Vada Pav

- Submitted by Dahlia

(Wada Pao, Vadapav)

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Vada Pav is a Mumbai special street food in which deep fried potato bonda (or vadas) are placed between soft pav buns along with varieties of chutneys. Typically green chutney, tamarind chutney and dry garlic chutney is added generously which gives that burst of flavour in each bite. A fried green chili is also stuffed to give that extra punch. 

It brings back so many childhood memories for me personally as I grew up in Mumbai. Making this at home is little time consuming but worth it. You can adjust each ingredient to suit to your taste. One tip to make this faster is to prepare the chutneys ahead of time. That way you just have to make the vadas while you want to enjoy these tasty Vada Pavs.

Here I am sharing the recipe to make 8 vada pavs. In our house we can easily eat 2 vada pavs per head.  So this quantity could serve between 4 to 8 people. In my house some members do not prefer to add tamarind chutney. So its all about your taste preference. Do give this a try. 

Recipe For Vada Pav

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• Pav Buns – 8
• Green Chilies – 8
• Oil -  for deep frying vadas

For Vada Stuffing

• Potatoes – 2 or 3 
• Ginger – 1” piece
• Garlic – 3 cloves
• Green Chilies – 2
• Turmeric Powder – 1/8 tsp
• Salt – as needed (about ½ tsp)
• Oil – 1 tbsp
• Mustard Seeds – ½ tsp
• Curry Leaves – few
• Asafoetida – 2 pinches
• Coriander Leaves -  handful (Chopped)
• Lemon Juice  - from half a lemon

For Vada Coating

• Besan (Gram Flour) – ¾ cup
• Rice Flour – 2 tbsp
• Turmeric Powder -  1/8 tsp
• Red Chili Powder – ¼ tsp
• Asafoetida – a pinch
• Baking Soda – a pinch
• Salt – ¼ tsp
• Water – as needed (about ½ cup)

For Green Chutney

• Coriander Leaves – 1 cup
• Green Chilies – 2
• Garlic – 2 cloves
• Cumin Seeds – ¼ tsp
• Lemon Juice – from half a lemon
• Salt – ¼ tsp

For Dry Garlic Chutney

• Garlic – 8-10 cloves
• Dry Red Chilies – 10 (or Red Chili Powder – 2 tbsp)
• Dry Copra Coconut – about ¾ cup
• Salt – as needed

For Tamarind Chutney

• Tamarind – 50 gms
• Dates – 50 gms
• Jaggery – 50 gms

Method

To Prepare Chutneys

1. For green chutney grind all the ingredients in a mixie jar with just 1 tbsp of water.
2. For tamarind chutney, soak the tamarind and dates in hot water for 15 minutes. Grind it to a smooth paste with jaggery. This can be followed if you have very good quality jaggery and tamarind. If not, you need to cook this mixture and strain it. The detailed recipe is given here.
3. For dry garlic chutney, dry roast the ingredients slightly. Pulse it in a mixie jar till you get a coarse chutney powder.

To Prepare Vadas

1. Boil the potatoes. Once it cools, peel it and mash it roughly.
2. Coarsely crush the ginger, garlic and green chilies.
3. In a kadai, add oil and pop the mustard seeds. Add asafoetida (hing) and curry leaves.
4. Add turmeric powder and the coarsely crushed mix of ginger, garlic and green chilies. Saute for a minute.
5. Add the mashed potato, required salt, mix well and switch off. Finally mix the lemon juice and chopped coriander leaves.
6. After it cools, make 8 balls out of it.
7. For the coating, take the besan, rice flour and all other ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix everything well to make a thick smooth batter without lumps.
8. Heat oil in a kadai. Dip each potato ball in the batter to coat it well.
9. Drop it in the hot oil and fry till it turns golden brown. Keep in a kitchen tissue to drain excess oil.

Final Assembling

1. After switching off the oil, add the green chilies to the hot oil and fry it. It will splutter so be careful. Keep it aside.
2. Take the pav buns and make a slit in the middle. Do not cut all the way.
3. Smear about 1 tsp green chutney on one side and ½ tamarind chutney on the other. Sprinkle about ¾ tsp of dry garlic chutney.
4. Flatten the vada slightly and place it in the middle.
5. Add a fried green chili and serve immediately.

Tips

• Serve the vada pavs while the vadas are hot and crispy for best taste.
• Adjust the quantity of chutney as per your taste.

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