You might also like recipes for other Indian street foods like pav bhaji, vada pav and ragda pattice. There’s no way to actually describe a Misal to you other than to say, you must eat this. You must, you must, you must. Misal is – like most of Bombay’s hallowed street foods – an explosion of flavors and textures. It’s a spicy curry of sprouted beans topped with raw onions, boiled potatoes, crispy farsan (fried chickpea squiggles) and coriander leaves. Drizzle a few drops of lemon juice on all this goodness to add yet another flavor and tone down the heat (a bit), dunk in a crusty pav (an Indian-style roll), and you’re about to eat what some Bombayites would argue is the best breakfast food ever. Not that you have to have Misal for breakfast. For me, its spiciness and complexity – not to mention its healthfulness when you’re making it at home – makes it a perfect teatime snack, or even a great dinner. Misal Pav is an intrinsically healthy food – c’mon, its main ingredient is bean sprouts – but surviving on the rough and rowdy city streets meant it has had to go through some tasty but not always healthy metamorphoses. The version of Misal Pav you’ll find at food carts and restaurants in Bombay is usually too spicy and too oily. The roll of white bread slathered with butter is probably not going to get you any health points either. Check to get new recipe updates by email.
For the far healthier (and less spicy) version I am serving up today, I kept the sprouts, potatoes and onions and got rid of all but 2 teaspoons of oil. Because you absolutely gotta have something crunchy to top the misal, I added a neat substitute I use anytime I want some crunch in my other favorite street foods like Bhel – a handful of roasted sunflower seeds. Scoop up the misal the way it’s done on the streets of Mumbai – with a soft roll called a pav! Here’s my easy pav recipe.
More Indian street food recipes
Masala Pasta Bread Pakora Vegetable Frankie Chole Bhatura or Chana Bhatura Punjabi Samosa
Nothing washes down street food like Misal Pav as perfectly as a glass of piping hot masala chai or cutting chai.
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