Pav Bhaji (or Indian Vegetarian Sloppy Joes)

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This Pav Bhaji is the perfect Indian inspired street food, but it has a healthy and nutritional twist that is insanely good. Munching on this Indian spiced vegetarian sloppy joe style sandwich will keep the entire family happy and makes for an easy dinner idea. 

Ever since I was a kid, “Pav Bhaji” was pure comfort food for me. Typically, it’s a mix of mostly potatoes, a few peas/carrots, and Indian spices served on a warm, toasted, buttered, fluffy white bun. It’s kind of like an open-faced sloppy joe. Pav bhaji is a popular kind of Indian street food, and it tastes delicious anywhere.

If you like the warm flavors of vegetable curry, pav bhaji is definitely for you!

While I do love the traditional version, it’s not the healthiest thing to eat on a regular basis. 

Traditional pav bhaji is basically refined carbs, regular carbs, and then more carbs, with a little bit of fat from the butter and cooking oil thrown in. There’s very little fiber and virtually no protein in the original so it doesn’t work as a filling meal. 

But it tastes SO good!

That’s why I decided to try my hand at making a healthier version that’s just as tasty. For this version, I wanted to add more protein and a wider variety of vegetables to really pack in the nutrients. 

That way you can still enjoy pav bhaji at home, but without the guilt of the original street food.

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These vegetarian sloppy joes – or Pav Bhaji – look pretty similar to the traditional version, and taste the same, but have TONS of secret healthy add-ins that will keep you full, happy, and satisfied for hours.

Not to mention the bright flavors and sandwich presentation make this pav bhaji a huge hit with kids.

What are the secrets?

Red lentils are my first secret ingredient. When cooked down, red lentils become totally mushy and soft, and take on the flavor of anything they’re cooked with. Those little gems bring protein and fiber to the recipe and you won’t even notice them in the dish!

Plus, red lentils are pretty easy to cook. Unlike yellow split peas, they’ll be fully cooked in just 30 minutes (and even less time in the Instant Pot), so you don’t need any special equipment or advanced techniques. 

Of course, a little extra protein and fiber isn’t enough to make this pav bhaji healthy. So, I dumped in a bunch of veggies: cauliflower, zucchini, and mixed vegetables, in order to cut the potato-to-other-veggies-in-the-dish-ratio way down. There are still potatoes, just not as many as the traditional recipe would call for. And of course, all of the warm, aromatic Indian spices that you’d see in any self-respecting pav bhaji. 🙂

Cutting the potatoes and adding other vegetables helps this recipe a few ways. The big benefit though is simple: potatoes are really easy for your body to turn into glucose, which means they aren’t great for anyone trying to control their blood sugar or get long-lasting energy. 

Just 15 mins prep and 30 mins cook time, then you have a whole batch of pav bhaji ready to be served! 

I serve mine on a sprouted wheat burger bun for more protein and fiber, and to make it more like a veggie sloppy joe. The strong flavors of this healthy pav bhaji work with a lot of breads though, so feel free to experiment with your favorite buns. 

The result? An absolutely amazing, spicy, filling and fun dinner, that my whole family loved!

Recipe Ingredients and Notes

Most of the ingredients in this recipe are pretty straight forward. With the possible exception of some of the spices, you should be able to get all these vegetables at any local grocery store. 

When you’re shopping for ingredients, try to pick the freshest, ripest vegetables available. A lot of the flavor comes from the spices, but ripe vegetables will contribute more to the finished meal. Plus, the varied textures of ripe vegetables really helps elevate this healthy version of pav bhaji. 

• Lentils: I recommend using red lentils. They cook the fastest and turn into a mashed-potatoes-type consistency, which is exactly what you want with this recipe.
• Pav Bhaji Masala: I recommend this brand – it has the best balance of spices out of all of the pav bhaji masalas I’ve tried!
• Potatoes: You can leave the skin on – it adds more fiber and texture to this dish.
• Burger Buns: I recommend sprouted wheat burger buns for even more protein and fiber, or whole wheat burger buns would work well too.

Tools and Equipment You’ll Need

• Stock Pot 
• Potato Masher
• Large NonStick Skillet 
• Measuring Cups & Spoons

Pretty simple right? Pav bhaji might taste like it was made in a restaurant, but this recipe doesn’t need a lot of high tech equipment or special skills. If you’ve ever made an Indian-style curry before, you can make pav bhaji.

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1: Put the red lentils and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the lentils are softened, about 15 minutes.

Step 2: Cook the cauliflower, mixed vegetables, zucchini and potatoes in water until soft. The goal is a kind of mash filling for the buns, so you’ll want to cook your vegetables slightly more than usual.

Step 3: When they’re soft, mash the vegetables well, in the liquid. Stir in the cooked lentils. The lentils should help thicken this mixture some, but not too much. 

Remember that you’ll still need to stir in the remaining vegetables and spice mix later.

Step 4: Heat olive oil in a large skillet or pot over medium heat. The oil should be just shimmering. One way to test if your oil is heated enough is to sprinkle a little water in the pan. If the olive oil is warm enough it will sizzle and pop slightly. Too warm and you might burn the vegetables, but cooler temperatures won’t caramelize the onions and garlic. 

Plus, this temperature will help bloom the spices for their best flavor in the next step!

Add the onions, ginger, garlic and tomatoes and cook until the onions have browned and the tomatoes start to break down (about 5-10 minutes).

Step 5: Stir in the turmeric, Pav Bhaji masala and garam masala, cook for 30 more seconds. The spices should be sweet, fragrant, and colorful. If the oil is a little too cool it might take a few seconds longer to bloom the spices.

Add the mashed vegetables/lentil mixture, salt, and cayenne pepper to taste (if using). Cook on low for about 20 minutes.

The extra cooking time will help all of the flavors blend and harmonize.

Step 5: Serve with sprouted wheat burger buns, sloppy joe style!

What Makes This Pav Bhaji Healthy?

• Antioxidants and Polyphenols: These intensely amazing vegetarian sloppy joes are actually packed with all sorts of antioxidants, which help with heart health and reducing inflammation in the body. Onions, lentils, tomatoes, cauliflower, zucchini, and even potatoes are filled with antioxidants. 
• Fiber and Plant Protein: Each serving of this recipe (1/10th of the pav bhaji mixture + 1 burger bun) will give you almost 18 grams of fiber and a little over 18 grams of plant-protein!
• Vitamins and Minerals: This dish is packed with nutrients in each bite. Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron, and more!
• Rainbow of Colors: One simple way to make sure you’re getting a variety of nutrients is to eat vegetables that are a wide variety of colors. This recipe has that covered! Especially if you use red onion or purple cauliflower for an extra boost.

Will Kids Enjoy This Pav Bhaji Recipe?

Yes, kids are going to love all the textures and flavors in this pav bhaji recipe. Because of the way that the pav bhaji is prepared they aren’t even going to notice that it happens to be packed with tons of healthy stuff. Serving pav bhaji as a sandwich makes them naturally drawn to it. You may be able to get picky kids to dig in like crazy just because it looks so much like sloppy joes.

If you do run into a kiddo that refuses, just give them a small amount and work up that amount each time you serve it. Once they get accustomed to the flavors and textures, odds are they are going to love it.

I also really love the satisfying texture of little pieces of cauliflower in this recipe. Cauliflower is very filling, and it mimics the ground meat texture of sloppy joes pretty well. That means your family might not even realize this dish is vegetarian if you don’t tell them first!

Recipe FAQs

Top Tips for Making Pav Bhaji

• Cook the red lentils until they are completely softened so they blend with the potatoes well and absorb all of the spices. That texture is essential to “hiding” them in this dish! You can even add some additional spice mixture to the lentils for a little extra kick.
• While some people serve pav bhaji in more of a pureed form, I like to retain a bit of texture in the dish. So I recommend using a potato masher or a fork, versus an immersion blender or regular blender. You want the veggies to break down pretty well so they absorb all of the flavor of the spices, but you don’t want a paste-like-texture.
• You can switch up the veggies if you like! Butternut squash, sweet potatoes, other squashes, bell peppers, would all work well in this recipe.
• Top your pav bhaji with chopped cilantro, diced red onions, crushed cashews, diced tomatoes, or a bit of lemon or lime juice for added flavor.
• To make this gluten free, just use a gluten free bun. It’s already vegan friendly!
• To make this spicer, add more pav bhaji masala, cayenne pepper, or crushed red pepper.
• To make this in the instant pot, just add all of the ingredients + 2 cups of water to the instant pot and pressure cook on high pressure for 15 minutes, natural release. When cooking in the instant pot, to avoid the “burn” error, and add the water first, then the rest of the ingredients (do not stir), and then close the lid.

Try These Other Indian and Vegetarian Recipes!

• Instant Pot Dal Makhani
• Cauliflower Biryani
• Tandoori Cauliflower
• Homemade Chana Masala
• Chickpea Tikka Masala
• Rajma Masala
• Indian Stew With Rice And Lentils
• Curried Sweet Potato Soup
• 103 Vegetarian Recipes
• Vegetarian Indian Recipes
• Vegan Recipes For Beginners

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