Vada Pav

By Ranjitha Deepesh, on July 29th, 2009

Recipe: Vada Pav

Summary: Vada Pav, also known as the “Indian Burger”, is a scrumptious and spicy snack. It is the one of the tastiest fast food of Maharashtra and also a famous ‘chaat’ in Mumbai city. In fact each day in the city starts with a couple of Vada Pavs and a cutting Chai (Tea).
“Vada Pav” is actually Wadas made from potatoes, sandwiched between two slices of Pav bread. The method to prepare Vada Pav involves the preparation of Vada, red chutney and green chutney.

Ingredients

For vada:

Potato…… 2 nos
Garlic…….. 5-6 pods (crushed)
Green chilli……. 3 nos ( chopped)
Curry leaves ……… 4-5 leaves
Mustard seeds……. 1 tspn
Turmeric powder……. 1/2 tspn
Cilantro ……… for garnish
Salt…… to taste
Oil

For the coating , you need:

2 cups Besan or Gram Flour
Water
Salt to taste

For green chutney, you need:

1 bunch mint leaves
1 bunch cilantro
6-8 cloves garlic
1 inch piece of ginger
1/2 tspn cumin seeds
1 tbspn curd
2 green chillies
1/2 tspn salt

For red chutney , you need:

2 cups dry coconut
2 tspn red chilli powder
5-6 cloves of garlic
Salt to taste

For filling , you need:

Pav or Dinner rolls ( I used Sara Lee Classic Dinner rolls)

Instructions

Method for Vada:

Cook the potatoes and mash them well.
Take a pan and heat oil.
Add some mustard seeds and let them splutter.
Now add the curry leaves and crushed garlic pods and the green chillies.
Add a little turmeric powder and stir well .
Now add the mashed potatoes and salt. Mix well.
Add some cilantro leaves and lemon juice. Mix well and keep aside. Let the mixture cool.
Take the besan and add some water and salt (to taste). Make a batter. Do not make it very watery. (The batter should be a bit thick so that it forms a coating on the vada. )
Heat 2 cups oil in a frying pan.
Now take the potato mixture and make small balls out of it.
Dip this ball into the besan batter and put them in the oil.
Fry till done.

Method for green chutney:

Cut off the stems of the mint leaves and cilantro.
Chop the garlic and ginger.
Grind all the ingredients (except curd)and make a smooth paste.
Add curd and mix well .

Method for making red chutney:

Dry roast the coconut until it turns light brown.
Grind all the ingredients together. Do not add water. It should be in a powdered form.

Method for making the filling:

Take the pav bread or Dinner rolls.
Cut open the rolls (do not cut the rolls completely. Make sure one side is connected.)
Spread some green chutney on one side.
Put the vada on top.
Now add some red chutney on top of the vada.
Cover the the bread roll and serve.

Meal type: Snack

Culinary tradition: Maharashtrian

Spicy rating:4.0