Pav Bhaji

Pav bhaji is a thick mashed-vegetable curry spiced with pav bhaji masala, served with a buttered, griddle-toasted bread roll. It is Mumbai's street-food classic, invented in the 1850s as a quick meal for mill workers on tight shift breaks, and it has never really left the street since.

What it really is

Potato, tomato, capsicum and onion are boiled soft and mashed together directly on the flat griddle they cook on, worked with a large flat spatula until the vegetables break down into one thick, spreadable mass, seasoned heavily with a butter-forward pav bhaji masala blend. A soft bread roll — the pav — is split, buttered generously on the cut sides and toasted on the same griddle until golden.

The mashing happens on the same hot surface it cooks on, not in a separate pot. That direct contact is what lets the vegetables catch slightly at the edges of the mash, adding a little char to a dish that would otherwise taste only of butter and spice.

How it is served

• The bhaji in a bowl, the pav on the side, both piping hot from the same griddle.
• With a wedge of lime, chopped raw onion and a pat of extra butter melting on top.
• Eaten by tearing the pav and using it to scoop, rather than with a spoon alone.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the butter and the bread; both carry the dairy and gluten in an otherwise vegetable dish.
• Say how generous the butter is, since it is a genuinely large part of both the calories and the flavour.
• It is naturally vegetarian; a version made without dairy is a real substitution, not the standard recipe.