Keto Pav Bhaji
The king of Mumbai’s street food
India is home to a lot of amazing food. Street food is a big part of our culinary heritage and Mumbai is a city with an extremely vibrant array of street food to sample. People will always war over what street food is the best and if you bring other cities into the mix, the rivalry is hot. I’m not going to get into a debate about these titles but instead I want to showcase what is definitely one of Mumbai’s favourite and most popular dishes. It’s called Pav Bhaji.
If I have to literally translate it, pav means bread and bhaji means vegetable. If I had to compare this to something a non Indian would be able to reference it to, I would compare this to a Chilli Con Carne (I have a Keto one too) but made with vegetables instead of meat. It’s a base of potato with green peppers, tomato and other vegetables that are slow cooked into a nice spiced mash. This is further cooked with butter, onions and more spices. The key to the most delicious pav bhaji is normally the copious amounts of butter used.
Of course we’re making ours today without the potato and instead of serving it with pav I will serve it with a version of my 90 second Keto bread. Remember, cauliflower is the new potato.
Vegetable carbs are good carbs
Just as it is true that not all fats are good, it’s the same with carbs. Not all carbs are equal, some are more equal than others. Vegetables are good for most people (before the carnivores attack me) and honestly most of them have a fairly low GI as well. I was expecting this recipe to be rather carb loaded but it’s not. At 8grams net carbs this is definitely something you can fit into your day’s macros. To up the fat even more just add another tablespoon of butter, that will enhance the flavour even more.
When it comes to choice of vegetables I stuck with the very basic ones however you can add things like spinach, cabbage and even mushrooms to this mix. There are many versions of pav bhaji and one that would be particularly good on Keto would be cheese pav bhaji, so just grate some cheese over this and you are good to go.
As a food lover I don’t discriminate against food. It can be vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian or even carnivore. My interest is with the taste. I like good tasting food. Life is too short to not have it filled with good food. It makes no sense to deprive yourself of something tasty. So enjoy!
Nutrition Info (Per serving)
- Calories: 330
- Net Carbs: 8g
- Carbs: 13g
- Fat: 30g
- Protein: 4g
- Fiber: 5g
This recipe makes 4 servings. Get this recipe on myfitnesspal.
Keto Pav Bhaji
Ingredients
- 500 grams Cauliflower
- 200 grams Tomatoes
- 150 grams Green Bell Pepper
- 100 grams Onions
- 150 grams Butter Try this one
- 10 grams Ginger Garlic Paste Try this one
- 2 Tsp Pav Bhaji Masala I recommend this one
- 1 Tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder I use this
- 1 Tsp Kasuri Meth/Dried Fenugreek Leaves I recommend this one
- 1 Tbsp Cilantro/Coriander
- Red Food Colour I use this
- Salt to Taste
- Juice of half a lime
Instructions
- Cut the cauliflower into small pieces and add to a frying pan along with about a cup of water and cook for about 10 minutes till the cauliflower is nice and tender.
- Add in your tomatoes, green bell peppers, ginger garlic paste, 1 tsp of the pav bhaji masala, salt to taste and 50 grams of the butter. Give it all a good mix and cook for another 5-10 minutes
- Use a potato masher and mash everything into a nice mushy paste almost and cook till all the water dries out. Then transfer and set aside.
- Head the remaining butter in the same pan along with the onions, coriander, kasuri methi, 1 tsp of the pav bhaji masala and cook till the onions turn translucent. Add the food colouring as well (optional)
- Then add in the cauliflower mash mixture and cook together for 3-4 minutes.
- Add some more water in and give it all a final good mash in the pan and then depending on how thick or thin you like it you will add water or cook it out further. Make sure you squeeze in the lime juice at this point.
- Finally once it's ready top it with a knob of butter, a little chopped onion and fresh coriander.
- Serve with Keto bread.
Hi Sahil, I can’t Thank You enough for making these lovely videos. Out of all there, your recipes are the best and easiest to make and 99% of times they turn out exactly the way they should (except for my Cauliflower Pizza aarrgghhh). I was thinking of Pav Bhaji yesterday and BAM, you uploaded this recipe today. Do i have some luck or do i have some luck!
I have one request though, your bread looks just like a Pav, can we PLEASE get the recipe for that as well?
Keep up the amazing work. Love Ya!
So the pav recipe is my 90 second microwave bread made in the oven and with the egg separated and the white beaten to stiff peaks and then folded into the bread mixture.
Thanks Dear! I am gonna try that.
Thanks for this mouth watering recipe. On a side note, you might want to check the nutritional info you’ve provided. The net carbs and carbs info looks incorrect.
Love love ur blog & ur viedos I have just started the keto journey and loving it . Thanks so much for all the yummy recipes.
Radhika gore.
Hello..loved recipe…1 query if I want to remove pav(the keto bread) than what would be marocs per serving…
Hi Ridhi, I’ve not calculated the pav macros in the nutrition info. It’s just the bhaji. I will be doing a separate video for the pav.
Bro you are AWESOME!! Finally got a page after rigorous GOOGLE search for a keto accustomed to Indian palate. Looking foward to more dishes! Kindly include simple yet easy to cook breakfast/lunches/dinners and pure veg options in the same as am not sure if i can manage to get non veg in home most of the time, you know how it is.. 🙂
Actually I don’t know how it is 😛 I eat meat at home. Nothing wrong with it 🙂
Love this thank you! Can’t wait to try it tonite!
You are awesome! Finally, someone with Indian Keto that include non-veg/Veg. I enjoy all your videos. Your almond flour bread is a staple in my house. Keep doing the great work! you may be saving a lot of life with this healthy cooking!
Hi Sahil, thank you for all your keto recipies, it is very helpful to me.
I need your one advice in keto pav, everytime when i am trying to make pav i am getting too much egg smell after baking. Can you please suggest what i am doing wrong,
?
Nope, keto bread has that quality. What you can do is buy fresh eggs or odourless eggs. Also once the pav is ready before eating just tawa toast it with butter and pav bhaji masala. That will mask the eggy-ness of it.
Hi Sahil, been following your youtube channel for a while now. Brilliant job! Can you clear something for me though?
How many gms is one serving?
Would be easier to count cals based on that 🙂 Thanks!
Once you finish making the dish weigh the entire amount and divide by number of servings. Everyone’s end weight will vary slightly so that’s why you weigh the entire dish once done and divide that by number of servings to get the exact weight.
I’m curious about how this would freeze. I’m doing a dinner party and I’d like to make some of the dishes in advance.
Never frozen it myself but I think it should be fine as long as you re-heat it in the pan because there might be some excess water due to freezing so you just might want to cook that out before serving.
Wow, I’m so thankful I came across your website! I’m borderline diabetic and doc wants me to go low gi/low carb route — am going to try this on Friday and SO excited! Also, hubby and I love metal music — nice to see other headbangers out there :). All the best from Charlotte, NC!
I tried it and it is totally yummy.
Didn’t have the right spice, but used similar. Going to purchase the spice today.
I threw in some curd cheese and served with fried aubergine slices.
Will make the buns to go with the second half tonight.
awesome!
Hi Sahil,
I got to your website through a friend who follows you religiously and lost 20pounds and feels very fit and healthy.
I’m a vegetarian and want to loose around 10pounds gained after my pregnancy. But more than weight, I need my energy back. I feel fatigued and dull most of the time.
Could you please help me too.
My other challenge is I have 2 young kids and my husband – they eat meat other than beef but a bit picky eaters. Cooking different kinds of meals is tough. I’m looking for a midway somewhere. I don’t know how to do this. I feel I need to learn to cook again 🙂
Hi Surbhi, my suggest is that you use my Keto for beginners plan which is listed on the website as that is quick and easy meals and you can make the same food in both vegetarian and meat versions. Hopefully your family will eat that too. Good luck!
Hi Sahil, I just wanted to let you know that your recipes have both delighted and inspired me on my keto journey. Thank you!🙂 ( I also love your music)
Do you have any ideas for a keto onion bhaji please? As you probably know, we love them here in the UK and I crave some every time we have a keto curry!😋 I’ve looked online but there is not much there to help me..
Thank you and Rock on!
Gail.