butter. This way of serving it is a must. If you like cheese, then add some shredded cheese on top. I also sometimes love adding in some chili-garlic chutney, pickle, papads etc. on the side. You can also add a drink like savory lassi (Indian style buttermilk- Chaas) or mango lassi.
Sometimes, for friends I love making tawa pulao on the side and it makes a nice meal all together. I will share recipe of Tawa Pulao sometime soon.
You can veganize this dish by using oil to cook. Use gluten free bread to serve.
Pav Bhaji – Mumbai Iconic street food
Ingredients
- 2 cups florets Cauliflower, approx. 20 florets roughly chopped
- 2 potatoes roughly chopped
- ½ cup peas
- 1 – 2 carrots long, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp butter or oil + more to serve
- 1/2 cup onions approx. 1 onion
- 3-4 cloves garlic grated
- ¼ cup bell pepper finely chopped
- 1 cup tomatoes finely chopped
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 2-3 tsp Bhaji masala easily available at Indian grocery stores
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
- few lemon wedges
- ¼ cup Cilantro or scallion greens
- ¼ cup chopped red onions
- bun/dinner rolls/pao
Instructions
- In a pressure cooker or a pot, boil roughly chopped potatoes, cauliflower, peas, carrots with at least one cup of water until they are soft.
- Once boiled, let it cool down slightly mash everything using a potato masher. Leave aside.
- In a pan, take some butter or oil. Once the oil becomes hot, add in the garlic and finely diced onions. Saute them until translucent. Add finely diced bell pepper, again saute it for few minutes and then add tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix and cook for few seconds.
- Add the spices – pav bhaji masala, turmeric, red chili powder and salt. Mix everything.
- Add the mashed vegetables. Toss to mix. Add water if its is too thick. The consistency can be adjusted by adding water. Let it simmer for few minutes and it is done.
- Toast pav/dinner rolls while bhaji is simmering on the other side. Cut the pav/roll into half using a serrated if its not already cut.
- Butter each side lightly on pav or dinner rolls. Place the buttered side on the skillet and cook them until you see light toasty color. Finish toasting all.
- Serving – In a bowl serve some bhaji and bun on the side. You can add finely diced onions, lemon wedges and cilantro on the side or on top of the bhaji. You can also add a dollop of butter if you like. I love adding some green onions.
- You can also serve some mango lassi on the side for drinks.
Notes
XO, Devangi