upliance
    Pav bhaji on a steel plate with butter-toasted pav, chopped onion, coriander and a lemon wedge

    Pav
    Bhajitwo ways

    4,300+cooks on upliance

    Stove

    You: ~65m*

    upliance

    upliance: a steel cooking jar on a white base with a touchscreen
    You: ~16m
    VS
    + What is upliance?

    A countertop cooking machine: a steel jar on a smart base with a screen. You drop ingredients in when it asks; it weighs, chops, sautés, stirs, cooks and mashes. The hand shows time your hands are busy.

    Your hour, to scale

    youupliancefree
    30 min
    065 min

    Both take about 65 minutes, start to plate. Stove lane is typical home-style*. upliance lane is this recipe's real steps.

    7 rounds

    round by round
    Round 1/7youpotsstirs
    15m
    9m0

    1The chop

    Stove

    ~15min*

    knife + tears

    +How the chop goes on the stove

    Pav bhaji wants its onion, garlic and ginger chopped tiny. That's you, a knife and a board, crying into the onion. Then you still peel and chop every vegetable for the cooker.

    VS
    You: 40 secupliance: 10 sec

    Chops it

    + ~8 min rough prep
    +How the chop goes with upliance

    First, about 8 minutes of rough prep: peel onion, garlic and ginger; cut potato, carrot, beetroot and capsicum into big chunks; halve 1 tomato; squeeze a lemon. Then 3 tbsp oil goes into the jar and heats for 1½ minutes. Drop in the onion (cut in 4), 1 green chilli, 10 garlic cloves and the ginger, and upliance chops them fine in 10 seconds, right in the hot oil. No fine knife work, no tears.

    2Till golden

    Stove

    ~10min*

    stand + stir

    +How the sauté goes on the stove

    Heat oil in a kadhai, crackle the jeera, tip in the onion mix. Then stand there and stir so it goes golden and not black, typically 8 to 10 minutes. Step away for one phone call and the edges burn. In May, over a flame.

    VS
    The upliance lid locked on, with the jar sautéing underneath
    You: 0 secupliance: 9 min

    Sautés & stirs

    +How the sauté goes with upliance

    Nothing to add. The moment the chop finishes, upliance sautés the onion, garlic and ginger in the oil till golden for 9 minutes, stirring by itself with the lid on. Nothing to stand over.

    3Tomatoes

    Stove

    5–8min*

    press + splatter

    +How the tomatoes go on the stove

    Chopped tomatoes go in. You press and stir till they collapse and the oil leaves the sides. More standing, more stirring, a few red dots on the tiles.

    VS
    You: 45 secupliance: 8 min

    Cooks & purées

    +How the tomatoes go with upliance

    Drop in 1 tomato, just halved, with 60 g butter and all the masala: Kashmiri chilli, turmeric, pav bhaji masala, amchur and salt. upliance cooks it down for 8 minutes, chopping as it goes, then purées it smooth.

    4The veg

    Stoveseeti!seeti!1 2 3…

    3–4*

    whistles to count

    +How the veg goes on the stove

    Meanwhile, a second pot. Potato, cauliflower, carrot, peas and beetroot go in the pressure cooker. Then the whistle count, usually 3 or 4. Wait for the pressure to drop, open it, drain, and carry it all back to the kadhai. Was that 3 whistles or 4?

    VS
    You: 1 minupliance: ~35 min

    Cooks & stirs

    +How the veg goes with upliance

    The veg goes in raw, all at once: cauliflower, potato, carrot, peas, capsicum, beetroot (for the colour), 400 ml water and lemon juice. upliance cooks the bhaji in the same jar for about 35 minutes, stirring as it goes. No second pot, no whistle.

    5The mash

    Stove

    5+min*

    arm day

    +How the mash goes on the stove

    The famous part. Boiled veg into the masala, then the masher. Mash, stir, splash of water, mash again: five-plus minutes of arm workout. Then it simmers and you keep stirring so it doesn't catch, while it splutters hot bhaji at your wrists. Typically around 15 minutes of mashing and stirring in all.

    upliance

    Mashes it

    You: 0 sec

    ~30

    minutes free

    go have chai

    +How the mash goes with upliance

    At the end of its cook, a quick spin of the blades breaks the soft veg down into bhaji, right in the jar. You do nothing: from the moment drop 4 goes in, you have about 30 minutes free before the pav needs you. You can leave the kitchen.

    6The pav

    Butter-toasted pav on a steel plate of pav bhaji
    DrawYou: ~5 min

    You toast it

    +How the pav goes

    You toast the pav yourself either way: slit it, a little butter on a pan, chopped coriander, a pinch of Kashmiri chilli and pav bhaji masala. On the stove it's a tawa once the bhaji is done; with upliance it's a pan in the last few minutes while the jar finishes.

    7Serve

    Stove

    4*

    pots to wash

    +How serving goes on the stove

    Plate it with butter, coriander and onion. Then turn around: the kadhai, pressure cooker, masher and tawa are waiting in the sink.

    VS
    Pav bhaji topped with butter, with chopped onion and lemon on the side
    You: 1 min

    2

    +How serving goes with upliance

    Top with butter, chopped coriander and chopped onion. In the sink: one jar and one pan.

    Same bhaji.
    Different evening.

    ~65
    ~65
    min, start to plate
    65
    16
    min, you're needed
    few
    30
    min, longest break
    4
    2
    to wash
    ∞
    0
    times you stirred
    3–4
    0
    whistles
    stove*upliance

    * Stove figures are typical for home-style pav bhaji: estimates, not measurements. upliance figures come from this recipe's device steps.

    4 drops.
    That's it.

    Drop 1

    You: 10 sec
    • 3 tbspoil

    Drop 2

    You: 30 sec
    • 130 gonion
    • 1green chilli
    • 10 clovesgarlic
    • 3 gginger

    Drop 3

    You: 45 sec
    • 90 g, halvedtomato
    • 60 gbutter
    • ¾ tspKashmiri mirch
    • ½ tspturmeric
    • 1 tbsppav bhaji masala
    • 1 tspamchur
    • 1 tspsalt

    Drop 4

    You: 1 min
    • 80 gcauliflower
    • 120 gpotato
    • 40 gcarrot
    • 40 gpeas
    • 40 gcapsicum
    • 40 gbeetroot
    • 400 mlwater
    • 1 tbsplemon juice

    Pav pan

    You: 5 min
    • pav4pav
    • 5 gbutter
    • 2 stemscoriander
    • ½ tspKashmiri mirch
    • ½ tsppav bhaji masala

    On top

    You: 1 min
    • 10 gbutter
    • 4 stemscoriander
    • 20 gonion
    A gas cylinder with a question mark next to upliance and two finished dishes
    your stove?upliance

    Retire the stirring shift.

    Get upliance
    Full recipe in words

    Taste tested and approved by Mumbaikars, this Pav Bhaji is the real deal and must only be eaten with finely diced onion and butter-toasted pav. Mumbai street food, Maharashtrian, vegetarian snack, medium spice. Serves 2. Cooked 4,300+ times on upliance.

    Ingredients (2 servings)

    Drop 1, oil:

    • Refined oil, 3 tbsp

    Drop 2, aromatics:

    • Onion, 130 g, peeled, cut in 4
    • Green chilli, 1, top stem removed
    • Garlic, 10 cloves, peeled
    • Ginger, 3 g, peeled

    Drop 3, tomato, butter and masala:

    • Tomato, 90 g, cut in 2
    • Butter, 60 g
    • Kashmiri mirch, ¾ tsp
    • Turmeric, ½ tsp
    • Pav bhaji masala, 1 tbsp
    • Amchur powder, 1 tsp
    • Salt, 1 tsp

    Drop 4, the veg:

    • Cauliflower, 80 g, trimmed, washed
    • Potato, 120 g, peeled, cut in 4
    • Carrot, 40 g, peeled, cut in 3
    • Frozen peas, 40 g, washed
    • Capsicum, 40 g, deseeded, cut in 4
    • Beetroot, 40 g, peeled, cut in 6
    • Water, 400 ml
    • Lemon juice, 1 tbsp

    For the pav, in a pan:

    • Pav, 4, slit
    • Butter, 5 g
    • Coriander leaves, 2 stems, fine-chopped
    • Kashmiri mirch, ½ tsp
    • Pav bhaji masala, ½ tsp

    To serve:

    • Butter, 10 g
    • Coriander leaves, 4 stems, fine-chopped
    • Onion, 20 g, peeled, sliced

    Method with upliance (about 65 minutes; about 16 minutes of it is you)

    1. Prep (you, ~8 min): Trim and wash the cauliflower. Peel the onion, garlic and ginger. Peel and roughly cut the potato, carrot, beetroot and capsicum into big chunks; the machine does the fine work. Halve the tomato and squeeze the lemon.
    2. Drop 1 (you, 10 s): Put the oil in the jar. upliance heats it for 1½ minutes.
    3. Drop 2 (you, 30 s): Add the onion, green chilli, garlic and ginger. upliance chops them fine in 10 seconds, then sautés them till golden for 9 minutes, stirring by itself.
    4. Drop 3 (you, 45 s): Add the halved tomato, butter, Kashmiri mirch, turmeric, pav bhaji masala, amchur and salt. upliance cooks it down for 8 minutes, then purées it.
    5. Drop 4 (you, ~1 min): Add the vegetables, water and lemon juice. upliance cooks the bhaji for about 35 minutes, stirring as it goes, then breaks it down with the blades. You have about 30 minutes free.
    6. Toast the pav (you, ~5 min): Towards the end, toast the slit pav on a pan with a little butter, coriander, Kashmiri chilli and pav bhaji masala.
    7. Serve (you, 1 min): Top the bhaji with butter, chopped coriander and sliced onion. Eat it hot with the pav.

    The stove way, for comparison (typical, estimated)

    Fine-chop the onion, garlic and ginger by hand and chop every vegetable. Pressure-cook the vegetables separately, usually 3 or 4 whistles. Sauté the onion mix in a kadhai, stirring, about 8 to 10 minutes; cook the tomatoes down, 5 to 8 minutes more. Add the cooked vegetables and masala, mash by hand for 5 minutes or more, then simmer and stir. Toast the pav on a tawa. About 65 minutes start to plate, and you are at the stove for all of it. Expect a kadhai, a pressure cooker, a masher and a tawa to wash.

    Nutrition per serving

    694 kcal · 38 g carbs · 5 g protein · 58 g fat (upliance version of the recipe).

    Watch this pav bhaji on YouTube

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