Quick Snack - Pav Bhaji

If there is one thing that I cannot do these days, it is spending time in the kitchen for too long. The weather in Mumbai simply does not let you do it.But that certainly does not mean saying no to making snacks for the evening. When you have a pav bhaji craving and know that you can down more than a plate of pav bhaji with extra pav thrown in, then you use your common sense and figure out that it is better to make it at home. Does this mean you slave away in your kitchen to make it? Hell no! You take all the short cuts possible and make a really quick pav bhaji in less than half hour.

Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves : 4

Ingredients:

2 cups of assorted chopped vegetables
2 big Tomatoes
2 small onions
1 capsicum
2 green chillies slit
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp jeera
1 pinch hing
1 inch ginger grated
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp pav bhaji masala
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp dhania powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
salt to taste

To serve:
Toasted pav or bun
1 small onion chopped
lemon wedges
coriander leaves

Method

Quickly chop up veggies to get you two cups of assorted vegetables - carrots, beans, peas, potato, beets. I like chopping so i chopped them up. You could use your food processor instead to speed up this process. I also added two tomatoes in the mix.

Pressure cook this for 3-4 whistles.
Now chop up two small onions and a capsicum.

In a pan, heat up some oil and throw in a tsp of cumin seeds. Add a generous pinch of hing to this. You certainly don't wanna skip that cause it is proven to be beneficial to nullify the effect of the gassy veggies that go into the bhaji. Once the flavor of the cumin starts rising, add the chopped onions and saute for two minutes. Follow it up with the capsicum and two green chilies and grated ginger. Add a generous pinch of turmeric to it and fry.

Saute for two minutes. To this add the boiled vegetables. Adjust the salt for the entire bhaji.

 Now to this add 1/2 tsp of cumin and coriander powder each. Add half a tsp of red chilli powder and a tbsp of pav bhaji masala. And top it with a generous dollop of butter.Now using a potato masher, mash the bhaji such that it becomes a homogeneous paste like mixture.

Once it is all mixed in, add half a cup of water if you need to adjust the consistency and simmer for five minutes. Adjust the salt. Maybe add some sugar if you need a tinge of sweetness.

Sprinkle some coriander leaves generously on this. Top the bhaji with some chopped onions. Serve hot with butter toasted buns or pav and a wedge of lime on the side. It gets done real fast and you can eat not one, but two or even three servings while catching your favorite tv show with a cup of tea on the side.