This is a North Indian recipe that brings back memories from my childhood. Every year I would look forward to my friend Suvrat's birthday party, only because his mother would make this delicious Indian street food. It was just so yummy! I could never recreate that. May be it was her magical touch!
Over the years, I have incorporated as one of our go to busy weeknight meals. Thanks to my sister Aruna, I got the idea to make paneer pav bhaji which Om LOVES since he likes anything and everything with paneer! Of course you could chose not to add it if you want it dairy free.
You will need...
Bhaji (vegetable medley)
Oil:
1 tbsp olive/vegetable/canola
Veggies:
1 tsp ginger garlic paste (optional)
1 shallot chopped
1 tomato chopped
1 potato chopped
1 cup cauliflower florets chopped
1/4 orange pepper chopped
1/4 green pepper chopped
1/4 yellow pepper chopped
1/2 cup green peas
You can choose to add or eliminate any other veggies per your liking. Basically at the end all of them need to be mashed.
Protein (optional):
1 8oz pack of paneer (shredded)
1/2 cup red lentil (dairy free option)
Seasonings:
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp pav bhaji masala
salt per taste
Garnish with:
lime juice from 1/2 lime
cilantro chopped
shredded paneer (optional)
Pav (bread)
pav (available at Indian stores) or
eggless burger/cocktail buns (available at regular grocery stores)
Method:
Bhaji:
I make this in my Instant Pot (IP). You could make it on stove top as well. Heat up oil in saute mode of your IP. Add in the shallots and tomatoes. Saute for about a minute. Add in the ginger garlic paste (optional). Then mix in all the veggies and seasonings. You could add the shredded paneer or if you want to keep it dairy free yet add a protein, red lentils are good option as they cook quickly in the same IP setting. Add salt per your taste. You could add 1/2-1 cup water for the initial cooking and then always add more to adjust the consistency later on per your desire. Close the lid of IP, keep the valve in sealed mode. Set IP to manual high pressure for 4 minutes. Wait for natural pressure release. Add in the lime juice and mash the veggies with a potato masher. You could add 1 tbsp of butter at the end if you wish. For garnishing you could add cilantro and shredded paneer (optional). If you can handle raw onions, then you could consider adding that too!
Pav:
Traditionally, slice the buns into halves, apply butter/ghee to both sides and toast them on a pan.
TIP:
If you don't want to do this one by one and just make it as a large batch, then apply the butter/ghee on the sliced pav/bread and toast them in the oven at 400°F for 5-10 minutes. Results are close enough to the traditional method. Basically it is faster and you can sit down at the table and enjoy the hot pav bhaji as a family rather than one of you heating up the pav/bread on the pan/skillet.
ENJOY!
