A soft bread roll split and stuffed with a sweet, hot potato filling, tamarind-date chutney, masala peanuts, pomegranate and sev, then toasted in butter.
What makes it dabeli
Soft pav, split and toasted in butter.
Potato cooked with a sweet, hot masala of roasted spices.
Tamarind-date chutney and red garlic chutney.
Masala peanuts, pomegranate seeds, onion and sev on top.
Where it comes from
Usually said to have been first made in the port town of Mandvi, in Kutch, in the twentieth century, and now sold from carts all over Gujarat and Maharashtra. Dabeli means pressed — the filling is pressed into the bun.
It shares its soft bread roll, the pav, with Mumbai's vada pav, but the filling is its own: potato cooked with a dabeli masala of roasted spices and sweetened with date and tamarind.