Pav bhaji

Pav bhaji! A classic street food which hails from Mumbai. Pav means bread roll and bhaji means vegetables in Marathi. This delicious dish is made by mashing together veggies with a spiced green pepper and tomato gravy. Served with bread rolls fried in butter and topped with fresh coriander, butter and red onions. Not forgetting the all important pav bhaji masala!

Remember: if it doesn't have butter, it's not pav bhaji! This recipe makes a sizeable quantity. Making a big batch and freezing for later use is always useful incase you need a quick and tasty meal. Actual pav bhaji is supposed to be a vibrant red colour, this comes from using fresh kashmiri chillies. If you don't have them, its not an issue, just use an ordinary chilli like I did here. You just won't get the red colour thats all! Sometimes recipes also call for adding red food colouring if you don't have the fresh kashmiri chillis, but I'm not the biggest fan of doing this. 

Ingredients

2 handfuls each of chopped potatoes, carrots, peas, beans and cauliflower. 

1 green pepper, roughly chopped 

3 tomatoes, roughly copped 

2 onions, diced 

Thumb size piece ginger, crushed 

2 cloves garlic, crushed 

1 green or yellow chilli, diced 

You'll need these spices

1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder 

2-3 tsp pav bhaji masala (see link below for recipe)

1 tsp turmeric

To garnish:

Handful fresh coriander

Finely diced red onions

Method

• Cook the potatoes, carrots, peas and cauliflower in a large pan of salted boiling water until soft.
  
  
• In the meantime make the tomato and pepper gravy. Add the onions and fry on a medium heat for 10 minutes until golden. Add the ginger, garlic and chilli and fry for a further two minutes.
  
  
• Follow with the tomatoes and mash them with back of a wooden spoon.
  
  
• Add the kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric and pav bhaji masala. Stir well. If it becomes too dry, add a bit of water to stop the spices burning.
  
  
• Add the green pepper and cook until the soft. Turn of the heat and set aside.
  
  
• By this time the veggies should be soft and mashable. Drain them with a colander (it doesn’t matter if there is a little water left in the bottom of the pan).
  
  
• Add the tomato-pepper mixture to the cooked veggies and mash together until there are no lumps! Add water if it becomes too thick. The consistency should be similar to a thick smoothie. I will admit that I cheat here and use a stick blender to get a lovely smooth consistency. It does speed up the process!
  
  
• Get your bread rolls and cut them in half. Melt a little butter in a non-stick frying pan and fry the bread rolls for about 2-3 minutes on a medium heat. They should be buttery and a little crispy.
  
  
• Garnish with red onions, coriander and another knob of butter. Dip the fried pav in the bhaji and enjoy!