Pav bhaji recipe (Mumbai Style Pav bhaji)
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Pav bhaji recipe- Pav bhaji, or Mumbai pav bhaji one of the famous vegetarian street foods of India (Mumbai) is a combination of a spicy curry of mixed vegetables cooked in a special blend of spices and butter called ‘bhaji’. It is served with ‘Pav ‘ which are small white dinner buns / rolls, shallow fried in butter.
What is Pav Bhaji / Pao Bhaji ?
Pav bhaji is one of my favourite vegetarian indian street foods. As the name suggests “Pav Bhaji” is a combination of pav and bhaji.
” Bhaji ” is a spicy curry of mixed vegetables cooked in a special blend of spices and loads of butter , and it is served “Pav ” which are small white dinner rolls/ buns, shallow fried with butter.
It is served with a drizzle of fresh lime juice, chopped onions, corianders/cilantro, green chillies and of course a dollop of butter.
There is a lot of butter used in this dish, but that’s what really lends a creamy smooth taste ,to the spicy vegetable curry.
If for any reason you are unable to use butter, you can make variations of it at home without the use of butter, and use your preferred choice of cooking oil.
Vegetables that you can use for this recipe
There are a number of variation of bhaji. A variety of vegetables can be added according to your preference and taste.
What i prefer to use is potatoes, green bell peppers, a small slice of bottle gourd , small carrot.
I do sometimes add peas as well.
Street style Mumbai pav bhaji is authentically a blend of potatoes and bell peppers, adding carrot/ bottle gourd/ peas is optional.
You always have a choice of adding other veggies of your choice to make it healthier.
Make sure to always keep the qty of potatoes and bell peppers more compared to other veggies, to maintain the smooth creamy texture, taste and consistency of the bhaji.
Preparing Vegetables to cook street style bhaji
To start with roughly cut all the vegetables, including potatoes . Add these to a pressure cooker with few garlic cloves, a little salt, turmeric and little water .
Pressure cook for 1-2 whistles, and take these off heat.
If you do not have a pressure cooker, you can cut the vegetables and boil these with little water, in a covered pan for 10 minutes , or till all veggies are tender and cooked.Keep these aside to cool.
Once cooled, using a potato masher, mash all the veggies till these form a rough paste kind of texture.
Vegetables should be mashed good enough that you cannot make out what veggies are in there, but make sure not to make a very fine paste out of it. Once done, keep aside.
Preparing tempering for Pav bhaji
Now that the veggies are ready ,let’s get started with the tempering.The main ingredients for tempering are onions, tomatoes, green chillies, ginger/ garlic paste.The ratio of tomatoes is more than the onions, as pav bhaji is supposed to be tangy, and tomatoes add that nice acidic tang to this.
Heat butter in a pan, add a pinch of asafoetida powder. Add ginger garlic paste. Cook for 2-3 minutes till the raw aroma goes away.
Add chopped onions and cook for a few minutes till these turn translucent.Make puree of whole tomatoes in a grinder, and add this puree to the tempering.
Cook till the tomatoes are nicely cooked, and start leaving butter on the sides.Add chopped green chillies.
Add a little salt, red chilli powder, deghi mirchi powder, coriander powder, Pav bhaji masala. “Pav bhaji” masala is easily available in the Asian stores, or even at amazon.
You can find it in my amazon recommendations list here.
Mix together all the masalas, in the tempering. Add the mashed veggies. Use a potato masher to mix together the veggies with the tempering.
Check the consistency. It should be a little runny, and not too thick. If required add water at this stage to adjust consistency.
Cover and let it cook for another 10 minutes.Once done check and adjust the seasoning.Squeeze fresh lemon juice Add finely chopped coriander.
Preparing Pav and serving Pav bhaji
This bhaji is served with toasted pav, or toasted small white buns, which in india are easily available as “Pav”, and here in UK i usually get white bread buns or dinner rolls from any bakery.
To prepare and toast the buns, heat a spoon of butter/ ghee or any oil of your preference. Add a little chopped coriander in butter, a sprinkle of pav bhaji masala, and heat the buns in this butter on both the sides.
That’s how these are usually served, or you can simply warm both sides of the buns in plain butter.I used the latter option today.
While serving ,sprinkle chopped onions, fresh chopped coriander, chopped green chillies, a little butter and a dash of fresh lime / lemon juice on the hot bhaji, and serve with warm and crusty buttered pan toasted pav.
How to make pav bhaji vegan?
Authentic Indian street style pav bhaji is cooked with butter , so it is not vegan.
However you can make your home cooked pav bhaji vegan by replacing regular butter with vegan butter or butter alternatives that are vegan .
Also you can just skip using any butter altogether , and cook the bhaji for pav bhaji in oil.It won’t be very rich in taste as there is no butter , but you can still enjoy all the fresh spices and flavours of pav bhaji.
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Recipe Card
Pav Bhaji
Ingredients
Preparing Veggies
- 3-4 medium potatoes washed, peeled and roughly cut into cubes
- 2 small green bell peppers/ capsicum roughly cut into cubes
- 1 cup peas use fresh or frozen
- 2-3 inch bottle gourd washed, peeled and roughly cut into cubes- optional
- 1 small carrot washed, peeled and roughly cut into cubes- optional
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- little salt
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 cup water
Preparing tempering
- 2 tbsp butter or ghee / preferred cooking oil
- a pinch of asafoetida powder
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 medium onion finely chopped for tempering
- 3 medium tomatoes finely chopped
- 2-3 green chillies finely chopped
- salt dont add too much as there is salt in veggies, and you are using butter which has salt
- 1 tsp deghi mirchi powder
- 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
- 2 tbsp pav bhaji masala
- 1 cup water or more/ less -to adjust the consistency of the bhaji
- chopped coriander leaves
To serve
- Pav/ white buns
- butter as per your choice – to warm buns and to add to the bhaji
- 1/2 tsp pav bhaji masala optional
- chopped coriander to garnish
- chopped onions to garnish
- chopped green chillies to garnish
- Juice of fresh lime to add to bhaji
Instructions
Preparing Vegetables to cook bhaji-
- To start with roughly cut all the vegetables, including potatoes . Add these to a pressure cooker with few garlic cloves, a little salt, turmeric and little water . Pressure cook for 1-2 whistles, and take these off heat.If you do not have a pressure cooker, you can cut the vegetables and boil these in a little water in a covered pan for 10 minutes , till all veggies are tender and cooked.Keep these aside to cool.
- Once cooled, using a masher mash all the veggies till these form a rough paste ,kind of texture.But it should be mashed good enough that you cannot make out what veggies are in there, but make sure to not make a very fine paste out of it.Keep aside
Preparing Tempering
- Heat butter in a pan, add a pinch of asafoetida powder. Add ginger garlic paste. Cook for 2-3 minutes till the raw aroma goes away. Add chopped onions and cook for a few minutes till these turn translucent.
- Add tomato puree, and cook till the tomatoes are nicely cooked, and start leaving butter on the sides.Add chopped green chillies.
- Add a little salt, red chilli powder, deghi mirchi powder, coriander powder, Pav bhaji masala. Mix together all the masalas, in the tempering.
- Add mashed veggies. Use a masher to mix together the veggies with the tempering. .Check the consistency. It should be a little runny, and not too thick.
- If required add water at this stage to adjust consistency.
- Cover and let it cook for another 10 minutes.Once done check and adjust the seasoning. Add finely chopped coriander.
Preparing Pav and serving Pav bhaji
- To serve, heat another spoon of butter/ ghee or any oil of your preference. Add a little chopped coriander in butter, a sprinkle of pav bhaji masala, and heat the buns in this butter on both the sides. Thats how these are usually served, or you can simply warm both sides of the buns in plain butter.
- While serving ,Sprinkle chopped onions, fresh chopped coriander, chopped green chillies, a little butter and a dash of fresh lime juice on the hot bhaji, and serve with warm and crusty pav.
Just book marked this recipe to try out! Looking at these pictures is enough to make my stomach grumble – can’t wait to try it out!
Thank you so much 🙂 Please let me know if you try this.
Really awesome
Flavor and fragrance is mind blowing
My kids loved it
https://www.omgfeeds.com/pav-bhaji-recipe-mumbai-style-pav-bhaji-recipe/
Hi Neha
So glad everyone enjoyed this recipe. Thank you!