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Pav Bhaji Polenta Brioche Buns
[Vegan]

CR By: Charanya Ramakrishnan

Author Bio

Dairy-free sweets and meat-free dinners with Indian flair. I am Charanya, a vegan and gluten-free blogger... Read More

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Pav Bhaji With Gluten Free Polenta Brioche Buns [Vegan, Gluten-Free]

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Pav Bhaji Polenta Brioche Buns [Vegan]

Dairy Free

Pav Bhaji-Mumbai’s most famous street food-usually loaded with butter, butter, clarified butter, and more butter. I make a vegan version, (I can see people go-what? Pav Bhaji without butter?) but this turned out better than normal.

Ingredients You Need for Pav Bhaji Polenta Brioche Buns [Vegan]

For the Spice Mix:

1 tsp black pepper
4 dry red chilies
3 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1.5 tsp fennel seeds
3 cloves
1 small cinnamon stick (1/2 inch)
petals from 1 star anise
seeds from 2 black cardamom pods

For the Bhaji:

mixed veggies-1 carrot, 1 potato, 1/2 medium eggplant, a handful frozen peas, 6 green beans cut into bits
1 large red onion- chopped fine
2 and half tomatoes medium-size
1 heaped tbsp ginger-grated
1.5 heaped tbsp garlic-grated
1/2 tsp +1/2 tsp turmeric
1.5 tsp Badshah Pav Bhaji masala
1.5 tsp homemade spice mix
salt-to taste
chopped onions, lemon wedges to serve
handful of coriander-finely chopped
1 heaped tsp black cumin/cumin seeds
1 Tbsp rice bran oil [if you are not watching out for calories, add 1 extra Tbsp]

Polenta Brioche Buns:

1/4 cup polenta
1 and 1/4 cups of water
salt to taste

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How to Prepare Pav Bhaji Polenta Brioche Buns [Vegan]

Make the Spice Mix:

Dry roast them together and grind into a fine spice mix using spice grinder. Now add a heaped Tbsp of dry mango powder and that’s your spice mix. Keep it in an air tight container. You can use this for 3 pav bhaji sessions

Make the Bhaji:

In a large stock pot, add 1 cup water, 1/2 tsp turmeric, salt to taste, bring it to boil, and add all the veggies and let them cook. Don’t add too much water. As water evaporates, keep adding 1/4 cup at a time and cook until mushy.
Mashing with a potato masher-chunks here and there is okay, that's the first thing you do. (Prep onions & tomatoes while this is happening.)
In another pan, add oil, while it is hot, add black cumin seeds, add onion-saute until it is golden brown. Time to add grated garlic and ginger. Fry for a couple of minutes
Add tomatoes, turmeric, store-bought spice mix, your homemade spice mix, salt, fry for 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water-close and let it cook. This is the best way to cook any curry. (Do a taste check-if you want more chili powder-add it at this stage-it should be pretty spicy cos remember you are going to add a ton load of veggies.)
Open the lid, wait for water to evaporate, add another 1/2 cup water, cover and let it cook. (Repeat the process until the tomato and spices are cooked very well.)
Time to add this to the mixed veggies and stir. Mix them really well, cover, and cook for 5 mins or until the veggies start to stick to the bottom of the stockpot.
Add coriander leaves, and serve with lemon juice and chopped onions.
Serve with Polenta Brioche Buns

Make Polenta Brioche Buns:

Dry roast polenta for couple of minutes. Transfer to a plate.
Allow water to boil in a sauce pan, add salt, when it is boiling hot, slowly add polenta while constantly stirring so that there are no lumps.
Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes. Keep flame low and watch out-spits out a lot.
Stir once every 30 seconds so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the sauce pan. Once it starts to thicken to a porridge consistency, add to a 8x8 square cake tin (lined), and let it sit for an hour. (You could also put it in the refrigerator.)
After an hour, use cookie cutter and cut out circles. Pan roast them with a bit of coconut oil before serving.