Vada pav is a savory dinner roll stuffed with fried mashed and spiced potato fritters. It is a popular vegan street food snack eaten in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra. This dish is full of flavors and various textures!
Why This Recipe Works
Vada pav is sold in shops, outside of schools and colleges all over Mumbai because it is so popular and loved by street food lovers.
It is one of the most humble street foods in Mumbai, yet it is tasty and delicious. Vada pav basically has Batata vada which is sandwiched between two slices of a pav (dinner roll) topped with sweet chutney, green chutney, and dry garlic chutney.
Batata vada are fried batter coated potato dumpling fritters. The batter is made with nutty gram flour (besan) and spices. The filling consist of savory, spiced mashed potatoes.
Batata means potato Marathi language. While the term vada mostly means a fried fritter or a fried dumpling-like savory dish.
Throughout my childhood, I ate vada pav in many places in Mumbai and it was always so delicious! Even today I still make sure that I buy vada pav whenever I visit Mumbai. However, when I am craving vada pav and can’t get to Mumbai, so I make them at home.
Pav means a small loaf of bread in Indian and is the same as dinner rolls. They are made with all purpose flour or whole wheat flour and can be bought from bakeries, super stores and sweet shops in India.
Vada pav can be eaten during any time of the day like breakfast, brunch, or in the evening as a snack. It goes very well with Indian chai, fried green chilies, and chutney like coriander chutney or mint chutney or green chutney.
To make vada pav you need five elements:
- Pav – dinner rolls, get the Pav Recipe here.
- Batata vada – fried potato stuffed fritter.
- Green chutney – made with coriander (cilantro) or mint & coriander.
- Tamarind chutney – sweet tangy chutney made with tamarind, jaggery and spices.
- Dry garlic chutney – spicy chutney made with garlic and coconut.
How to Make Vada Pav
Make seriously awesome vada pav with my step-by-step guide! In this guide, I have shared how to make potato vada in detail. The green chutney and sweet chutney recipes are also in the recipe card below.
Making Potato Stuffing
1. Boil 2 large potatoes that weigh about 350 grams. Peel and then mash them with a fork in a bowl.
You can boil or steam the potatoes in a pan, Instant pot or pressure cooker. Remember to drain the water very well from the boiled potatoes before you mash them.
Also crush 6 to 7 small/medium-sized garlic cloves and 1 to 2 green chilies in a mortar pestle.
2. Heat 2 to 3 teaspoons of oil in a small pan. Add ½ a teaspoon of mustard seeds and crackle them. Then add 7 to 8 curry leaves and a pinch of asafoetida (hing). Stir and sauté for about 5 seconds.
3. Add the crushed garlic cloves and green chilies mixture to the pan. Add ⅛ teaspoon of turmeric powder (about 2 to 3 pinches).
4. Stir for some seconds or until the raw aroma of garlic goes away.
5. Pour this tempering mixture together with the oil to the mashed potatoes.
6. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves and salt as required.
7. Mix everything well. Then make small to medium balls from the mashed potato mixture. Flatten these balls a bit. Cover and keep aside.
Making Batter
8. In another bowl, make a smooth batter from 1 to 1.25 cups besan (gram flour), ⅛ teaspoon turmeric powder (about 2 to 3 pinches), a pinch of asafoetida (hing), a pinch of baking soda (optional), salt and ½ cup water or as needed.
The batter should have a medium-thick flowing consistency. It should not be too thick or thin. If the batter becomes thin, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of gram flour. If the batter becomes thick, then add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water.
9. Dip the slightly flattened potato balls in the batter and coat it evenly with the batter.
Frying Batata Vada
10. Before you dip the batata vada in the batter, heat oil in a pan or wok (kadai). When the oil becomes hot then dip the batata vada in the batter to coat as shown in the above steps.
Carefully and gently drop these batter coated potato balls in medium hot oil.
Note: You can read more details on the frying temperature in the ‘expert tips’ section below.
11. Depending on the size of the kadai or pan, you can add more or less of the vada while frying. But don’t overcrowd the pan
12. When one side firms up, becomes slightly crisp and golden then only turn over gently with a slotted spoon. Fry the second side. This way deep fry them till golden, turning a couple of times as needed.
13. Drain them on kitchen paper towels. Make all batata vada this way and set aside.
Assembling Vada Pav
14. Serve them when they are still hot or warm. Put all the chutneys and pav on your work surface. Slice the pav without breaking it into two parts and set aside.
If you don’t have sweet chutney, then make the vada pav with green chutney. The green chutney and sweet chutney recipes are in the recipe card below.
You can make these two chutney recipes some hours ahead or a day before and refrigerate.
15. Spread both the green chutney and sweet chutney on the sliced pav. You can also spread green chutney on one side and sweet chutney on the other side.
16. Sprinkle the dry garlic chutney on the pav. This step is optional and you can skip it if you don’t have garlic chutney.
17. Place the hot batata vada in the bread slices.
18. Serve vada pav immediately or else the pav becomes soggy. You can also serve some salted fried green chilies and both of the chutneys with it.
It makes for a good filling evening snack high on carbs. A cup of hot tea or coffee can also be served as a side beverage.
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