Tawa pulao recipe with video and step by step photos. Tawa pulao is a popular Mumbai street food of rice and vegetables sauteed together with pav bhaji masala and other spices-herbs. It is a popular and tasty rice recipe.
Tawa pulao as the name suggests is made on Tawa/tava – a flat concave shaped pan used in Indian cooking for making chapatis, roasting as well as shallow frying.
The street side vendors use a huge Tawa and they make pav bhaji, masala pav, tawa paneer masala and tawa pulao on this huge tawa. For home cooks, this recipe can be made in a frying pan or even in a kadai (wok).
This tawa pulao recipe is quick to make if you have leftover rice. You also need to steam or cook the veggies beforehand. Usually, I make a not so spicy version, but you can spice the pulao as per your taste buds just by increasing the quantity of red chili powder.
You will need pav bhaji masala to make this pulao. usually, I buy pav bhaji masala and the Indian brands which I have used are MDH, everest and badshah. I find all of them alright.
Tawa pulao goes best with yogurt, raita or an onion-lemon salad. Also accompany a roasted papad and a lemon or mango pickle by the side.
Tawa pulao recipe video
How to make tawa pulao
Cooking rice
1. Cook 1 cup basmati rice first in 4 cups of water to which some salt and 2 to 3 drops of oil are added. The rice should be cooked well and the grains should be separate.
2. Drain the rice in a colander. Please do read the recipe details above on cooking the rice. let the rice cool completely before you add to the veggies.
3. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a pan and saute ½ tsp cumin till they get browned.
4. Add chopped onions (1 medium onion – 50 grams) and saute till translucent.
5. Add ginger garlic paste (½ inch ginger + 2-3 garlic), made into a paste in a mortar-pestle or 1 tsp ginger garlic paste).
Saute till their raw aroma goes away. The ginger-garlic paste has to be sauteed well. Otherwise, the raw aroma is felt even later and might not go well with some folks.
6. Add 2 large chopped tomatoes (150 grams tomatoes) and 1 medium chopped green bell pepper (capsicum).
7. Add 2 tsp pav bhaji masala, ¼ tsp red chili powder and ¼ tsp turmeric powder.
8. Stir and saute till you see the butter leaving sides of the pan. About 6 to 7 minutes on a low flame. Even if the bell pepper has a slight crunch, they taste good.
9. Add the chopped steamed veggies – ½ cup peas, 1 small to medium chopped carrot, 1 medium potato and salt as required. You can even add french beans and cauliflower.
10. Stir and then add the drained cooked rice.
11. Stir and mix gently and uniformly.
12. Garnish tawa pulao with chopped coriander leaves and drizzled with a few drops of lemon juice (½ tsp). serve tawa pulao with onion-lemon salad or yogurt or onion tomato raita accompanied with roasted papad and pickle.
More pulao varieties
- Peas pulao
- Paneer pulao
- Pulao – veg pulao made in a pot or pan.
- Peas pulao
- Kashmiri pulao
Tawa Pulao
INGREDIENTS
for cooking rice
- 1 cup basmati rice or long grained rice
- 4 cups of water for cooking the rice
- 2 to 3 drops of oil
- salt as required
other ingredients for tawa pulao
- 1 medium green bell pepper (capsicum) - chopped
- 2 large tomatoes or 150 grams tomatoes - chopped
- 1 medium onion or 50 grams onions- chopped
- ½ inch ginger + 2-3 garlic - made into a paste in a mortar-pestle or 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder or add as required
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 teaspoon pav bhaji masala or add as required
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 tablespoon butter or oil or half-half of both
- 1 small to medium carrot - chopped
- 1 medium potato - chopped
- ½ cup green peas - fresh or frozen
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice or as required
- a few chopped coriander leaves (cilantro leaves) or parsley leaves
- salt as required
INSTRUCTIONS
cooking rice
- Rinse the rice grains till the water runs clear of starch. Rinsing for a while, you will come to a stage when the water will become transparent during the rinse. If there is starch in the water, then the rice becomes sticky.
- Soak the rice in enough water for 20-30 minutes. Drain and then add the rice to a pot.
- Pour 4 cups of water in the rice. Add salt and few drops of oil.
- Stir. Cover and cook the rice till the rice grains are cooked well.
- The rice grains should be separate also cooked well.
- If the water begins to froth pushing the lid, then remove the lid or partly cover the pot with lid and cook the rice.
- Don't cook the rice too much or make them mushy. This will spoil the texture of the pulao.
- In a strainer, add the cooked rice and let all the water drain away.
- Gently fluff the rice with a fork.
- Once all the steam has passed from the rice, cover the rice with a lid so that the rice grains on top don't dry out.
- Let the rice cool and you can proceed with the rest of the recipe.
making tawa pulao
- Steam the carrot, potato and green peas till all of them are cooked well in a steamer, pan or pressure cooker.
- Peel and chop the carrot and potatoes. Keep aside.
- In a pan or kadai/wok melt the butter. Add the cumin and fry them till they get browned.
- Add the finely chopped onions and saute till translucent.
- Add the ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw aroma goes away.
- Then add the finely chopped tomatoes and bell pepper (capsicum).
- Stir and add all the spice powders - turmeric, red chili powder and pav bhaji masala.
- Stir again and saute the whole mixture till you see butter releasing from the sides.
- Add the chopped potato, carrot and peas. Sprinkle salt and stir.
- Add the cooked basmati rice and gently mix the veggies with the rice.
- Garnish with coriander leaves and sprinkle some lemon juice on the tava pulao.
- Serve tava pulao hot with onion tomato raita or cucumber raita or plain yogurt accompanied with papad and pickle.
RECIPE VIDEO
NOTES
- This recipe can also be made in a frying pan or even in a kadai (wok).
Dassana’s recipes will never fail.. this pulav reminded me so much of aamchi mumbai n as usual it tasted perfect .. Thank you
thanks sam for this lovely feedback and the rating as well. nice to read your comment. happy cooking.
I have had tried it with left over brown rice. It came out very well. I have been trying other recipes by you as well. You have beautiful way of explaining the recipe with pictures. Thank you so much!
thanks jasmeet for the feedback and rating. glad to know that you liked this tawa pulao recipe and other recipes as well. welcome and happy cooking.
Tried it today. One of my family favourites
Thanks Trupti for your positive feedback on tawa pulao recipe.
Turned out to be amazing. Thanks for the recipe.
Could you tell me which pan are you using in the video? It looked really good. Cast iron?
thanks and welcome garima. in the video the pan used is lodge cast iron pan.
Turned out just amazing, so simple but yet elegant to share with guests. This is the best tawa pulao recipe I’ve ever tried.
Thanks Twinkle for positive feedback on tawa pulao recipe.
Loved it… turned out super good 🙂
Thanks Dhivya
The Website Is So Interesting And Tried Aloo Curry Form This Recipe Came Out Well 🙂
thanks ramya for this feedback.
good ones
thanks nandini.
Nice recipies, easy to cook, less time consuming… gives feel of restaurant style food …
pleased to know this, thanks tanuja for positive feedback.
apki site m hindi m dishes ni milti h plz apna app n site hindi m b kijiye
hindi ka option bhut kam show hota h n kbi hota b h to b work ni krta h
divya, we are slowly translating recipes in hindi also. here is the link for hindi website – vegrecipesofindia.com/hi/
Hey Dassana,
Tried tawa pulao for dinner tonight and it was amazing! Skipped capsicum, added baby corn and substituted pav bhaji masala with garam masala + amchoor powder (using your suggestion in the pav bhaji post).
Thanks for these delicious recipes, Dassana! You are the best!
Love,
Neeti
very pleased to know this thank you neeti for your positive feedback and you are welcome.
Beautifully written recipe but the end product was not as tasty as I expected it to be. Too much taste of Pav bhaji masala.
only 2 teaspoon pav bhaji masala is added to 3 to 3.5 cups cooked rice along with other ingredients. then how it can be too much of taste of pav bhaji masala. have you used correct spoon measurements or added using the regular spoons we have in the kitchens. any recipe if followed with the correct measuring spoons or cups will not give negative results. hope this helps.
Can we just add rice to already made pav bhaji ka bhaji & make tawa pulav?
yes sravanthi. you can do this method. even i make tawa pulao this way at times with remaining pav bhaji. but just saute a bit of onions and tomatoes before adding the pav bhaji.
Hi Amit,
Tried this recipe, also added paneer to it and it turned out very tasty. Thank you very much for the recipe
thankyou so much jayati 🙂 and you are always welcome.
Plz share recipe of eggless red velvet cake
have taken a note of your request priyanka and will add the recipe in a couple of months.