Why this recipe works
The clever thing about pav bhaji is that it is a mash of several vegetables, potato, cauliflower, peas, capsicum, tomato, cooked down with a special masala until you can barely tell them apart. That makes it a surprisingly good way to eat a lot of vegetables. The butter and the refined pav are the street-food flourish, and the part to keep in check.
Ingredients
Method
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1
Boil and mash the potato, cauliflower and peas.
Why: mashing the vegetables together is what makes the bhaji, it blends them into one savoury whole and, quietly, packs a lot of veg into each bite.
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2
Cook onion, ginger-garlic, capsicum and tomato with pav bhaji masala and Kashmiri chilli to a thick base.
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3
Add the mashed vegetables, a little water and butter, and mash further on the tawa until rich and smooth.
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4
Toast the pav in a little butter and serve with chopped onion and lemon.
A better version: go lighter on the butter and use a whole-wheat pav, the bhaji is already veg-packed, so this keeps the joy and adds fibre.
An honest word
The bhaji is genuinely full of vegetables and good for you, it is the butter and the refined-flour pav that turn pav bhaji into an indulgence. Street versions can use an astonishing amount of butter. At home you control it: a modest amount of butter and a whole-wheat pav keep the flavour while cutting the load, and the veg-packed bhaji does you real good.