Mumbai Style Tawa Pulao

Tawa Pulao is a popular Mumbai street food and is super easy to make. Leftover rice works best for this recipe and is a super hit with kids too. Here is how to make Mumbai Style Recipe at home.

Jump to:

• About the recipe
• How to make it?
• What to serve with it?
• Step By Step Recipe
• Recipe Card

About the recipe

Today I’m posting a recipe for the famous Mumbai Street Style Tawa Pulao Recipe that will instantly take you back to the streets of Bombay.

If you’re from Mumbai and a true Mumbaikar, then you may have discovered the secret behind this flavorful Mumbai favorite, but if you still haven’t, then it’s time to explore the flavors of the unexplored Mumbai Style Tava Pulao.

This pulao is quite common in Mumbai and you’ll find that it is available in most chaat shops or local pav bhaji counters.

So what makes this Recipe so special you ask, let’s see the recipe to find out.

Now the reason it’s called Tawa pulao is that it is cooked on the same tawa as pav bhaji, imbibing all the rich flavors of the pav bhaji masala.

What’s great about this pulao is that the vegetables are still crunchy and there is a perfect balance of flavors from the masalas used.

How to make it?

The street vendors cook this rice in a huge tawa on which they also cook Pav Bhaji.

The bhaji is kept on the sides of the taw and a little bit of it is brought in the center and mixed up with cooked rice to make Tawa Pulao.

At home, you can use a kadai to make this rice if you don’t have a huge tawa.

In fact, I suggest making it in a Kadai as when making at home, we don’t make huge quantities and for small portions, heating up a big tawa is useless.

To make this pulao recipe, first, the rice is cooked, I’m using long grain rice for this recipe.

Rice is to be soaked for about 30 minutes in enough water, after which the water is drained and rice is cooked with water and salt.

The rice once cooked, is allowed to cool.

You could also make this recipe using day-old rice as it ensures that each grain is apart, without making the pulao sticky.

Next water is heated in the pan and the veggies like peas, carrots, and beans are added and allowed to cook till softened.

Once cooked, the vegetables are drained and kept aside.

Then some butter is heated in a pan to which cumin seeds are added, followed by the addition of onion, ginger, garlic, and green chilli.

Once the onions become translucent, tomatoes and capsicum are added and fried for a few minutes.

To this mix, salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, and pav bhaji masala are added and cooked.

Pav Bhaji masala gives it a very typical street style flavor and is a must-add in this recipe.

This masala is what makes this rice Tawa Pulao.

Water is added, and the boiled vegetables and cooked rice are also added to the tawa mixture.

As a final touch, some freshly squeezed lime juice and chopped coriander are put in.

If you don’t have a large enough tawa, you can definitely make this recipe in a kadai.

What to serve with it?

This pulao is best served hot with raita and crunchy papad.

You could try any of these raita recipes I’ve posted as an accompaniment to this pulao: Tomato Onion Raita.

A dollop of butter on top is must though. And I also like a squeeze of lemon over it.

Some of the other pulao recipes you could try this summer are Bengali Mishti Pulao, Veg Pulao, or our delicious One Pot Tomato Chicken Pulao.

Although the name suggests that this pulao be made on a tawa or a griddle but if you don’t have a huge tawa at home, a kadai will solve the purpose well.

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Step By Step Recipe

Heat water in a pan. Add peas, carrots and beans and cook till softened. Drain and keep aside.

Heat butter in a Tawa or Griddle.

Add cumin seeds and let them crackle for a while. Add onion, ginger, garlic and green chilli and fry until onion turns transparent.

Now add tomatoes and capsicum and fry for 2-3 minutes.

Now add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and pav bhaji masala and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Keep mashing the masala while cooking.

Add the boiled vegetables and cooked rice and mix well.

Add lemon juice and fresh coriander and mix well.

Recipe Card