Pav Bhaji or Mumbai Paav Bhaji is a popular street food made with spiced and mashed-up veggies and served with pav bread. This one-pot recipe can be made in the Instant Pot or pressure cooker in under 30 minutes.
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About this recipe
Mumbai Pav Bhaji is a popular Indian street food recipe and can be described as an Indian version of Sloppy Joes. Served with lemon wedges, chopped-up red onions, and garnished with cilantro, you grab a hot, buttered piece of pav, dunk it in the bhaji and enjoy!
To eat pav bhaji off a street cart is an experience that you simply cannot miss. The vendors let the 'bhaji' simmer on a large cast-iron pan, add unmentionable amounts of butter, and let the vegetables come together into a delicious mashed-up curry. The 'Pav' is the buttered bread that goes with the bhaji.
Although there are a few versions of pav bhaji recipes, at its core, the dish is made with mashed potatoes, cauliflower, bell peppers, and peas cooked in a tomato-based gravy, spiced with a special Pav Bhaji Masala.
Why this recipe works
- Authentic, Mumbai-style pav bhaji recipe
- One-pot recipe made in the Instant Pot, dump and go!
- Tastes just like street-style Paav Bhaji
- Nutritious, packed with veggies - a delicious way to eat your veggies
List of Ingredients
To make pav bhaji, you will need:
The Veggies: Pav bhaji is made with cauliflower, potatoes, green bell pepper, peas, onions, and tomatoes. These are the key ingredients. You can also add carrots, green beans, and cabbage if you want, but these are entirely optional ingredients. I prefer using canned to fresh tomatoes.
The spices: To make pav bhaji, you will need Pav Bhaji Masala, Kashmiri Red Chili powder, and cumin powder. Pav bhaji masala is a blend of spice powders that give the pav bhaji its unique taste. My preferred brand of spice powder is 'Everest Pav Bhaji Masala'. Read my guide to Indian spices if you'd like to know more about Indian spices and how to use them in Indian cooking.
Other ingredients: Additional ingredients include ginger garlic paste, salt for seasoning, and lemon juice.
Butter: Butter is a key ingredient if you want to make street-style Paav Bhaji. Butter is added to the bhaji right at the end, mixed in, and served with the pav.
Instant Pot Instructions with step-by-step images
I prefer to make my Mumbai pav bhaji in the Instant Pot, instead of the stovetop (however, I have also added instructions for stovetop pav bhaji if you don't have an Instant Pot). The pressure cooker is the perfect appliance to make a one-pot pav bhaji. It is almost entirely a dump-and-go recipe, with the only additional steps of sauteeing the onions at the beginning and mashing the pressure-cooked ingredients at the very end.
Start by setting the Instant Pot to the 'Saute' function. Add ghee or butter. You can optionally add vegetable oil, but for a truly authentic taste, butter or ghee work best. Add the chopped onions and saute for a couple of minutes until the onions turn translucent.
Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute for a minute more. Hit Cancel and turn off the Instant Pot. Now add all the veggies.
Add the spice powders (pav bhaji masala, coriander powder, Kashmiri red chili powder). Add the canned tomatoes and 3/4 cup of water. Mix well (Pic 6).
Close the lid of the Instant Pot and set it to Pressure Cook mode for 7 minutes.
Once the cooking cycle is complete, let the pressure valve come down on its own. Open the lid, and using a potato masher, mash all the cooked vegetables well. Add salt, lemon juice to season, a little butter and mix well.
Stovetop Instructions
- Boil the cauliflower florets, chopped belle pepper and peeled and cubed potatoes in a pot on the stovetop for 8-10 minutes untill the veggies are cooked well and tender. Keep them aside.
- In a deep saucepan, heat some butter or ghee (vegetable oil for a vegan option).
- Add the chopped onions and saute for a couple of minutes until the onions turn translucent.
- Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute for a minute more. Then add the cooked veggies.
- Add the spice powders (pav bhaji masala, coriander powder, Kashmiri red chili powder). Add the canned tomatoes and 3/4 cup of water. Mix well.
- Simmer for 20 minutes, adjust with lime juice and more butter. Add salt as needed. Finally, using a potato masher, mash the Bhaji well until you have the perfect consistency. Mumbai Pav Bhaji is now ready to be served with Pav!
Serving Suggestions
To serve, heat butter in a saucepan. Slit the dinner rolls or Pav Bread and toast them in the saucepan until the sides are golden brown. Serve the toasted bread, with chopped-up red onions, a few wedges of lemon. Serve the Bhaji Paav garnished with chopped coriander leaves and more butter.
Expert Tips for Perfect Bhaji
Use Butter: To make pav bhaji that tastes authentic, don't skip the butter! I like to use either butter or ghee to saute the onions at the very beginning, and I also add a little cube of butter on top of the bhaji while serving it. The classic street style Mumbai pav bhaji is made with ladles of butter and the mashed veggies are mixed well in butter while cooking. The pav or dinner rolls that are served with the bhaji are also toasted in melted butter and then served.
Use Kashmiri Chili Powder: Kashmiri red chili powder gives a deep red color to any dish but imparts very little heat. I recommend using it for almost all Indian recipes that call for red chili powder. A close substitute is paprika powder - although paprika is sweeter in taste.
Use very little water while pressure cooking: While pressure cooking the veggies in the Instant Pot, add just enough water as specified in the recipe. Too much water will make this a stew. You want the bhaji to be the consistency of a mash, not runny like a stew.
Season with lemon juice: To balance out all that richness, use lemon juice to finish the dish. Mix it in with the mashed veggies before serving. It balances the flavors well and gives you that authentic Mumbai pav bhaji taste!
Frequently Asked Questions
Most Pav bhaji masala brands that you get at your local Indian stores or via Amazon are pretty good. I prefer to use Everest pav bhaji masala and have been using it for many years now. MDH is another good brand that I recommend you use.
Pav bhaji masala is usually made up of cloves, cumin seeds, fennel, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, black pepper, dry ginger powder, and dry mango powder. At times, black salt is also added. The whole spices are dry-roasted on the stovetop, then ground n a spice jar/blender and kept in an air tight container for use as needed.
More Instant Pot Indian Recipes
Instant Pot Chickpea Coconut Curry
Instant Pot Paneer Tikka Masala
Pav Bhaji Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1.5 tbsp ghee or butter
- 1 onion fined diced (red or yellow onion will do)
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste see notes
- 3 medium sized potatoes peeled and chopped into cubes
- ¾ head of cauliflower chopped into florets
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
- ½ teaspoon kashmiri red chilli powder see notes
- 2 tablespoons pav bhaji masala
- ½ cup peas I use frozen peas
- ½ can diced tomatoes 14 oz can
- ¾ cup water
- Salt to season
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 1 tsp butter
Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to 'Saute' mode. Add the ghee or butter and the chopped onions.
- Saute for 2-3 minutes, until the onions turn translucent.
- Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute for a minute more. Hit 'Cancel' and turn off the Instant Pot.
- Important: If there is any residue from sauteeing the ginger-garlic paste or onions, then add a little water and deglaze the bottom of the Instant Pot. And residue will trigger the 'Burn' notice for newer models of the Instant Pot.
- Now add all the veggies, followed by all the spice powders - pav bhaji masala, coriander powder, Kashmiri red chili powder.
- Add the canned tomatoes and ¾ cup of water. Mix well.
- Close the lid of the Instant Pot and set it to Pressure Cook mode for 7 minutes.
- Once the cooking cycle is complete, let the pressure valve come down on its own. Open the lid, and using a potato masher, mash all the cooked vegetables well. Add salt, lemon juice to season, a little butter and mix well.
Serving Suggestions
- To serve the pav bhaji, heat butter in a saucepan. Slit the dinner rolls or pav bread and toast them in the saucepan until the sides are golden brown. Serve the toasted bread, with chopped up red onions, a few wedges of lemon. Serve the bhaji garnished with chopped coriander leaves and more butter.
Video
Notes
- To make pav bhaji that tastes authentic, don't skip the butter. Ghee is a good substitute. For a vegan option, use vegan butter.
- Use Kashmiri Chili Powder – it imparts a deep red color to any dish but gives the dish very little heat. A close substitute is paprika powder - although paprika is sweeter in taste.
- While pressure cooking the veggies in the Instant Pot, add just enough water as specified in the recipe. Too much water will make this a stew. You want the bhaji to be the consistency of a mash, not a stew.
- To balance out all that richness, use lemon juice to finish the dish. Mix it in with the mashed veggies before serving.
I made it for my my family over the last weekend and we loved it. Thank you so much for the picture instructions. This was the first fime using my Instant Pot and it was a hit! Thanks
thank you so much for your feedback!
I made it. Was very good. Makes a lot
thank you so much for your feedback!