I have fond memories of having Pav Bhaji at Juhu beach since my childhood in Mumbai. I would carefully see the way the pav bhaji vendor would make the recipe with loads of amul butter.
Those days… I so fondly remember them. My evenings especially during vacations would be spent at Juhu Beach, making sand castles, playing in the sea, having pani poori, sev poori, in fact all kinds of chat, seeing the sun set and returning home late in the evening. I would naturally go into a state of meditation seeing the waves, the setting sun, the twilight and the day turning into night.
I have been making pav bhaji since my teens and even today I make it. I personally prefer to use the Amul brand of butter, but you could use any brand or even white butter.
To know more about the history of Pav Bhaji and the typical pav, read this link: The Pav Bhaji Story
So here goes the recipe for Pav Bhaji:
Ingredients for Pav Bhaji:
- 2-3 potatoes
- 1 cup cauliflower
- 1 carrot (optional)
- 1 cup peas
- 1 large onion – finely chopped
- 2 large tomatoes – finely chopped
- 1 large capsicum
- 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
- 1 tbsp pav bhaji masala
- 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
- 1/2 tsp chilly powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- amul butter
- salt
- 5-6 pavs
Method for making Pav Bhaji:
- Boil all the vegetables except onions, tomatoes and capsicum in a pressure cooker or microwave oven. Mash the vegetables and keep aside.
- In a pan, add butter. When the butter melts, add cumin seeds. When they splutter, add the chopped onions.
- Fry the onions till they become transparent. Now add the ginger-garlic paste.
- Fry till the raw smell of the ginger-garlic paste disappears.
- Add the tomatoes and fry them till they become soft and mushy. Add the chopped capsicum. Now add the chilly powder, turmeric powder and pav bhaji masala.
- Mix the dry masalas well. Fry for few minutes till the capsicum become soft. You could add some water at this stage and let the capsicum become soft. Or you could just fry the capsicum without adding water.
- Now add the mashed vegetables. Combine the mashed vegetables well with the masala. Add some water. Keep on stirring and let the vegetable simmer for 7-8 minutes.
- If the vegetable becomes too dry and then add some more water.
- When done, garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with chopped onions and chopped lime.
- While serving, add amul butter to the bhaji and serve with buttered pavs.
- You can add more butter, if you like it. In fact, with more butter, the pav bhaji tastes heavenly.
To make the buttered pavs:
- Slice the pavs . On a flat pan, heat some butter. When the butter melts, keep the pavs on the melted butter so that it absorbs the butter and fry for a minute. If you want to make the pav crisp, fry for a few more minutes. Serve the pavs hot with the bhaji.
The Pav Bhaji can be had as a meal during lunch or dinner. You could also have it as an evening snack.
