Vada Pav | Mumbai Street Food

Vada Pav is my favourite snack which reminds me of Mumbai's street food. Vada Pav is the most popular snack/fast food in Maharashtra.  Vada is a patty made of boiled, mashed potato seasoned with spices and then deep fried. Pav simply means bun/bread which is a special type of bun, known as ‘Ladi Pav’.Vada pav is assembled like a burger with three different kinds of chutneys inside it. It is served with side of fried green chilies and chutneys. It is also known as Pav Vada or Batata Vada. Though this is a basic and traditional way of recipe, people have come up with different versions of making vada pav. Mayo Vada pav, Chinese Vada pav, Cheese Mayo Vada pav, Shezwan Vada Pav are few of the varieties.

We will start by making our vadas. We need potato mixture and the batter for coating the potato mixture balls.

For Vadas:

• 6 large boiled potatoes, peeled and mashed
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves finely chopped
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 2 green chilies
• 1 tbsp oil
• Mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 7-8 curry leaves
• oil for deep frying the vadas

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add green chilies, curry leaves, ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder. 
Sauté until the ginger garlic turns aromatic. 

Add onions and sauté until they are cooked. 
Add the mashed potatoes and mix.
Add salt, lime juice and cilantro leaves and mix until well incorporated. The mixture is ready.
Divide this potato mixture into 12 equal sized balls.

 



Batter for Vadas.

• 1 cup gram flour
• 1 tbsp  rice flour
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup water
• A pinch of turmeric powder

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients together and form a batter. It should be in a pouring consistency but not too thin. 
Heat oil on medium flame until hot.
Dip each potato mixture ball in the batter until it’s well coated and deep fry the balls in the oil until light brown. 
Take out the fried vadas on a absorbent towel. 
Pour the remaining batter in the oil to make these little crunchy boonde. They can be added in the buns along with the Vadas to give our Vada pav a crunch.
Slit the green chilies length wise and fry until they are soft.

  

  
Other ingredients:

Ladi pav/ Burger Buns
Tamaring date chutney/Meethi chutney
Dry garlic chutney/ Sukhi chutney
Cilantro chutney/ Hari chutney




Preparation:



Slit the ladi pav/buns in half. Spread Tamarind chutney on one slice of the bun and cilantro chutney on the other. Add dry garlic chutney on both sides. Place a vada in between the bun slices and serve it with more chutney and fried green chilies.