Masala pav is a delicious popular Indian street food made with butter toasted buns & a spicy onion tomato masala. “Pav” is the Indian name for dinner rolls or buns. Masala pav are nothing but toasted pav buns topped with a generous amount of the masala, garnished with coriander leaves & chopped onions. Street foods are immensely popular in India and a larger population enjoys them often.
Pav bhaji, Vada pav, misal pav and masala pav are some of the foods made with Indian dinner rolls. Each of one of these are so much flavorful, delicious and easy to make at home.
For hygiene reasons, these are best prepared at home. I prefer to make all of these at home as my kids keep asking.
Making masala pav is the easiest of all these and just takes about 20 to 25 mins. Since these don’t need any chaat chutneys, they can be made instantly without any planning.
These are good to enjoy as a evening snack or brunch with some side dishes. I made these masala pav sometime ago on a weekend for our brunch along with dahi vada and Sev puri.
How to make masala pav
1. Heat butter on a pan or tawa. Then add onions and green chilies. Fry the onions until golden. Then ginger garlic paste and fry until it smells good.
2. Add the tomatoes and sprinkle salt. Fry until the tomatoes turn mushy.
3. Then add capsicum and saute for a few minutes.
4. Add red chilli powder and pav bhaji powder. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes until the masala smells good.
5. Then pour little water and cook until the masala is cooked through and turns soft. Cook until the masala turns aromatic. Mash it well with a spatula. Taste it and add more salt and masala if needed.
6. Then move it aside on the pan. Slit the pav. Spread little butter over the slit pav. Fry them until crisp and golden.
7. Then spread the masala on the pav. Place the other slice of pav over it. Top it with the prepared masala.
Sprinkle some coriander leaves, lemon juice and chopped onions. Serve masala pav immediately.
You may like these street foods,
Pav bhaji
Samosa
Batata vada
Gobi manchurian
Tawa pulao
Egg bread toast
Recipe card
Masala pav
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
- 2 tbsps butter
- 4 pavs (buns)
- ¾ cup onions finely chopped
- 1 cup tomatoes finely chopped
- 1 green chilli finely chopped
- ¼ to ½ cup capsicum finely chopped
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- ½ to ¾ tsp red chili powder (adjust to suit your spice levels)
- ½ to 1 tsp pav bhaji masala powder
- Salt as needed
- 1 lemon medium
- 1 Handful coriander leaves chopped finely
Instructions
- Heat a tawa or a griddle with 1 tbsp butter on a high flame.
- Saute onions & green chilli in the butter until lightly golden.
- Add ginger garlic paste and saute tiill the raw smell goes away.
- Add tomatoes and sprinkle salt.
- Cook until they turn soft.
- Add capsium, chili powder and pav bhaji masala.
- Saute very well for 2 to 3 mins.
- Add very little water and allow to cook the masala until soft.
- Mash up very well with the spatula.
- When the masala begins to smell good, add some coriander leaves and mix.
- Move all the masala to one side of the tawa.
- Add little butter and slit the pav. Toast them on both the sides.
- Transfer the masala over the pav. Squeeze in some lemon juice and coriander leaves.
- Smear some masala on the top as well.
- Add some onions and coriander leaves on top.
- Serve masala pav immediately.
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.
Video
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
Can you tell me if we can use chapati instead of pav
Yes you can use. But chapati won’t hold the masala as pav does. So you can serve the masala with pav
Can you please give me a recipe of veg pizza which we would make on tawa
Hi Simran,
You can check the recipe of veg pizza made on tawa here. It is made without yeast but if you want to use yeast, then you can make the pizza dough from this veg pizza post but bake it on tawa.