Pav bhaji calories
A plate of pav bhaji with 2 butter-toasted pav has about 550 calories. The bhaji alone is about 215, each butter pav adds about 170, and a plate with 4 pav is about 890. Butter matters most: each teaspoon adds about 35. Street pav bhaji, with a cube of butter on the tawa, runs about 625 to 730.
Pav bhaji is a thick, spiced mash of potato, peas, tomato, cauliflower, capsicum and carrot, cooked on a big tawa with butter and pav bhaji masala, served with soft pav toasted in more butter, chopped onion and lemon. It started as a quick meal for Mumbai's mill workers and is now sold everywhere.
Butter is the key number. In this recipe the butter in the bhaji and on the pav is close to half of a plate's calories.
Typical values for a home kitchen, for the portion named next to each number. Other sites often show bigger numbers because they count a bigger serving or a restaurant recipe. Your own katori, roti and oil change the number; Slate adjusts for them.
How many calories are in pav bhaji?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 plate of bhaji, no pav | 215 | 6 g | 18 g | 12 g |
| Bhaji with 1 butter pav | 385 | 10 g | 40 g | 19 g |
| Bhaji with 2 butter pav | 550 | 15 g | 61 g | 26 g |
| Bhaji with 4 butter pav | 890 | 25 g | 104 g | 40 g |
| 1 extra butter pav | 170 | 5 g | 22 g | 7 g |
How does home pav bhaji compare with outside?
Street pav bhaji is known for its butter: a cube melted into each plate's bhaji on the tawa, and pav toasted in more of it. Amul-style butter pav bhaji can carry a lot more than this home plate.
No lab has measured it, so the range below adds 10 to 25 g more butter to one plate with 2 pav.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 550 | 26 g |
| Street or restaurant | 625 to 730 | 34 to 46 g |
What changes the calories in pav bhaji?
- Butter is the biggest variable. Each teaspoon adds about 35 calories, and street plates often have several more.
- Each extra butter pav adds about 170. A plain pav without butter is about 135.
- More potato in the bhaji raises it a little; more cauliflower, capsicum or peas changes it little.
- Without butter, a plate of bhaji is about 95 calories lighter.
How were these numbers worked out?
The recipe is the pav bhaji in the Indian Nutrient Databank's open recipe set: about 1.1 kg of potato, tomato, peas, carrot, cauliflower, capsicum, beans and onion with pav bhaji masala, cooked with 3 tablespoons of butter, for 5 plates, with 12 pav and 5 to 7 more tablespoons of butter for topping and toasting. This page counts 6 of those tablespoons, a teaspoon on each pav and the rest on the bhaji, all as eaten, at IFCT 2017 values with butter and the 43 g pav from USDA. No cooked weight is used, since most of the water cooks off: a plate of bhaji is a fifth of the recipe, 215 calories, and with 2 butter pav 550. No analysed pav bhaji exists in IFCT 2017, NIN or USDA FNDDS, so there is no cross-check. The street range adds the block of butter stalls are known for, 10 to 25 g more per plate. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato, ripe, hybrid | 360 g | IFCT 2017 D075 |
| Potato, brown skin, big | 210 g | IFCT 2017 F006 |
| Peas, fresh | 145 g | IFCT 2017 D061 |
| Carrot, orange | 128 g | IFCT 2017 F002 |
| Cauliflower | 125 g | IFCT 2017 D036 |
| Onion, big | 120 g | IFCT 2017 G017 |
| Capsicum, green | 74.5 g | IFCT 2017 D033 |
| French beans | 30 g | IFCT 2017 D049 |
| Lemon juice 1 lemon | 48 g | IFCT 2017 E033 |
| Garlic | 5 g | IFCT 2017 G011 |
| Ginger, fresh | 5 g | IFCT 2017 G014 |
| Chillies, green | 3 g | IFCT 2017 G008 |
| Coriander leaves | 3.5 g | IFCT 2017 G009 |
| Cumin seeds | 7.9 g | IFCT 2017 G025 |
| Red chillies, dry, whole | 4.7 g | IFCT 2017 G022 |
| Turmeric powder | 3.75 g | IFCT 2017 G033 |
| Coriander seeds (dhania) | 3.6 g | IFCT 2017 G024 |
| Fennel seeds (saunf) | 2.9 g | USDA FDC 171323 |
| Red chilli powder | 2.7 g | USDA FDC 171319 |
| Black pepper | 1.7 g | IFCT 2017 G031 |
| Butter 3 tablespoons, in the bhaji | 42.6 g | USDA FDC 173430 |
| Butter on top of the 5 plates | 25 g | USDA FDC 173430 |
| Water about 4 cups, mostly cooked off | 980 g | no calories |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Tomato, potato, peas, carrot, cauliflower, onion, capsicum (D033), French beans, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, spices; values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. Open-source recipe OSR112, pav bhaji
- USDA FoodData Central, Butter, without salt (173430). 1 tbsp = 14.2 g
- USDA FoodData Central, Rolls, dinner, plain, commercially prepared (172793). Pav, 310 kcal per 100 g
- USDA FoodData Central, Lemon juice, raw (167747). 1 lemon yields 48 g of juice
- USDA FoodData Central, Spices, fennel seed (171323). Fennel
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 plate of pav bhaji?
About 550 for a plate of bhaji with 2 butter pav, and about 890 with 4 pav.
How many calories are in pav bhaji without pav?
About 215 for a plate of the bhaji alone.
How many calories are in pav bhaji without butter?
Leaving out all the butter takes off about 95 calories from the bhaji and about 35 from each pav, so a plate with 2 plain pav is about 385.
How much protein is in pav bhaji?
About 15 g in a plate with 2 pav, mostly from the pav and the peas.