Vada Pav Recipe (street style)

Vada pav is a savory dinner roll stuffed with fried mashed and spiced potato fritters. Vada Pav is Mumbai’s most popular street food, and for good reason.

most commonly, this snack is also referred as Indian burger or aka Bombay burger because it hails from Maharashtra or Marathi cuisine. generally, it is served as an evening snack, but can also be adapted to breakfast.

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 means potato Marathi language.

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, superstores, and sweet shops in India.

also, it contains a strong flavor of garlic, ginger, and coriander leaves. moreover, the patties are typically oval-shaped as compared to round bonda’s. having said that, it is not mandatory and can be shaped to round and then later pressed while assembling it.

Ingredients for

aloo mixture:

• 2 tsp oil
• 350 grams potatoes
• 2 tbsp Green Chilli Garlic paste
• ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp coriander (finely chopped)

besan batter:

• ¾ cup besan / gram flour
• Salt to taste
• 1 pinch of baking soda
• ½ cup water or add as required
• 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
• oil for deep frying

Green Chutney

• 1 cup chopped coriander leaves
• 1 to 2 garlic cloves
• 2 to 3 green chillies
• salt as required

Sweet Tamarind Chutney

• ½ cup seedless tamarind
• 2 cups water
• 7 to 8 tablespoons jaggery powder
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• ½ tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp kashmiri red chili powder

Other Ingredients

• 8 pav or dinner rolls
• 3 to 4 fried green chilies

Instructions for 

Potato Stuffing

1. Boil 2 large potatoes that weigh about 350 grams. mash the boiled & peeled potatoes.
2. For Green Chilli Garlic Paste – In a mortar pestle, add green chilli, garlic cloves, salt to taste and make a smooth paste.
3. Heat oil in a deep pan, add mustard seeds,  and let it lightly roast for a few seconds, till it starts to crackle & pop.
4. Add curry leaves, green chili, and garlic paste, and a pinch of asafoetida (hing). Stir and sauté for about 5 seconds.
5. Add 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder. Stir for some seconds or until the raw aroma of garlic goes away.
6. Turn off the flame. The tadka is ready.
7. Next, add the prepared tadka to the mashed potatoes, and mix it in.
8. Add coriander leaves and salt as required, mix them well.
9. Shape the potato masala into balls. Flatten these balls a bit. Cover and keep aside.

Making Batter

1. In a wide bowl, take gram flour (besan), and to it add – ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon of hing / asafoetida powder, 1 pinch of baking soda, and ¼ teaspoon of Haldi / turmeric powder.
2. Now to it, add water, a little at a time, and start mixing it all together. Add water as needed.
3. Whisk everything till you get a smooth, flowing consistency of batter.
4. The batter should have a medium-thick flowing consistency. It should not be too thick or thin.
5. Then cover the bowl with a lid, and let the batter rest for 15-20 minutes, before using it to coat the vadas
6. Dip the slightly flattened potato balls in the batter and coat them evenly with the batter.
7. heat oil in a pan or wok (kadai). When the oil becomes hot then gently slide it into hot oil and fry them until golden brown.
8.  When one side firms up, becomes slightly crisp and golden then only turn over gently with a slotted spoon. Fry the second side.
9. When done, place the fried vadas in a plate / bowl lined with paper towel, to get rid of excess oil, if any.

Making Green Chutney

1. firstly, in a blender take 1 cup coriander leaves.
2. also add cloves garlic, green chillies and salt to taste.
3. blend smooth adding ½ cup water.
4. transfer to a cup and mix 1 tbsp lemon juice.
5. finally, green chutney for chaat is ready to use for sandwich or chaats.

Sweet Tamarind Chutney

1. Soak tamarind in hot water for 30 to 40 minutes.
2. With your hands, squeeze the pulp from the tamarind in the same bowl or pan. strain the pulp and keep aside.
3. Now, in a large kadai take equal proportion of tamarind, and jaggery
4. further pour 2 cups of water.
5. mix and boil the mixture for atelast 10 minutes.
6. also add 1 tsp coriander powder, ½ tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp kashmiri red chili powder, and salt to taste.
7. furthermore, simmer the mixture for 2 minutes.
8. finally, use the prepared tamarind date chutney in preparing sev puri, bhel puri or pani puri or any chaats.

Assembling & Serving

1. Slice the pav without breaking it into two parts and keep aside.
2. If you don’t have sweet chutney, then just make the vada pav with green chutney.
3. Spread both the green chutney and sweet chutney on the sliced pav.
4. Sprinkle the dry garlic chutney. This is optional and if you don’t have you can skip it.
5. Place the hot batata vada sandwiched in the bread slices.
6. Vada Pav is ready to serve.

Serving Suggestions