Tawa Pulao

Tawa pulao is a popular Indian street food, and is also known as Pav Bhaji Pulao. In this Mumbai style tawa pulao, cooked rice and vegetables are stir fried in butter, pav bhaji masala and with other spices and herbs. This easy recipe can be made quickly using leftover rice.

Tawa pulao or tava pulao is a delicious pulao recipe that is spicy, tangy and packed with veggies, a flavourful and popular street food from the city of Mumbai, India.

This street style tawa pulao is made with pre cooked rice, colourful vegetables, butter, pav bhaji masala.

To enhances the flavours and bright colour of the pulao, red chilli garlic paste made with kashmiri chillies added to the rice.

Desserts made with rice such as rice kheer are made at any day of the week. We love to cook savoury rice dishes such as vegetable pulao, rice pilaf, biryani and one of them is Tawa Pulao.

Some people prepare tawa pulao by mixing leftover pav bhaji and leftover rice.

Tawa Pulao

The name Tawa Pulao comes from the big tawa (flat, concave pan) that the rice dish is cooked in.

In streets of Mumbai, you'll find street vendors preparing and selling tawa pulao rice on the local pav bhaji counters along with other delicious street food such tawa paneer masala and masala pav.

Home cooks like us don't need huge tawa to cook Tawa pulao, this recipe can be made easily in any frying pan or wok.

Tawa pulao recipe has a very unique spicy flavour and the secret ingredient to achieving this you must need Pav bhaji masala.

Pav bhaji masala is also used in making very typical popular street food Pav Bhaji recipe and Tawa Burger. Rich flavors of the pav bhaji masala enhances the tastes of the tawa pulao recipe.

Ingredients

Measurements in the recipe card below.

Rice - for tawa pulao we need white rice. We love to use good quality Sella Basmati Rice, which I have used in making my veg biryani.

Vegetables - I have used carrots, green peas, onion, green bell pepper, potatoes, fresh tomatoes and cauliflower. You can use other vegetables like cabbage, french beans and sweetcorn too.

Pav Bhaji Masala - for flavourful and good tawa pulao, good quality pav bhaji masala is must. Pav bhaji masala is a spice powder made with basic whole spices, that is used to flavour the dish.

Use either homemade pav bhaji masala or your favourite shop bought brand masala. We like to use Everest brand pav bhaji masala in our cooking.

Butter - to achieve the same flavours and taste as Mumbai tawa pulao, loads of butter is necessary, you can use salted or unsalted butter.

Flavours, Seasoning and Garnishing - for best results, we also using turmeric powder, red chilli powder.

Ginger-garlic paste, kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves), lemon juice and fresh coriander leaves ( hara dhaniya)

Red chili paste prepared with soaked kashmiri chillies or fresh red chilies and garlic pods. Must for tawa pulao recipe.

Tips

For best tawa pulao recipe to make at home, here are some tips and tricks which will help.

Use the right rice - Tawa pulao is an Indian rice dish thus use Basmati rice. For great looking and tasty pulao, I prefer long grain rice. We like to use Sella Basmati Rice, which makes excellent pulao rice.

Sella basmati rice is long and upon cooking the rice grains length doubles. Also, it does not stick together and break. It is perfect for cooking Biryani, Zarda & Pulao in large quantities. 

We find sella basmati rice in Indian or Pakistani grocery stores.

Do Not Over Cook Rice - For best results and nice looking pulao or biryani dish, ensure not to overcook your rice. You don't need mushy or clumped rice for this dish.

I personaly avoid using pressure cooker or instant pot. It is best to use an open pot to cook the rice. This way you can see how your rice is cooking, rice will cook perfectly, all grains are separated.

A tip from my Mum for best rice is to add a few drops of oil and lemon juice to make fluffy rice.

By mistake if you have added extra water to cook the rice, cook rice until al dente. Drain the water from the rice using a colander and let the excess water drain away.

Let the rice cool completely before adding it to the sauteed veggies. If I want to make stir fry rice, I cook my rice few hours before, cool completely and store it in the fridge.

For the best flavours do not skip butter in this recipe.

Finish it with lemon juice and kasoori methi.

Notes & Suggestions

Add Beans - If you want to add cooked chickpeas or red kidney beans, pan fried paneer or tofu. Add the beans with vegetables when cooking.

Add more vegetables - for my tawa pulao I have used potato, capsicum, carrots, green peas, tomato, cabbage and cauliflower.

You can add other vegetables such as green beans, broccoli, sweetcorn, cooked beetroots (colour will change). Don't want double carb in your dish? Skip potatoes.

Instant Chili Garlic Paste - Don't have dried chillies on hand or do not have time to soak ,do not panic. Simply take Kashmiri or any other chili powder and blend with garlic cloves/powder or granules with little water.

Adjust spices - usually tawa pulao recipe is spicy, however spice levels can adjust according to your taste. Do not need to add all the chili-garlic paste or green chili in this recipe. But if you like spicy food, add more 🙂

How to make homemade tawa pulao

First step - make chili-garlic paste and cook fresh rice

Take 6-8 whole dried red kashmiri chilies, add in the bowl. Pour hot water and cover it with the lid. Let it soak for 20-30 minutes until they are soften.

Do not use any other regular dried chillies, as you won't achieve a bright red colour paste.

Meanwhile take 1 cup of basmati rice (roughly 185-210 grams) in a bowl. I have used sella basmati rice. Rinse the rice under clear running water until water turns clear.

Add enough water to cover the rice and soak it for at least 20 minutes. Make sure you use cold water to soak the rice.

Once 20 minutes are up or rice is soaked properly drain the water from the rice. Add 5-6 cups of water in a pan/pot, also add a few drops of oil, lemon juice and pich of salt.

Bring it to a boil on medium heat, once water comes to a roaring boil point add soaked rice that is well drained.

Do not cover the pan whist rice is cooking and let the rice cook until al dente or just cooked or 95%. The cooking time depends on the quality and the quantity of the rice.

For the Sella rice I used it too around 5-6 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Drain the water from the cooked rice using a strainer (small holes). Let it cool for a couple of minutes, and fluff up the rice using a fork.

Allow the rice to cool down completely before adding it to the pulao.

Roughly from 1 cup uncooked basmati rice, you'll get 2 ½ - 3 cups of cooked rice.

Whilst rice is cooling make chili-garlic paste, drain the water from the red kashmiri chilies which were soaking. If you prefer less spicy pulao, cut open the chilies and remove the seeds.

Add soaked and drained chilies along with little water (3-4 tablespoon) and 6-8 garlic cloves in a blender jar.

Do not add much water as we need thick paste. Blend or pulse until you have thick and smooth paste. Leave it aside.

• Second step - Prepare all your veggies

You will need

potato boiled, peeled and cut

carrots - steamed

green peas - steamed

cauliflower - steamed

bell peppers (green) chopped

fresh tomato (chopped)

onion (peeled and chopped)

cabbage

1 green chili finely chopped (optional)

• Third step - Make Tawa Pulao

Add 3 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of oil (optional) in a frying pan, wok or large tawa if you have one. Heat butter and oil, then add cumin seeds. Let the seeds crackle.

Keep the heat to medium-low and add finely chopped one medium onion and cook for 2-3 minutes until raw aroma goes away or onion turns translucent.

Add 2 teaspoon ginger garlic paste and green chili (optional), cook with onions for minute or so. Now add 1 tablespoon of prepared chili-garlic paste (you may add 1-2 teaspoon more if you like spicy food).

Cook the mixture for 1 minute more.

Now, add all the prepared vegetables and some salt (if using salted butter, don't add too much salt). Stir all the vegetables until well combined and cook for 1 minutes.

Add ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder and 2 tablespoons of pav bhaji masala. You may also add a small amount of red chili powder.

Stir everything and sprinkle a tablespoon of water, so masala doesn't burn. Cook everything 1 minutes, the vegetables should not be over cooked or mushy.

Add cooked and cooled rice to the veggies and give it a good mix until everything comes together.

At the end of cooking, add kasoori methi, fresh cilantro leaves and lemon juice.

Mix gently, then your mumbai streets style tawa pulao is ready to enjoy!

Serving Suggestions

Being a tawa pulao spicy dish, it should be served with cooling yogurt dishes such as onion raita or boondi raita.

You can also add a tablespoon of butter on top before serving, will add more flavor to the pulao!

Sometimes I love to serve with mixed fruit raita, tomato raita and refreshing Indian side salad Kachumber. I also wash it down with mango lassi or rose lassi.

Other Indian Street Food Recipes

Bread Pakora with stuffing (Bread Bajji)

Batata Vada

Bhel Puri

Khaman/Dhokla Chaat

Dabeli

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📖 Recipe

Note – this recipe was posted on our blog on 10th March 2012, since I have updated the post with new content and pictures.