Vada pav or wada pav is the common man’s food in Mumbai and is a popular street food snack across whole Maharashtra. It is basically a savory slider of fried mashed potato fritters stuffed in a dinner roll.
You will find shops selling vada pav all over Mumbai and even outside schools and colleges. It easy to make and serve.
Vada pav is one of the most humble street food of Mumbai, yet it is tasty and delicious. Wada 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.
I have had vada pav in many places in Mumbai right from my childhood. Even today when I go to Mumbai, I do make sure to have vada pav there. However on occasions I do make them at home.
Pav means a small loaf of bread and are basically dinner rolls. You can make them with all purpose flour or whole wheat flour. Pav is easily available in most bakeries, super stores and sweet shops in India.
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The vada pav can be had during any time of day like breakfast, brunch or as an evening snack. Vada pav goes very well with the Indian chai and usually fried green chilies and chutney are served along with it.
To make vada pav you need five elements:
- Pav – dinner rolls, get the Pav Recipe here.
- Batata vada – fried potato stuffed fritter.
- Green chutney – made with coriander (cilantro) or mint & coriander.
- Sweet tamarind chutney
- Dry garlic chutney
How to make vada pav
Make seriously good and awesome vada pav with my step-by-step guide! In this guide I have shared making the potato vada in detail. You will find the green chutney and sweet chutney recipes in the recipe card below.
Making potato stuffing
1. Boil 2 large potatoes, about 350 grams. Peel and then mash them with a fork in a bowl.
You can boil or steam the potatoes in a pan, Instant pot or pressure cooker. Remember to drain the water very well from the boiled potatoes before you mash them.
2. Heat 2 to 3 teaspoons oil in a small pan. Add ½ tsp mustard seeds and crackle them. Then add 7 to 8 curry leaves and asafetida (hing). Stir and sauté for about 5 seconds.
3. Then add 6 to 7 small to medium-sized garlic and 1 to 2 green chilies, which have been crushed in a mortar-pestle. Add ⅛ teaspoon turmeric powder.
4. Stir until the raw aroma of garlic goes away.
5. Pour this tempering in the mashed potatoes.
6. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves. Also add salt as required.
7. Mix everything well. Then make small to medium balls from the mashed potato mixture. Flatten these balls a bit. Cover and keep aside.
Making batter
8. In another bowl, make a smooth batter from 1 to 1.25 cups besan (gram flour), ⅛ teaspoon turmeric powder, a pinch of asafoetida, a pinch of baking soda (optional), salt and ½ cup water.
The batter should not be too thick or thin. If the batter becomes thin, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of gram flour. If the batter becomes thick, then add 1 or 2 tablespoons water.
9. Dip the slightly flattened potato balls in the batter and coat it evenly with the batter.
Frying vada
10. Gently drop these batter coated potato balls in medium hot oil.
11. Depending on the size of the kadai or pan, you can add more or less of the vada while frying.
12. Deep fry these batata vadas till golden.
13. Drain them on kitchen paper towels. Make all vada this way and keep aside.
Assembling vada pav
14. When they are still hot or warm, you need to serve them. Take all the chutneys and pav on your work surface. Slice the pav without breaking it into two parts and keep aside.
If you don’t have sweet chutney, then just make the vada pav with green chutney. I have mentioned the recipes for green chutney and sweet chutney in the recipe card below.
You can make these two chutney recipes some hours ahead or a day before and refrigerate.
15. 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.
16. Sprinkle the dry garlic chutney. This is optional and if you don’t have you can skip it.
17. Place the hot batata vada sandwiched in the bread slices.
18. Serve vada pav immediately or else the pav becomes soggy. You can also serve some green chillies, both the chutneys along with it.
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Vada Pav
By Dassana Amit
Ingredients
For spiced potato stuffing
- 350 grams potatoes or 2 medium to large sized potatoes
- 6 to 7 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 chopped coriander leaves (cilantro leaves)
- salt as required
For batter
- 1 to 1.25 cups gram flour (besan)
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
- ⅛ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 pinch baking soda – optional
- ½ cup water or add as required
- salt as required
For green chutney
- 1 cup chopped coriander leaves
- 1 to 2 garlic cloves – small to medium-sized, chopped
- 2 to 3 drops lemon juice
- 2 to 3 green chillies – chopped
- salt as required
For sweet tamarind chutney
- ½ cup seedless tamarind – tightly packed
- 1.75 cups water or add as required
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon ginger powder (saunth powder)
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder
- 7 to 8 tablespoons jaggery powder or grated jaggery – add as required adjusting to your taste
- 1 teaspoon oil
- salt or black salt, add as required
Other ingredients
- oil as required – for deep frying
- 2 tablespoons dry red chutney – optional
- 8 pav or dinner rolls
- 3 to 4 fried green chillies mixed with some salt, optional
Instructions
Making green chutney
- Grind all the green chutney ingredients with little water till smooth. Avoid making a watery chutney.
Making sweet chutney
- Soak tamarind in hot water for 30 to 40 minutes.
- With your hands, squeeze the pulp from the tamarind in the same bowl or pan. strain the pulp and keep aside.
- Heat oil in a small pan. lower the flame & add cumin seeds and let them crackle.
- Add ginger powder, red chili powder, asafoetida. Stir and add the strained tamarind pulp. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the jaggery and salt and cook for 4-5 mins more. The mixture would thicken. Let the saunth chutney mixture cool.
- When cooled, store the saunth chutney in an air-tight dry jar or container. Refrigerate and serve the saunth chutney whenever required with chaat or snacks.
Making potato stuffing
- Boil or steam potatoes in an Instant pot, pressure cooker or pan until they are completely cooked. Peel and then mash them with a fork in a bowl.
- Crush garlic and green chillies to a semi-fine paste in a mortar-pestle.
- 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.
- Then add crushed garlic and green chilies 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.
- Pour this tempering in the mashed potatoes.
- Add chopped coriander leaves and salt.
- Mix everything well and then make small to medium balls from the mashed potato mixture. Flatten these balls a bit. Cover and set aside.
Making batter
- In another bowl, make a smooth and thick yet flowing batter from the besan, turmeric powder, asafoetida, a pinch of baking soda (optional), salt and water.
- The batter should not be very thick or thin. If the batter becomes thin, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of gram flour. If the batter becomes thin, then add 1 or 2 tablespoons water. Set aside.
Frying
- In a kadai or pan, heat oil for deep frying.
- Dip the slightly flattened potato balls in the batter and coat it evenly with the batter.
- Gently drop these batter coated potato balls in medium hot oil.
- Depending on the size of the kadai or pan, you can add more or less of the vadas while frying.
- Deep fry these batata vadas till golden evenly.
- Drain them on kitchen paper towels. Make all batata vadas this way and keep aside.
- When they are still hot or warm, you need to serve them. Take all the chutneys and pav on your work surface.
Assembling & serving
- Slice the pav without breaking it into two parts and keep aside. If you don’t have sweet chutney, then just make the vada pav with green chutney.
- 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.
- Sprinkle the dry garlic chutney. This is optional and if you don’t have you can skip it.
- Place the hot batata vada sandwiched in the bread slices.
- Serve vada pav immediately or else the pav becomes soggy. You can also serve some fried green chillies and both the chutney along with it.
Notes
- You can always alter the amount of chutneys you spread in the pav according to your taste and liking.
Nutrition Info Approximate values
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Love your recipes
Thanks Sheetal
thanks
welcome kuldeep
hello amit
i hv been following your recipes since a few months..and i must tell u that i feel really happy when they turn out well..the detailed images help us to understand the textures and to what extent a particular ingredient should be cooked..it is very helpful ..it would be great if you can tell me the ingredients (in grams measurements) vada paav for 12 servings ..
thanks in advance ..
Thanks Shobhita. Glad to know this. You can easily triple this vada pav recipe.
U r simply awsome ????too good ???? I have tried many of ur recipe n it has turned out really well, thank u so much, now anybody name any recipe n I have it all ready to make ???? n it’s really good no confusion at all, step by step, photo by photo, it’s all there, u just have to try, n really speaking I was so so dam bad at cooking ???? bcoz nothing encouraged me so much, now with this app I just go on n on making n trying different recipes ???? all thanks to u yaar, u really made my life ????
thanks a lot akanksha. nice to read your comment and it does motivate me to add more recipes. thanks again and happy cooking.