Pav Bhaji Recipe Mumbai Style, in Grams: Ghee or Butter?

Updated 11 min read serves 4 • 3 whistles • 5 tbsp ghee

For a Mumbai-style pav bhaji recipe for four, pressure cook 300 g potato, 150 g cauliflower, and 75 g peas for 3 whistles, cook onion, capsicum, and 250 g tomato with 2 tablespoons of pav bhaji masala in 2 tablespoons of ghee, then mash it all together on the tava for 10 to 12 minutes. Finish with a spoon of ghee and lemon, and toast 8 pav in the last 2 tablespoons. A plate of bhaji and two pav comes to about 508 kcal.

How do you make Mumbai-style pav bhaji?

Boil the vegetables soft, cook a thick onion-tomato masala in ghee on a wide tava, and mash the two together until there are no pieces left. The mashing on the tava is what makes it street style: the bhaji cooks down, thickens, and takes in the masala while you work it. About an hour in all, half of it at the stove. Here is each stage with its heat and time.

Stage

Heat

Time

Ready when

Boil the vegetables

Cooker, medium

3 whistles, then let the pressure drop

A potato cube crushes under a spoon with no push.

Onion in ghee

Medium

5 to 6 min

Soft and pale gold at the edges.

Capsicum, ginger, garlic

Medium

2 to 3 min

Raw garlic smell gone, capsicum still green.

Tomato and masala

Medium

6 to 8 min

Tomato melted to a paste and ghee showing at the edge.

Mash on the tava

Medium-low

10 to 12 min

No whole pieces, thick enough to hold a line drawn with the masher.

Finish

Low

1 min

1 tbsp ghee, coriander, and lemon stirred through, glossy on top.

Toast the pav

Medium

1 to 2 min a batch

Cut side golden and crisp, outside still soft.

Use the widest pan you have. On a stall tava the water in the bhaji steams off quickly, so it thickens as it is mashed; in a small deep kadhai it stews instead and stays loose. A flat masher works best. The back of a steel katori does the job at home. Ghee goes in three times: to cook the masala, to finish the bhaji, and on the tava for the pav. Which other dishes use ghee at the start and which only on top is on cooking with ghee.

What goes into pav bhaji, in grams?

For four plates you need about 1 kg of vegetables before cooking: 300 g potato, 150 g cauliflower, 75 g peas, 75 g capsicum, 150 g onion, and 250 g tomato. Add 2 tablespoons of pav bhaji masala, 5 tablespoons of ghee, and 8 pav.

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 300 g potatoes (3 medium), peeled and cubed
  • 150 g cauliflower florets, 75 g green peas
  • 75 g capsicum (1 small), finely chopped
  • 150 g onion (2 medium), finely chopped
  • 250 g ripe tomato (3 medium), finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 2 tbsp pav bhaji masala, plus a pinch for the pav
  • 1½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder, ½ tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp kasuri methi, 1¼ tsp salt, ½ lemon
  • 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
  • 5 tbsp ghee (64 g): 2 to cook, 1 to finish, 2 for the pav
  • 8 pav (about 320 g), 1 onion and lemon wedges to serve

Equipment: a 3 litre pressure cooker, a wide tava or flat kadhai, and a flat masher.

Steps

  1. 1. Cooker: potatoes, cauliflower, and peas with 1 cup water, 3 whistles on medium. Let the pressure drop. Drain, keep the water, and mash roughly.
  2. 2. Tava on medium, 2 tbsp ghee. Onion 5 to 6 minutes until soft. Capsicum and ginger-garlic 2 to 3 minutes.
  3. 3. Tomato, chilli, turmeric, and 1 tbsp masala. Cook 6 to 8 minutes, pressing the tomato, until it is a paste and ghee shows at the edge.
  4. 4. Vegetables, salt, and the second tbsp of masala. Mash on medium-low 10 to 12 minutes, adding the kept water ¼ cup at a time. Crush in the kasuri methi.
  5. 5. Stir in 1 tbsp ghee, the lemon, and the coriander. Keep on the lowest flame.
  6. 6. Slit the pav. On the tava, 1 tsp ghee and a pinch of masala for each pair, cut side down, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve with raw onion and lemon.

One plate, a quarter of the bhaji with 2 pav: about 508 kcal, 13.0 g protein, 21.5 g fat (11.1 g saturated), 68.0 g carbohydrate, and 6.5 g fibre, worked out from USDA FoodData Central for the vegetables, plain dinner rolls, and ghee. The masala, ginger-garlic, lemon, and salt are not counted. Without any fat the same plate is about 368 kcal, so the ghee brings about 140.

Keep your face and hands back when the tomato goes into hot ghee, and when the pav goes down. Ghee is ready only once all the water in the makkhan has boiled away, so it sits far hotter than boiling water, and a spit of hot ghee burns worse than a splash of dal. What to do if it catches you is on ghee and burns.

Ghee or butter for pav bhaji?

Cook the bhaji and toast the pav in ghee; add a small pat of butter on top only if you miss the stall taste. Butter is about a sixth water and milk solids, so on a hot tava it spits, and the solids brown and then burn before the pav is crisp. Ghee has had those cooked out, so it takes the heat and browns the pav evenly. Oil cooks the bhaji fine but adds no dairy taste at all.

1 tbsp

Weight

kcal

Fat

Water

On the tava

Ghee

12.8 g

112 kcal

Fat 12.7 g

Water: Almost none

Heats without spitting and does not scorch. Pav browns evenly. Tastes of toasted milk.

Salted butter

14.2 g

102 kcal

Fat 11.5 g

Water: 2.3 g, plus 91 mg sodium

Foams and spits, then the milk solids brown fast and can burn on a hot tava. That browned-milk taste is the stall flavour.

USDA FoodData Central: butter oil (ghee) 173412, salted butter 173410. Checked 28 September 2026.

The browned-milk taste most people remember from a Juhu or Girgaon plate comes from butter solids cooking on the tava, usually salted butter. Ghee gives a cleaner toasted-milk taste without the scorched bits. If you swap spoon for spoon, a tablespoon of ghee carries about 10 kcal more than one of butter, because there is no water in it; use a little less and the plate comes out the same. A fuller comparison across Indian cooking is on ghee vs butter, and the swap in other dishes is on using ghee instead of butter.

How much ghee in pav bhaji, and how many calories?

Five tablespoons for four plates, which is 3¾ teaspoons a plate and about 508 kcal with two pav. Three tablespoons still tastes of ghee; a stall-style pot uses eight.

Pot of 4

Fat in the pot

A plate

kcal

Sat. fat

How it turns out

Light

3 tbsp ghee: 2 in the bhaji, 1 for 8 pav

A plate: 2¼ tsp

452 kcal

Saturated fat 7.2 g

A thin brush on the pav. Still tastes of ghee, less glossy.

This recipe

5 tbsp ghee: 2 to cook, 1 to finish, 2 for the pav

A plate: 3¾ tsp

508 kcal

Saturated fat 11.1 g

Glossy bhaji and pav toasted golden on both halves.

Stall style, ghee

8 tbsp ghee, with a pat on each plate

A plate: 6 tsp

592 kcal

Saturated fat 17.1 g

The street plate, made with ghee. A treat, not a weeknight.

Stall style, butter

8 tbsp salted butter

A plate: 6 tsp

571 kcal

Saturated fat 15.8 g

The same spoons in butter. A little less fat, because butter is about a sixth water.

Per plate, a quarter of the bhaji and 2 pav. USDA FoodData Central: vegetables, dinner rolls 172793, ghee 173412, salted butter 173410. Daily line: ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024. Checked 28 September 2026.

ICMR-NIN's 2024 dietary guidelines suggest limiting ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, inside no more than 27 to 30 g of all visible fat, oil and ghee together, on a 2,000 kcal diet. Even the light plate goes past that ghee line, so pav bhaji is a dish for a weekend or a guest night, not a weekday. At home we each eat 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee a day, on roti, dal, and khichdi; on a day with a plate like this, the rest of the day's cooking is in oil and the roti stays dry. The day's budget is laid out on how much ghee per day, and if you watch your blood sugar, the white pav matters as much as the ghee: read can diabetics eat ghee and ask your doctor what fits your plan.

Measure the ghee melted. In summer our ghee stays liquid in the jar; in winter it sets grainy, and a heaped spoon from a cold jar holds far more than a level tablespoon. "Why is it grainy?" is the question we get most on WhatsApp, and the answer is on why ghee is grainy. At our live prices a tablespoon of our cow ghee costs about ₹36 and of our buffalo ghee about ₹30, so the 5 tablespoons in this pot cost ₹150 to ₹180, or ₹38 to ₹45 a plate.

Cow or buffalo ghee for pav bhaji?

Buffalo ghee for the tava. It is fuller and richer, which carries through a strong masala, and it costs less a spoon for a dish that uses five. Cow ghee is lighter, with a toasted-milk smell that suits the spoon on top of the bhaji if you want one. The two are set side by side on cow vs buffalo ghee.

How do you get the red colour and street taste?

Red comes from Kashmiri chilli fried in ghee and ripe tomato cooked to a paste, with a little beetroot if you want it deeper. The street taste comes from the masala added in two halves, kasuri methi, and lemon at the end. None of it needs food colour.

Kashmiri chilli powder

1½ tsp in the masala, ¼ tsp on the pav

The red colour without much heat. Most of the colour on a stall plate comes from here and the tomato.

Ripe tomato

250 g, cooked to a paste

Colour and the sour base. Pale, hard tomatoes give an orange, flat bhaji.

Beetroot (optional)

30 to 40 g, boiled with the vegetables

A deeper red with no food colour. More than this and the bhaji tastes sweet.

Pav bhaji masala

2 tbsp in the bhaji, a pinch on the tava

The taste people call "street". Add half with the tomato and half while mashing, so some of it stays fresh.

Kasuri methi

1 tsp, crushed between your palms

The faint bitter note under the masala. Goes in with the last of the mashing.

Lemon and raw onion

½ lemon in the bhaji, more on the plate

Cuts the ghee. A bhaji without it tastes heavy.

The stall trick is the tava itself: before a plate goes out, the cook puts a spoon of fat, a pinch of masala, chilli, and chopped coriander on the hot tava, fries it for a few seconds, and mashes a ladle of bhaji into it. Do the same at home for each plate with ½ teaspoon of ghee and it tastes freshly made even from a pot kept warm. Chilli and masala burn fast in hot ghee, so keep that step to seconds. We read colour the same way at the chulha: our makkhan comes off the flame when the solids turn golden-brown and it smells of toasted milk, and a few minutes more turns it dark and bitter. Masala in ghee goes the same way, only quicker.

Why is my pav bhaji watery, bland, or lumpy?

Watery bhaji needs more time on the tava with the lid off; lumpy bhaji needs softer vegetables and more mashing; bland bhaji usually needs salt before it needs masala. Find what you see below.

Bhaji is watery

The vegetables went in wet, or the water went in all at once.

Fix: Keep mashing on medium, lid off, for 5 more minutes. It is ready when a line drawn with the masher holds for a second. Drain boiled vegetables well next time and add water ¼ cup at a time.

Lumpy, with whole pieces

Cauliflower or potato under-boiled, or not enough time on the tava.

Fix: Give the cooker one more whistle, or mash harder for longer. Do not use a mixer: it turns the potato gluey.

Tastes bland

Too little salt, or all the masala cooked for too long.

Fix: Add salt first, taste, then ½ tsp masala fried for 30 seconds in 1 tsp ghee and stirred in, and a squeeze of lemon.

Too sour

Very sour tomatoes.

Fix: A pinch of sugar and another 50 g of mashed potato. Stop the lemon.

Orange, not red

Pale tomatoes, or hot chilli powder in place of Kashmiri.

Fix: More Kashmiri chilli fried in a spoon of ghee, and beetroot next time. Skip the food colour.

Pav soggy or burnt

Tava too cool, so the pav soaks the ghee; or too hot, so it burns before it crisps.

Fix: Medium heat, ghee hot before the pav goes down, 1 to 2 minutes cut side down, and serve at once.

How long does pav bhaji keep in the fridge?

Two days for the bhaji. The UK Food Standards Agency advises getting cooked food into the fridge within one to two hours and eating leftovers within 48 hours, or freezing them. If you freeze bhaji, reheat it only once after it thaws. Keep the pav out of the fridge in its packet and toast it fresh.

Bhaji sets thick in the fridge. Reheat it on the tava with a few spoons of hot water, mashing, until it bubbles all the way through, then do the plate trick above with ½ teaspoon of ghee and a pinch of masala. For a party, boil and mash the vegetables and cook the masala a day ahead, and do the tava mashing and the pav on the day. Toasted pav goes chewy within minutes, so toast it as people sit down.

How do you make cheese, Jain, or Kolhapuri pav bhaji?

Change one thing and keep the method: grated cheese on top, raw banana in place of potato and onion, or a coconut-garlic masala for Kolhapuri.

  • Cheese pav bhaji: grate 20 to 25 g of processed cheese over each plate just before serving. That adds a lot of fat and salt on top of the ghee, so drop to the light ghee row.
  • Jain pav bhaji: skip onion, garlic, ginger, and potato. Use 300 g raw banana (2 medium), boiled in the skin and peeled, with the cauliflower, peas, capsicum, and a little extra tomato. Start the masala with ¼ tsp hing in the ghee. Raw banana does not go as smooth, so mash longer and add water slowly.
  • Kolhapuri pav bhaji: grind 2 tbsp dry coconut, 6 cloves garlic, and 1 tsp Kolhapuri or hot chilli powder into a paste and cook it in the ghee after the onion. It is hotter and less sweet than the Mumbai version.
  • Masala pav: no bhaji needed. Fry onion, tomato, capsicum, 1 tsp pav bhaji masala, and coriander in 1 tbsp ghee on the tava, then press the slit pav into it on both sides.

Pav bhaji is the wet dish; to put a dry potato side next to a roti meal instead, make jeera aloo. For a bigger spread, pair it with dal makhani and keep the rest of the table light.

Pav bhaji recipe card to keep by the stove

Screenshot it and start the cooker before you chop the onion.

  • 1. For 4: 300 g potatoes (3 medium), 150 g cauliflower, 75 g peas, 75 g capsicum, 150 g onion (2 medium), 250 g tomato (3 medium), 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste, 2 tbsp pav bhaji masala, 1½ tsp Kashmiri chilli, ½ tsp turmeric, 1 tsp kasuri methi, 1¼ tsp salt, ½ lemon, coriander. 5 tbsp ghee. 8 pav.
  • 2. Cooker: potatoes (peeled, cubed), cauliflower, and peas with 1 cup water, 3 whistles on medium. Drain, keep the water, mash roughly.
  • 3. Tava or wide kadhai, medium: 2 tbsp ghee. Onion 5 to 6 minutes. Capsicum and ginger-garlic 2 to 3 minutes.
  • 4. Tomato, chilli, turmeric, and 1 tbsp masala, 6 to 8 minutes until it turns to paste and ghee shows at the edge.
  • 5. Vegetables, salt, and the rest of the masala. Mash on medium-low 10 to 12 minutes, adding the kept water ¼ cup at a time. Kasuri methi at the end.
  • 6. Finish: 1 tbsp ghee, lemon, and coriander. Low flame while the pav toasts.
  • 7. Pav: slit, 1 tsp ghee a pair on the tava with a pinch of masala, cut side down 1 to 2 minutes. Serve with raw onion and lemon.
  • 8. About 508 kcal and 3¾ tsp ghee a plate (bhaji and 2 pav). Fridge within 2 hours, eat within 2 days.

Which ghee for pav bhaji?

Five tablespoons in one pot means the ghee shows in the taste, and a stale or flat ghee tastes flat on the pav. Pick a plain ghee with nothing added that smells of toasted milk when it melts. The home checks are on how to identify pure ghee, and our ranking of the buffalo ghee on sale is best buffalo ghee in India.

For pav bhaji we would cook the bhaji and toast the pav in our Jafarabadi buffalo ghee, and keep our A2 Gir cow ghee for the daily teaspoon on dal and roti. Both come from grass-fed village animals near the Gir forest in Gir Somnath; the milk is set to curd overnight, churned, and the makkhan cooked in a matki on a wood chulha. The jar is made after you order, a video of it being cooked and packed comes on WhatsApp, and Varsha tastes every batch before it goes in a jar. We test every month against the FSSAI limits; the steps are on how we make ghee.

The spoon on top of the bhaji

The bhaji and pav on the tava

Each order is cooked after you place it, and the packing video is of that batch. Past order videos are on the shop.

FAQ

Pav bhaji kaise banaye?

300 gram aloo, 150 gram gobhi aur 75 gram matar ko cooker mein 3 seeti lagao. Tawe par 2 chammach ghee mein pyaaz 5 minute, phir shimla mirch aur adrak-lehsun. Tamatar, Kashmiri mirch aur pav bhaji masala daal kar 7 minute pakao jab tak ghee kinare par na dikhe. Sabziyan daal kar 10 se 12 minute masher se mash karo. Upar se ghee, nimbu aur dhaniya. Pav ko ghee mein sek kar pyaaz ke saath do.

How do I make pav bhaji masala at home?

Dry-roast 2 tbsp coriander seeds, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tsp fennel, 1 tsp black pepper, 4 cloves, a 2 cm piece of cinnamon, 1 black cardamom, and 5 dried Kashmiri chillies on low heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until they smell toasted. Cool, then grind with 1 tbsp amchur and ½ tsp black salt. This makes about 5 tablespoons. Keep it in a dry jar and use it within a month.

Can I make pav bhaji without a pressure cooker?

Yes. Cut the potatoes into small cubes, the cauliflower into small florets, and boil them with the peas in a covered pot of water for 15 to 20 minutes, until a knife slides through the potato. Drain and keep a cup of the water. Some stalls chop the vegetables raw on the tava and cook them down in the masala; that works, but it takes 30 minutes of stirring and more fat.

Can I use whole wheat pav or brown bread?

Yes, and the plate gets more fibre. USDA FoodData Central lists plain dinner rolls at 2.0 g fibre per 100 g and whole-wheat rolls at 7.5 g, with slightly fewer calories (266 kcal against 310). Toast them the same way, cut side down in ghee. They brown faster and taste nuttier, so keep the tava at medium and watch the first pair.

Which vegetables can I add to pav bhaji?

Carrot, beans, and a little cabbage all work; keep the total vegetables near 1 kg for four and the potato at about a third, because potato is what makes the bhaji smooth and thick. Boil carrot and beans with the potato. Cabbage and more capsicum can go straight onto the tava with the onion. Beetroot gives colour, but more than 40 g makes it taste sweet.

Is pav bhaji healthy?

The bhaji itself is mostly vegetables: without fat, a plate of bhaji and two pav comes to about 368 kcal, worked out from USDA FoodData Central. The fat on top and the white pav make the difference. With 5 tablespoons of ghee for four it is about 508 kcal a plate. Keep the ghee light, eat it with extra raw onion and salad, and treat the stall-style plate as an occasional meal.

Sources

  1. Potatoes, boiled, cooked in skin, flesh, without salt (FDC ID 170438), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  2. Cauliflower, raw (FDC ID 169986), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  3. Peas, green, raw (FDC ID 170419), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  4. Rolls, dinner, plain, commercially prepared (FDC ID 172793), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  5. Rolls, dinner, whole-wheat (FDC ID 172794), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  6. Butter oil, anhydrous (FDC ID 173412), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  7. Butter, salted (FDC ID 173410), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  8. Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 (Guideline 7, visible fats), ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  9. How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely, Food Standards Agency (UK). Checked 28 Sep 2026.

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