Street style Pav Bhaji, flavorful mixed vegetable mash with soft buttery bread, a complete meal for vegetarians
Pav Bhaji is a common street food found in India. A flavorful mixed vegetable mash curry served with buttery bread. Vendors on many street corners have a large pan cooking vegetables, served with soft buttered bread a perfect filling meal for vegetarians.
You can use a variety of vegetables like: potatoes, corn, pumpkin, peas, carrots, onion, tomato, cauliflower, green beans, eggplant etc. Cooked with spices, lots of butter in the vegetable mash, as well as the bread is coated with butter and toasted. Served with diced onion, cilantro and lemon wedge. The bread is used to scoop up the vegetable curry, its a vegetarians dream!
For picky eaters, this is the perfect dish to hide lots of healthy vegetables. Kids love the butter bread dipped in the curry without realizing they are eating so many vegetables! It’s a win win. You can serve it like a sandwich in burger buns to make it easier for kids to eat. Its also a great dish to make when you have any left over vegetable curry. You can add a few more ingredients and transform it into a new dish! I frequently use my leftover Nav Ratan Korma and turn it into a yummy Pav Bhaji.
I hate to think that all the health benefits of the vegetables are negated by all the butter used. To make a healthier version, I have significantly reduced the amount of butter. Replace some of the butter with Sour cream in the vegetable mash as sour cream has less calories than butter. It gives it added richness with less calories. Instead of bread drenched in butter, I use store bought Hawaiian bread rolls which gives a slightly sweet flavor. You will not miss the butter at all!
Makes 4-6 servings
Time: 25 mins
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsps butter or ghee
- 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds (rai)
- 6 curry leaves
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes (canned works best for this)
- 2 cups of mixed vegetables (frozen or fresh vegs are ok)
- 1 1/2 tbsp Pav Bhaji Masala Powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric (haldi)
- 1/4 tsp red chili powder, flakes, whole fresh green chili, or dried red chili
- 2/3 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dried Kasuri Methi (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1/4 cup of sour cream or heavy whipping cream
- Garnish: diced raw onion, chopped fresh cilantro, lime wedge
Method:
- In a pot, at high heat add butter, curry leaves, whole chili, rai. Stir fry for about 2 mins till they splutter. If you prefer you can make this the last step and use it as a tarka.
- Add ginger garlic paste and stir fry for another min.
- Add crushed tomato and all the powder spices, salt, and Kasuri methi.
- Add vegetables and water, stir, cover and cook on medium heat for 10 mins, stirring in between till vegetables are over cooked to a mashable stage.
- Using a hand blender, blend the mixture to a mashy consistency. I like mine a bit chunky but you can make it as smooth as you like.
- Stir in cream and cook for 2 mins or till it comes to a boil.
- Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro leaves, raw diced onion and lime wedge
- Devour with soft bread rolls!
Tips:
- Be sure to check the salt and spice level of the boxed masalas before adding more.
- Remove any whole spices before blending incase using other left over vegetable curry.
- If you like, add a bit of butter on top when serving.