Pav Bhaji

From what I've heard, Pav Bhaji is a very famous Indian street food that originated in Mumbai, the city Raj is from! Pav bhaji is also available in restaurants, and I'm going to show you how easily it can be made at home! It is a delicious food consisted of mashed vegetables (bhaji) and spices, eaten with buttered bread (pav).

Ingredients: Bhaji

• About 2 c. of mixed vegetables*
• 4 tomatoes, finely chopped (I used roma)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 inch ginger, grated
• 1 green capsicum (bell pepper), finely chopped
• 1-2 green chili's, chopped
• 2-3 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp red chili powder, or to taste
• salt, to taste
• 1-2 tbsp pav bhaji masala*

Ingredients: Pav

• soft bread roll, I used hamburger buns (amount depends on how much you want/are serving)
• butter

*The best think about bhaji is that you can use any kind of vegetables you want! For this recipe shown I used a mixture of potato, carrot, cauliflower, and peas. You can use radish, eggplant, etc. Anything!

*Pav Bhaji masala can be found at your local Indian grocery store. I used the Everest brand as shown. If you don't have an Indian grocery store nearby, there are plenty of youtube videos/blogs with recipes to make your own!

Directions: Bhaji

1. Add all your chopped vegetables to a pressure cooker and add just enough water to where it's barely covered it all. I prefer cooking mine in a pressure cooker because it cuts the cooking time in half, but if you don't have a pressure cooker, you can certainly just add them all into a pot and boil them in water until tender.For the pressure cooker, Generally my vegetables are nice and tender after three long whistles, but just check yours for tenderness.

2. While you've got your vegetables busy in the pressure cooker, get a large pan with high sides and add 2 tbsp butter on medium/high heat. Once the butter is hot, add your chopped onion and cook for a minute. Add grated ginger and cook until the raw smell of ginger goes away. 

3. Next add your capsicum (bell pepper) and let this continue cooking until they start to turn soft. Once they turn soft add all of your chopped tomatoes. 

4. Place a lid on and let this cook, stirring every couple of minutes. After about 5 minutes, go ahead and add all your spices, tumeric, chili powder, pav bhaji masala, and salt. You want to cook this long enough that the tomatoes start to break down completely and it turns more into a gravy. 

5. I've seen recipes that will then take this mixture and mix it in a blinder so that it's more smooth, but I generally don't do that. It's up to you!

6. Going back to the vegetables. Pour out most of the water and just leave a little in the pot. Start mashing them with a potato masher. I like to mash mine pretty thoroughly, but I've seen recipes that leave it chunkier, so that part is up to your preference. 

7. Add your mashed vegetables to your gravy and mix them well. Once combined, taste and adjust the spices to your liking. If I have it on hand, I will also add some chopped cilantro at this time.

Directions: Pav

1. This is pretty simple. For the pav I use hamburger buns, but you can look up other types of appropriate bread, and even pav recipes, if you want to use something else. 

2. Place a large skillet on medium heat and the pan heat up until it's hot. Once hot, rub the pan directly with some butter and quickly plan your bun, cut side down, on top of the melted butter. Then rub butter on top side of the bun.

3. You don't have to do this, but for my preference I flatten the buns with my spatula. When the bottom side started getting nicely toasted I flip them and cook the other side (you don't have to re-butter the skillet, because we already buttered the top side!)

Pav is very easy to make (unless you decide to make your own!). 

This dish is really quite easy to make, and so good! I hope you enjoyed this recipe, and if you had a chance to try it please let me know how yours turned out! =)