Vada Pav/ Vada Pao

Vada pav/Vada Pao is a vegetarian fast food dish native to the state of Maharashtra, India . The dish consists of a deep fried potato dumpling (“Batata Vada”) placed inside a bread bun (Ladi Pav) sliced almost in half through the middle and served with fried green chilies, gram flour churas , garlic chutney, tangy sweet tamarind chutney and green chutney. This dish is also referred as Indian burger which too gratifying in taste and very filling. This is often served as evening snack but this dish requires no excuse to gorge on it

You can never get enough of this irresistible snack and the smell of the dish is inviting. Now there are too many flavors and types of vada pav’s available today. I am sharing the original recipe of Vada pav.

**You can adjust the quantity of chutney as per taste. Potatoes should be moisture free once it is boiled and mashed. These vadas should always be served hot. Instead of pavs, you can use also use burger buns too. You can skip the frying of green chilies in last step if you cannot muster upto the spicy vada pav

Preparation time: 15 mins Cooking time: 20 mins Total time: 30 mins

Servings: 3

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoon Oil
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon Mustard Seeds
• 1/8 teaspoon Asafoetida/Hing
• 6-7 Curry Leaves
• 2 Garlic cloves crushed
• 1 Green Chili finely chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped Coriander leaves
• 1 teaspoon Lemon juice
• 2 potatoes boiled and mashed
• 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric
• 1 inch Ginger crushed

For Batter

• 3/4 Cup Besan (Gram flour/Chickpea flour)
• 2 tablespoon rice Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Kashmiri Chili powder
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/8 teaspoon Hing/Asafoetida
• 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric
• 1/2 cup Water
• Oil for frying

For Assembling

• 5-6 pav
• 5-6 green Chilies
• 6 teaspoon green chutney
• 3 teaspoon sweet chutney
• 3 teaspoon Garlic chutney

Steps to prepare

• Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds

• Add curry leaves and hing. Saute for few seconds

• Add in green chilies , crushed ginger and garlic. Saute until raw aroma disappears

• Add in boiled, mashed potatoes to the pan

• Add in turmeric powder and salt. Mix well

• Saute for 1 minute. Switch off the heat

• Add lemon juice and mix well. This is optional but it renders delightful taste to vada. Allow the mixture to cool

• While the stuffing is cooling, prepare the batter. In a bowl, add besan and rice flour

• Add all spice powders and salt. Mix well

• Add water and mix well to form smooth batter. Now add baking soda and mix well

• Divide potato mix into equal portions and shape them into balls. Coat the potato balls well with the batter

• Drop the vadas in hot oil

• Deep fry over medium heat until vadas are golden brown. Repeat this process for all the potato balls

• Make churas from leftover besan. deep fry until golden brown

• Now fry the green chilies until the wilt. Be careful with this step as Oil may pop while frying

• Drain excess oil over tissue paper/ktchen towel

• Let’s assemble the vada pav. Slit the pav half way, Apply green chutney on one side and tamarind chutney on other side.

• Place hot vada and sprinkle garlic chutney on top

• Serve vada pav hot with churas, green chilies and steaming cup of tea