Pav bhaji is very popular in Mumbai. Pav is a piece of soft bread and bhaji is special thick gravy prepared with potato, vegetables & spices. That is why it is called as pav bhaji. Pav is fried with butter and bhaji is also shiny & spicy gravy with extra butter. This food is now popular in many other places in India. Its so delicious, if you will try this once then you will definitely want to try this again & again. So if you are missing Mumbai street style pav bhaji then you are at right place. Here you will find your Mumbai street style special pav bhaji recipe.
There are so many stories you may have heard about origin of pav bhaji and how this dish came and why it is so popular. Some people say this was favorite food of textile mill workers. There were people from different corners of country working at textile mills in Mumbai. Their food habits are also different, so it was very difficult to make different dishes for them for lunch. That is why local street food vendors mixed all available vegetables, mashed those & add some spices and offer that dish to mill workers. That was easy to cook and everybody liked this also.
Whereas some people say it is easy to cook and street food vendors are free to add any available vegetables. So it also costs less to make and delicious too. Not only that as other vegetables are mashed to make this dish, so it contains good nutrition value also. That is why is was so popular.
Whatever may be the reason, it is unique, tasty & healthy too. So people across the country like this dish. But one thing is clear that textile mill workers in Mumbai made it famous and Wikipedia post also says this too. Now you can have this food in any major city of India but taste may vary from city to city and one food vendor to another food vendor.
I have tried this dish first in Delhi and then in Mumbai also. But I found taste is slightly different in Mumbai. Mumbai street style pav bhaji is more spicy and less buttery than Delhi style bhaji. In Mumbai local street food vendors use more chilies in bhaji than others (its my own realization). First time, I tried pav bhaji at Rohini, New Delhi and then tried so many other places in Delhi too. But I found more sweetness in their bhaji and tons of butter. You may get shocked once it will be served to you. But I never found any digestion issue too. 😀
In Mumbai, you may get confused with pav bhaji and bhaji pav. These two sound similar but these are different foods. When people have pav with some pakodas (onion pakoda or any other vegetable pakoda) that time they use to call it as bhaji pav, here bhaji means pakoda. When you have pav with batata (aloo or potato) vada then it will be called as vada pav. Pav is widely accepted food in Mumbai and they prefer to enjoy this with many things. 🙂
Pav bhaji is not considered as main course food rather it is an evening snack. Though it is heavy and if you eat 3-4 pav then you do not need to do dinner. 😀 Salad is considered as side dish with pav bhaji. Any onion & tomato base salad is okay with pav bhaji.
Nowadays this street food has become so popular, that is why it is also available in many famous restaurants & big hotels in major cities in India. So if you have not tried this food or not yet got any opportunity to taste this then you can follow this pav bhaji recipe and have tasty pav bhaji at home.
Mumbai street style pav bhaji recipe
- Potatoes – 2 large size
- Beans – 8-10 pieces (finely chopped)
- Tomatoes – 2 medium size
- Onion – 1 large size
- Capsicum – 1 small size
- Ginger – 2 tsp (paste or grated)
- Garlic – 6-7 cloves (paste or finely chopped)
- Roasted cumin powder – 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder – 2 tsp
- Red chili powder – 1.5 tsp
- Pav bhaji masala – 2 tbsp
- Lemon juice - 1.5 tsp
- Green chilies – 2-3 (finely chopped)
- Butter – 2 tbsp
- Salt – as needed
- Water – as needed
- Pav – 6 pieces
- Clean dirt from potatoes and steam or boil it in water for 12-15 minutes and peel skin of each potatoes.
- Heat butter in a pan and cook onion till it turns to light brown color.
- Add ginger garlic paste and saute with onions
- Now add finely chopped tomatoes in pan and cook till it releases water.
- Add chopped beans in that pan and also add roasted cumin powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder and pav bhaji masala. Now add green chilies & capsicum in that pan.
- Now add boiled & roughly mashed potatoes in that pan.
- Add 1.5 to 2 cups of water and boil for 5 mins
- Take your masher to mash potatoes properly and add 1.5 tsp lemon juice in that gravy.
- Now boil it again till gravy reaches desired condition and become thicker as you want
- Switch off flame and take bhaji in 3 to 4 serving bowls
- garnish with green coriander leaves and chopped onions (optional)
- Heat a flat pan and add some butter. Butter will be melted within few seconds then roast pav or bread with that butter. Bread will absorb butter.
- Now serve this bread or pav with bhaji and onion salad
Pav bhaji making
Preparation time : 12 mins
Cooking time : 40 mins
Yields : 3 people
Ingredients
- Potatoes / aloo – 2 large size
- Beans – 8-10 pieces (finely chopped)
- Tomatoes / tamatar – 2 medium size
- Onion / pyaz – 1 large size
- Capsicum / shimla mirch – 1 small size
- Ginger / adrak – 2 tsp (paste or grated)
- Garlic / lahsun – 6-7 cloves (paste or finely chopped)
- Roasted cumin powder / bhuna jeera powder – 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder / haldi – 2 tsp
- Red chili powder / lal mirch powder – 1.5 tsp
- Pav bhaji masala – 2 tbsp
- Lemon juice / nimbu- 1.5 tsp
- Green chilies / hara mirch – 2-3 (finely chopped)
- Butter / makhan – 2 tbsp
- Salt – as needed
- Water – as needed
- Pav – 6 pieces
Instructions
Steps to make bhaji
- Cut each potato into 4 pieces and boil it for 12-15 mins. After that switch off flame and take all potato pieces in a bowl and let it be cool. When it becomes cool, then peel skin of each potato pieces. Mash potatoes with big spoon or masher. At this position you do not need to make it smooth just do this roughly.
- Now heat butter in a frying pan and add finely chopped onions and fry it for 3-4 mins and let it be light brown. add some salt too at this stage.
- Add ginger and garlic paste and saute with finely chopped onions. Let aroma of onion, ginger & garlic be mixed with each other.
- Now add chopped tomatoes in that pan and fry till it releases water from tomatoes. Now gravy become thick and color will be dark brown.
- Add finely chopped beans in frying pan and cook well by adding all spices (roasted cumin powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder and pav bhaji masala). Mix all spices with that gravy. Now this time you can smell fantastic aroma of bhaji. Add chopped green chilies & capsicum too.
- Now add boiled & roughly mashed potatoes in that gravy. Do the flame low. Mix potatoes with all other ingredients & spices properly. Now it will be thicker.
- Now add water as needed. Here you can add 1.5 to 2 cups of water. Let it be boil in water for 5 mins more.
- Take your masher (or you can use a serving spoon) again to mash potatoes properly and add lemon juice.
- Now boil it again till gravy reaches desired stage and become thicker what you want
- Take bhaji in small serving bowls and garnish with coriander leaves and chopped onions (optional)
- Serve it with buttered pav and salad
Steps to make buttered pav
- Heat a flat frying pan and add butter. Let it be melted and then keep a piece of pav and roast.
- Repeat above step for every piece of pav
- Serve it hot with bhaji
You can add any seasonal vegetable in bhaji. Based on type of vegetable, take your decision for pre boiling before adding it in bhaji, otherwise you can not make a smooth bhaji.
If you want to use less butter then make gravy with sunflower oil and add some butter on the top of bowl while serving.
This Mumbai street style pav bhaji recipe is really very easy to make and you have have this food very often, try this with various vegetable of your choice. Many people often make this during holidays at home. Children love this food very much. Try this pav bhaji recipe at home and surprise others.
If you want to try some other dishes for snacks or starter or even for breakfast then you can follow these recipes yummy dahi vada, tasty & soft idli, crispy plain dosa, rava or sooji upma, special Maharastrian poha, sabudana khichdi for vrat, aloo paratha for heavy breakfast.
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