Vada Pav is a popular Mumbai street food made with a deep-fried spiced potato fritter placed inside soft pav and layered with spicy and sweet chutneys. The mashed potato balls are coated in gram flour batter and fried until crisp. The soft pav balances the spice and texture. It is simple, filling and full of flavor.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 30 minutes
  • Cook time: 20 minutes
  • Total time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 8 · 8 Vada Pav
  • Category: Snacks
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 350 grams or 2 medium to large potatoes
  • 6 to 7 cloves of garlic (- small to medium-sized)
  • 1 to 2 green chillies
  • ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1 pinch asafoetida ((hing))
  • ⅛ teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 7 to 8 curry leaves
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons coriander leaves (– chopped (cilantro leaves))
  • salt (as required)
  • 1 to 1.25 cups gram flour ((besan))
  • 1 pinch asafoetida ((hing))
  • ⅛ teaspoon turmeric powder ((ground turmeric))
  • 1 pinch baking soda (– optional)
  • ½ cup water (or add as required)
  • salt (as required)
  • 1 cup chopped coriander leaves
  • 1 to 2 cloves of garlic (– small to medium-sized, chopped)
  • 2 to 3 drops lemon juice
  • 2 to 3 green chillies (– chopped)
  • salt (as required)
  • ½ cup tamarind (- tightly packed & seedless)
  • 1¾ cups water (or add as required)
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
  • ½ teaspoon ginger powder ((ground ginger))
  • 1 pinch asafoetida ((hing))
  • ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder
  • 7 to 8 tablespoons jaggery powder (– add as required adjusting to your taste, can swap with sugar)
  • 1 teaspoon oil
  • salt (or black salt, add as required)
  • oil (as required - for deep frying)
  • 2 tablespoons dry garlic chutney (– optional)
  • 8 pav (or dinner rolls)
  • 3 to 4 fried green chillies (– mixed with some salt, optional)

Method

Making Green Chutney

  1. Grind all the green chutney ingredients with little water till smooth. Avoid making a watery chutney.

Making 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. Heat oil in a small pan. Lower the heat. Add cumin seeds and let them crackle.
  4. Add ginger powder, red chilli powder and asafoetida. Stir and add the strained tamarind pulp. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
  5. Add the jaggery (or sugar) and salt. Cook for 4 to 5 mins or more until the consistency thickens. Let the chutney mixture cool.
  6. When cooled, store the tamarind chutney in an air-tight dry jar or container.
  7. Refrigerate and serve the sweet chutney whenever required with chaat or snacks.

Making Potato Filling

  1. Boil or steam potatoes in an Instant pot, pressure cooker or pan until they are completely cooked and fork tender. Peel and then mash them with a fork in a bowl.
  2. Crush garlic and green chillies to a semi-fine paste in a mortar-pestle.
  3. Heat oil in a small pan. Add mustard seeds and crackle them. Then add curry leaves and asafoetida. Stir and fry for about 5 seconds.
  4. Then add crushed garlic and green chillies paste, which have been crushed in a mortar-pestle. Add turmeric powder.Stir for some seconds until the raw aroma of garlic goes away. Do not brown garlic.
  5. Pour this tempering in the mashed potatoes.
  6. Add chopped coriander leaves and salt.
  7. Mix everything well and then make small to medium balls from the mashed potato mixture. Flatten these balls slightly. Cover and set aside.

Making Besan Batter

  1. In another bowl, make a smooth and thick yet flowing batter from the gram flour, turmeric powder, asafoetida, a pinch of baking soda (optional), salt and water.
  2. The batter should not be very thick or thin. Tip: If the batter becomes thin, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of gram flour. If the batter becomes thick, add 1 or 2 tablespoons water.
  3. Set the prepared batter aside.

Frying Potato Vada

  1. In a kadai or pan, heat oil for deep frying.
  2. When the oil becomes medium hot, then dip the slightly flattened potato balls in the batter and coat it evenly with the batter.
  3. Gently and carefully, add these batter coated potato balls in medium hot oil.
  4. Depending on the size of the kadai or pan, you can add more or less of the vadas while frying. Don't overcrowd the pan while frying.
  5. When one side becomes crisp, lightly golden and firms up then gently turn it over with a slotted spoon and fry the second side. Turn over when the second side is fried.
  6. This way turning a couple of times fry the vada till they are evenly golden on all sides.
  7. Drain them on kitchen paper towels. Batter coat and fry all vadas this way in batches and set aside.
  8. While frying the vadas, you can also fry green chillies if you like. Slit the chillies before frying, as whole chillies can burst in hot oil. Fry them until lightly blistered and golden. Toss the fried chillies with a little salt and set aside.
  9. When they are still hot or warm, you need to serve them. Take all the chutneys and pav on your work surface.

Assembling & Making Vada Pav

  1. Slice the pav or dinner rolls without breaking it into two and keep aside. If you don't have sweet chutney, then just make the vada pav with green chutney.
  2. 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.
  3. Sprinkle the dry garlic chutney. This is optional and if you don't have you can skip it.
  4. Place the hot vada sandwiched between the pav or dinner rolls.

Serving Suggestions

  1. Serve vada pav immediately or else the pav becomes soggy. You can also serve some fried salted green chillies and both the chutney along with it.
  2. You can also serve them as an evening snack with a side of masala chai or coffee.

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.