Vada Pav | Vada Pao |Batata Wada | Bombay Burger
The most popular street food from Mumbai, so much so that Mumbai is almost synonymous to Vada Pav. It is basically Batata Vada sandwiched between slices of Pav along with a generous amount of sweet and spicy chutneys. It might seem like a lot of hard work but its actually pretty quick and easy to make at home.
Vada in this case is made with mashed potatoes which have been spiced, then dipped in a gram flour batter and fried to perfection. The resultant fried goodness then finds its way into the arms of a bun along with its usual companion i.e. a dry garlic chutney just before it goes into your drooling mouth. So its no wonder that this is a much loved dish .Vada Pav is one of Mumbai’s most famous food. It’s almost synonyms with the city . This popular street food is loved by one and all.
I really feel that you have to go to Mumbai to get that authentic taste of all these delicacies. I grew up around Delhi and the pav bhaji or vada pav could never match up to the one in Mumbai.
This recipe has 4 main ingredients – the vada, the dry garlic coconut chutney, the green chutney and the sweet tamarind chutney. You can skip the green and sweet chutney if you have no time for it but I highly recommend not skipping the garlic chutney. It’s what makes the vada pav in my opinion.
As you can see there are multiple steps and if you don’t have time to do all of these on one day, I suggest making the chutneys in advance. This way, you only have to make the vada when you want to eat it. Saves so much time! The chutneys all stay quite good in the refrigerator for week.
Dry Garlic Coconut Chutney
This is a dry chutney made with garlic, coconut and red chili powder. It’s supposed to be quite spicy and one of the main chutneys for the vada pav.
Green Chutney
Green coriander chutney aka hare dhaniye ki chutney is a must for all types of Indian snacks and sandwiches. The very famous green chutney is an integral part of so many Indian dishes. It’s one chutney which I always have in my refrigerator.
Tamarind Chutney
For this recipe, I made an easy tamarind chutney with ready to use tamarind paste. Just mix the paste with water and spices and let it boil until it thickens.
Batata Vada
Boiled potatoes are mashed and mixed with chopped green chilli and garlic, mustard seeds, and spices (usually asafoetida and turmeric). The mixture is then shaped into a ball, dipped into gram flour batter and deep fried.
How to assemble the Vada Pav
Once you have all the components of the vada pav ready slit the buns/pao from center then apply all the 3 prepared chutneys on both sides of the pav. Place the vada in between the two buns and serve with some more chutney.
Vada Pav | vada Pao | Batata Wada
Ingredients
For Potato Mixture:
- 1 tsp Oil
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1/4 tsp Asafoetida ( Hing )
- 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1 no Green chilli chopped
- handful of curry Leaves
- 2 tsp Ginger chopped, optional
- 2 tsp Garlic chopped, optional
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/2 tsp Red Chilli Powder
- 1/2 tsp Coriander Powder
- 4 medium Potatoes boiled & mashed
- handful of fresh green coriander leaves
For Besan Batter:
- 1 Cup Gram Flour ( Besan )
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp Red Chilli Powder
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric ( Haldi )
For Assembling :
Instructions
- For the potato mixture heat oil and add hing , mustard seeds & Cumin seeds, once it pops add chopped green chilly and curry leaves.
- Add the ginger and garlic (optional) and sauce for 2 minutes. Now add turmeric, oriander powder, red chilli powder and give a quick stir.
- Add boiled & roughly mashed potatoes along with salt and cook them for 3 minutes.
- Add few coriander leaves .Remove and let it cool completely.
- Now make round balls of the potato mixture and dip it in the batter and deep fry on medium hot oil.
- Once cooked remove and the vada are ready.
- To make the besan batter combine all the dry ingredients and whisk it. Add water and make it into a thick pouring batter.
- Now take a pao and slit it in the middle.
- Apply tamarind chutney then mint chutney and sprinkle dry garlic chutney.
- Place the vada inside the bread and sprinkle with garlic chutney.
- Press gently and serve.
Video
Notes
- firstly, adjust the amount of green chutney, tamarind chutney and dry garlic chutney to your choice.
- in addition, to keep the vada flat, make sure to shape before deep frying.
- furthermore, add rice flour / corn flour to besan batter to get crispy vada.
- finally, vada pav tastes great when served hot with fried green chilli.
- Adjust spice levels to taste. My vada pav isn’t as spicy as it should be because I can’t handle lot of heat. Add more green chilies/red chili powder to spice it up.
Cooking with lots of love and straight from the heart.
Bhawna Maharshi
Pans n ovens
Congratulations, you are so fantastic, I like your all recipes
It’s easy and looks yummy. I would love to make at my home.