Vada Pav

5 from 2 votes

Vada Pav is a popular Mumbai street food. A delicious batata vada aka potato fritter is sandwiched between the buns, and layered with dry garlic chutney, cilantro chutney and tamarind chutney.

Prep Time35

Cook Time25

Total Time1

Course: Appetizer, Finger Food

Cuisine: Indian

Diet: Hindu, Vegetarian

Keyword: Finger Foods, Indian Street Food

Servings: Servings

Calories: 260kcal

Author: Aayushi Patel

Equipment

1 Pressure Cooker / Instant Pot
1 Pot for Deep Frying
Frying/ Sauce Pan

Ingredients

For Potato Filling

600 Gms Golden Potatoes 3 large potatoes/ 4 medium potatoes
6-7 Garlic Cloves Pounded
½ inch Ginger Pounded
2 Thai Green Chilies Pounded
½ Teaspoon Mustard Seeds
⅛ Teaspoon Asafetida
7-8 Curry Leaves
¼ Teaspoon Turmeric Powder
¾ Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoon Cilantro Finely Chopped

For Garlic Chutney

2 Teaspoons Peanut Oil
6 Garlic Cloves
1 Cup Shredded Coconut Fresh
3 Teaspoons Kashmiri Red Chili Powder
½ Teaspoon Salt

For Green Chutney

1 Bunch Cilantro
2 Garlic Cloves
½ inch ginger
2 Tablespoons Lime Juice
¼ Teaspoon Cumin Powder
¼ Teaspoon Salt
½ Teaspoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon Water as needed

ForTamarind Chutney

¼ Cup Tamarind Paste
1 Cup Water
¼ Cup Jaggery
¼ Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Kashmiri Red Chili Powder
½ Teaspoon Cumin Powder
½ Teaspoon Ginger Powder
½ Teaspoon Salt

For Chickpea Flour Batter

1 Cup Besan
¼ Teaspoon Turmeric
½ Teaspoon Salt as needed
⅛ Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Cup Water as needed
Oil For Deep Frying
Butter To Toast the Buns

Fry The Salted Chilies

10 Thai Green Chilies
¼ Teaspoon Salt

Get Recipe Ingredients

Instructions

Boil The Potatoes

Boil the potatoes using pressure cooker or the instant pot.
Meanwhile the potatoes are boiling, start to make the chutneys.

Make Garlic Chutney

Add 2 teaspoons of oil in a small frying pan. Add about 6 garlic cloves. If the garlic cloves are small, add about 8-9 cloves.
Let them fry until golden brown, on a medium low flame.
Once the garlic cloves are golden brown in color, add 1 cup of freshly shredded coconut. If you don't have fresh coconut, use frozen.
Cook it until it is toasted and loses moisture. It should take about 2 minutes.
Turn off the flame, and add 3 teaspoons of kashmiri red chili powder and half teaspoon of salt.
Blitz it into a coarse powder like chutney, using a spice grinder or blender. Keep it aside.

Make Cilantro Chutney

In a blender jar add cilantro, garlic, ginger green chilies, lemon juice, cumin powder, salt and sugar.
Add a little bit water, and grind it until it forms a smooth paste like chutney
You don't want a very runny chutney for this recipe.

Make Tamarind Chutney

I like to use store bought tamarind paste to make this quick and easy chutney.
Add tamarind paste, water, salt, jaggery, sugar and spices to a sauce pan.
Keep stirring every now and then.
Cook it until it thickens.

Make the Potato Masala

Once the potatoes are boiled, add them to a mixing bowl. Mash them using a potato masher.
Use a mortar pastel to pound ginger, garlic and green chilies. Keep it aside.
Now in a frying pan, add oil. Once hot, add mustard seeds, asafetida, curry leaves, and the pounded ginger, garlic, and green chilies.
Cook the ginger garlic and green chilies, until it starts to brown.
Add the mashed potatoes and turn off the flame. Add ¼ Teaspoon of turmeric and about ¾th teaspoon of salt.
Mix everything well.
Now add finely chopped cilantro and mix it again.
Now make lemon sized balls. If you make big vadas, this recipe will yield, about 8 vada pavs. And if you make them a tad bit smaller, the recipe yields about 10 vada pavs.

Make the Chickpea Flour Batter

Add 1 cup of chickpea flour (besan) to a mixing bowl.
To this add turmeric, and salt.
Now add little water at a time, and start whisking the batter.
You want a lump-free neither too thick nor too thin consistency of the batter.
Keep oil on a medium high for frying.
Once the oil is hot, add about an ⅛th teaspoon of baking soda to the prepared batter and give it a good whisk it.

Fry The Vadas

Make sure the oil is hot before you add the vadas into the oil.
I like to test it by adding little drops of chickpea flour batter in the oil, if it comes up and starts to float, the oil it ready. If the batter sinks, and takes time to come up, then let the oil heat up for another 5 minutes, and test again.
Add the prepared potato filling balls to the prepared besan batter.
Use a fork or spoon, to coat the batter on the potato filling from all sides.
Drop the potato balls carefully in the hot oil.
Depending on the size of the kadai, add more or less vadas at the same time for frying. You don't want your kadai to be very crowded. I use about 8inch kadai, and I fry 3 vadas at a time.
Once the batata vada, starts to lightly turn golden and crisp on one side, using a strainer ladle turn them to cook from all sides.
When the batata vadas look crispy and golden from the outside, it's time to take them out.
Layer a plate with a paper towel. Place the fried vadas in this plate to drain off the excess oil.
Similarly fry all the vadas.

Fry The Green Chilies

place a small slit the chilies. Add them to the oil using a straining ladle. Take them out in 10 seconds.
Place them on a papertowel lined plate to drain off the excess oil. Add a sprinkle of salt.
You have to serve the vada pav while the vadas are still warm.

Assemble the Vada Pav

Cut the pav without breaking it into two halves.
Lightly toast the pav with little butter on either side. You can totally skip this step if you wish.
Now add cilantro chutney, tamarind chutney and garlic chutney on the sliced pav.
Add the prepared Batata vada.Add the fried salted green chili, if you can tolerate spice. Lightly press the pav down, and serve it warm with extra chutneys and masala chai.

Notes

Frying the Batata Vadas - It is important to fry the batata vadas properly. If the oil is too hot, the vadas won't cook properly from the inside. The oil is not hot enough, the vadas will be very oily. So heat the oil in a kadai, on medium-high flame. Once the oil is hot, add the batata vadas for frying.

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