Learn how to make one of the most popular Maharashtrian street food, Pav bhaji with simple steps, detailed pictures, and video.
Hot and soft Pav buns served with scrumptious buttery bhaji masala. The delicious bhaji is prepared with mixed vegetables, spicy special pav bhaji masala and loads of butter makes it finger-licking good.
Usually, for bhaji, cauliflower, green peas, beans are the basic vegetables used along with the main veggie potato. Today I used capsicum also along with these.
Although I am not from Mumbai and definitely don’t know the authentic street food vendors recipe, I have spent a decent time exploring the ingredients of this yum bhaji recipe.
I would like to suggest not to use sweet tinged veggies like carrots, cabbage or sweet potato and also gourd vegetables like bitter gourd which may alter the taste of the bhaji totally. But you can use a small piece of beetroot if you like a natural pinkish-red color. And my bhaji today got a beautiful brownish-red color from the Kashmiri chilli powder I used.
Moreover, I roasted my pav buns for extra taste but you can simply serve this bhaji with soft pav buns and freshly chopped onions and a lemon slice.
The stepwise pictures with explanations:
Preparation:
- Clean and chop all the vegetables of your choice into small pieces. Also, chop onions, green chillies and tomatoes.
- Prepare ginger garlic paste if you don’t have it in stock. Using paste is better than chopped ginger and garlic as we are going to mash the bhaji at last.
Recipe:
- Heat butter in a pressure cooker, add onions and saute well until they become transparent.
- Add green chillies, saute and add ginger garlic paste.
- Cook ginger garlic well for few minutes to remove the raw flavor. Next, add tomatoes and cook them soft.
- Add capsicum, beans, cauliflower, green peas (or the veggies of your choice) and a large cup of potatoes.
- Put turmeric powder, pav bhaji masala powder and chilli powder.
- Mix everything together, add water, cover with the lid and pressure cook for 4 to 5 whistles.
- Let the pressure settle down, open the lid, mix the required salt and some more bhaji masala and heat again.
- Mash well with some coriander leaves using a potato masher or a hand blender when the bhaji is still hot.
- Switch off now. Add a blob of butter before serving with soft pav buns, raw onions and coriander leaves.
How to roast Pav buns:
- In a tawa, heat some butter with a pinch of bhaji masala.
- Slice the pav buns in the middle, fry for two mins on both sides. Serve hot with bhaji.
Tips:
1) First of all, potatoes and green peas are the main veggies along with others to make bhaji. So don’t skip them.
2) Furthermore, the choice of good pav bhaji masala powder is very important to get aromatic bhaji. I use MTR brand pav bhaji masala.
3) Since my Kids’ are butter lovers, I used a lavish amount of butter in my bhaji. You can reduce if you wish less buttery bhaji.
4) Finally, the addition of chilli powder is optional according to personal choice.
5) Last but not least, do not use gourd vegetables like bitter gourd for bhaji and you can use a piece of beetroot for more pinkish-red colored bhaji. I didn’t use any artificial food color in my bhaji and the natural color is from the red chilli powder I used.
Pav bhaji recipe | How to make Pav bhaji
Ingredients
Ingredients:
Vegetables used:
- 2 cups potato
- 1 cup green peas
- 1 cup capsicum
- 1 cup beans
- 1 cup cauliflower
Other ingredients:
- 5 tbsp butter as per choice
- 2 big onions
- 2 green chillies
- 1 tbsp gg paste
- 3 large tomatoes
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 2 ½ tsp pav bhaji masala
- ½ tsp chilli powder
- 1 ½ tsp salt as per taste
- Coriander leaves
- 2 cups water
Instructions
Preparation:
- Clean and chop all the vegetables of your choice into small pieces.
- Also, chop onions, green chillies and tomatoes.
- Prepare ginger garlic paste if you don't have in stock. Using paste is better than chopped ginger and garlic as we are going to mash the bhaji at last.
Recipe:
- Heat butter in a pressure cooker, add onions and saute well until they become transparent.
- Add green chillies, saute and add ginger garlic paste. Cook ginger garlic well for few minutes to remove the raw flavor.
- Now add tomatoes and cook them soft.
- Add capsicum, beans, cauliflower, green peas and a large cup of potatoes.
- Put turmeric powder, pav bhaji masala powder and chilli powder.
- Mix everything together, add water, cover with the lid and pressure cook for 4 to 5 whistles.
- Let the pressure settle down, open the lid, mix required salt and some more bhaji masala and heat again. Mash well and nice using a potato masher or a hand blender when the bhaji is still hot.
- Switch off and garnish with coriander leaves.
- Add a blob of butter before serving with soft pav buns, raw onions and coriander leaves.
How to roast Pav buns:
- In a tawa, heat some butter with a pinch of bhaji masala.
- Slice the pav buns in the middle, fry for two mins on both sides.
- Serve hot with bhaji.
Video
Notes
1) First of all, potatoes are the main along with other veggies to make bhaji. So don't avoid them.
2) Furthermore, the choice of good pav bhaji masala powder is very important to get aromatic bhaji. I use MTR brand pav bhaji masala.
3) Since my Kids' are butter lovers, I used a lavish amount of butter in my bhaji. You can reduce if you wish less buttery bhaji.
4) Finally, the addition of chilli powder is optional according to personal choice.
5) Last but not least, do not use gourd vegetables like bitter gourd for bhaji and you can use a piece of beetroot for more pinkish-red colored bhaji. I didn't use any artificial food color in my bhaji and the natural color is from the red chilli powder I used.
Nutrition
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