Vada pav are Mumbai style Veggie Burgers with a fried potato fritter, dressed with green chutney and sprinkled with garlic chutney. It's delicious, filling and easy to make if you prepare the chutneys ahead.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 20 minutes
  • Cook time: 35 minutes
  • Total time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 7 · 7 to 8 vada pav
  • Category: Breakfast, Snack
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 1 to 1½ cups coriander leaves
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds ((jeera))
  • 2 hot green chilies ((adjust to taste))
  • 2 small garlic cloves ((peeled))
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons Lemon juice ((adjust to taste))
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons water ((use only as required))
  • ¼ teaspoon Salt ((adjust to taste))
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons dried coconut (or roasted peanuts or fried gram or a slice of white bread (optional))
  • 6 to 8 garlic cloves
  • 6 to 10 dried red chilies ((Byadgi or Kashmiri or any less spicy kind))
  • ½ to 1 cup dried coconut ((copra) (for more garlic flavor use ½ cup))
  • 1 tablespoon peanuts ((optional))
  • ¼ to ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder ((optional, for color))
  • 3 medium potatoes ((aloo – 2 ¼ cups crumbled))
  • 2 to 3 green chilies ((adjust to taste))
  • ¾ inch ginger ((Peeled))
  • 2 to 3 cloves garlic ((Peeled))
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • ¼ to ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 2 pinches hing ((asafoetida))
  • 1 sprig curry leaves
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric
  • ⅛ teaspoon red chilli powder ((optional))
  • ½ to ¾ teaspoon Salt ((adjust to taste))
  • 3 tablespoons coriander leaves ((fine chopped))
  • ¾ cup gram flour ((besan))
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons rice flour ((or Corn Starch))
  • ¼ teaspoon Salt ((adjust to taste))
  • 1 Pinch asafoetida ((hing))
  • Tiny pinch soda-bi-carbonate ((optional))
  • 1 pinch Turmeric
  • ⅛ teaspoon red chilli powder ((optional))
  • oil for deep frying
  • ¼ cup Tamarind chutney ((optional))
  • 7 to 8 pav
  • 7 to 8 green chilies (deseeded)

Method

Make Green Chutney for Vada Pav

  1. Pluck coriander leaves, you can keep the tender stalks. Rinse them well in lot of water a few times. Drain them well in a colander.
  2. Add all the ingredients to a blender jar. Make a thick paste by adding 1 tbsp water at one time and blending until smooth.
  3. Adjust salt, lemon juice and green chili to suit your taste. The chutney must not be very runny otherwise it makes the pav very soggy quickly.
  4. Store this in a clean dry airtight glass jar. Refrigerate until used.

Make Dry Garlic Chutney

  1. Skin the garlic and dry roast them for 2 to 3 mins.
  2. Add red chilies and roast until crisp. Transfer them to a plate and cool.
  3. To the same pan add coconut and just allow it to turn hot. Transfer this to a plate and cool.
  4. If using peanuts you can dry roast them on a medium heat until golden & aromatic.
  5. First powder red chilies with red chili powder and salt. Then add garlic and blend once. Then add coconut and peanuts. Powder them little coarsely. Set this aside.

Make Stuffing

  1. Boil potatoes until just done. They must be firm, fork tender and not mushy. You can boil them either in a pressure cooker, steamer or in a pot. Cool and crumble them lightly.
  2. Make a coarse paste on green chilli, garlic and ginger.
  3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan on a low heat. Add mustard, when they begin to crackle. Next add curry leaves and fry until crisp.
  4. Add ginger garlic and green chili paste. Fry on a low heat until it turns fragrant.
  5. Next put in hing, salt, turmeric and red chili powder. Mix well and add potatoes and coriander leaves. Turn off the stove and mix everything well.
  6. Cool this mixture. Divide to 7 to 8 portions and shape to balls.

Make Vada

  1. Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai.
  2. Add besan and rice flour or corn flour to a mixing bowl. Next add salt, hing, turmeric and red chilli powder (optional). Mix everything well.
  3. Pour 4 tablespoons water and begin to mix to make a thick lump-free batter, adding more water as required. Add more water as needed and make neither too thick nor too thin batter. Adjust salt and spice.
  4. When the oil is hot enough, add a tiny pinch of soda to the batter. Mix well. This is optional.
  5. Check if the oil is hot enough by dropping a small amount of batter in oil. The batter should sizzle and rise to the surface, without turning brown.
  6. Regulate the flame to medium.
  7. Dip each ball in the batter, coat the potato balls with batter and drop in oil. You can use your fingers or a tbsp to do this. You can drop 3 to 5 balls in each batch depending on the size of your kadai. (Check video to see how I do)
  8. Do not disturb them for 2 minutes, until they firm up. Later gently stir and fry until golden. Remove them to a cooling rack or a colander.
  9. Wipe dry & Deseed green chilies to prevent them from bursting. Place the green chilies in a mess strainer or colander. In the same hot oil, fry the deseeded green chilies lightly. Do not over fry them.

Assembling Vada Pav

  1. Slit each pav bun to sandwich it. Make sure one side is intact.
  2. Smear green chutney on both the inner sides of the pav. Sprinkle garlic chutney. If you want smear tamarind chutney of the other side of the pav.
  3. Place a batata vada. You can also flatten the vada first and then place it.
  4. Serve vada pav with fried chilies, tamarind and green chutney on the side.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.