A very popular street food from Mumbai, of spiced, mixed vegetables (bhaji) along with buttered dinner rolls called pav – this one is one of my favorite ways to eat veggies!
The pav bhaji is one of the most loved street foods from Mumbai. Therefore, here is my street style pav bhaji recipe for you. I can have this delicious combination of a spicy, buttery bhaji along with buttered pavs any time of the day. Again this is something that I make often and is a great fridge clearing recipe, too. The bhaji is made of mixed vegetables that are cooked together in spices, until they all come together. That’s why I say, it’s a great idea to make when you have bits and pieces of leftover veggies. Also, while you could mop the bhaji up with rotis, I always devour it with pavs or dinner rolls only. Even it is a ‘fridge clearance’ bhaji, it has got to be with pavs.
The story behind the invention of this street food is that, it was made to feed mill workers. Mumbai, known as Bombay earlier, housed a lot of mills, especially cloth mills. As a result, there were many who worked there and in shifts. So, you would have a batch of workers finishing their shift early mornings, some starting then, some starting mid morning etc. And the pav bhaji would serve as a quick yet filling meal for them before they started their shifts or when taking breaks in between. Since this yummy meal became very popular with the mill workers, it grew as a street food business too. And I am just so glad for that! 🙂
You may also like,
Egg bhurji (spicy scrambled eggs)
Batata vada with garlic chutney
Chana dal pakora (lentil fritters)
Easy recipe
While my street style pav bhaji is a very easy recipe, it may not really be a quick one. That’s because, I like to keep my bhaji cooking for some bit longer than intended. And the reason is to give all vegetables a good enough time to make friends with the spices. This small trick has always yielded great, street style taste results for me so I always let the veggies simmer for longer. However, if you are pressed for time or don’t want your vegetables to be completely mushy, you could cook yours for lesser time. It would still taste yummy, only the texture of your bhaji would be slightly chunky. Now, to flavour my vegetables I have used store bought pav bhaji spice mix. While this is easily available in local Indian stores, if you do not have it, don’t worry. You could use a combination of coriander and garam masala powders, this alternative also works great.
The Mumbai street style bhaji has a signature red colour, like the one I have been able to achieve. Often times that is due to the use of red food grade colour, but I haven’t added that. Instead, I have tempered red chili powder in the butter, I have cooked my bhaji in. And that has given me this beautiful orangish-red colour. You too could do either of this or leave them out completely. Even if your bhaji doesn’t look red, it is still going to be lip smacking good. 🙂
Share it
You could serve your yummy pav bhaji for brunch or as a an evening snack or even for lunch and dinner. Like I said earlier, I can have this anytime of the day! Remember to serve it hot, full of butter along with finely chopped onions and wedges of lime by the side. This is a meal that everyone will love. So, I hope you are going to make some soon and enjoy with family and friends.
If you are planning to try my recipe, I’d love to know of your feedback. You can share your food pictures with me over on Instagram. You could also leave a line with you feedback, below in the comments section.
Eat hearty!
Street style pav bhaji
Equipment
- Shallow cooking pot
- Tawa (Indian skillet) or any skillet
Ingredients
- ½ cup cauliflower flowers
- ½ cup carrots chopped
- 1 cup peas frozen
- 1 cup potatoes boiled and mashed
- 1 cup tomatoes roughly chopped
- ½ cup onions finely chopped
- ¼ cup coriander leaves finely chopped
- 2 tbsp garlic paste
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 3 tbsp pav bhaji masala
- 1 tsp kasuri methi
- 1 tbsp red chili powder for the colour
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ¼ cup butter
- pav/dinner rolls
- salt to taste
For garnishing
- lime wedges
- onions finely chopped
- butter
Instructions
- In your cooking pot set the cauliflower florets, peas, carrots and tomatoes to cook along with 3 cups of water
- When they cook completely, add in the potatoes
- Mix in them well, continue cooking over medium flame, add more water if needed
- Using a potato masher, mash all the vegetables together and cook until well combined for another 10-15 minutes. Turn the flame to low and keep cooking
- In another pot, heat half of the butter. When it melts, lower the heat and add the cumin seeds and chili powder
- Saute´ for two minutes and then add the onions. When they soften, add the garlic paste and continue to cook for two more minutes over medium flame
- Add the cooking vegetables to this onion masala and stir in well along with a cup of hot water
- Now add the salt*, pav bhaji masala, salt, coriander powder and kasuri methi. Mix them all in well
- Add the remaining butter and cook for another 10 minutes and turn the flame off. Add the lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves
- Heat a skillet with some butter. Sprinkle some pav bhaji masala and coriander leaves and toast the pavs/dinner rolls in it for couple minutes, then remove on a plate
- Serve your delicious street style pav bhaji topped with some more butter, lime wedges and chopped onions. Enjoy!
Notes
- *Be mindful when adding salt when using salted butterÂ
- If pav bhaji masala isn't available to you, use garam masala instead
- You could also serve this bhaji with flatbreads, sliced bread loaves etc
- 1 cup = 250 millilitres
- tbsp - tablespoon
- tsp - teaspoon
