Vada Pav
Today vada pav is not just a street food from Mumbai, it finds its place in top global snacks. It is Indian version of a vegetable burger. Hot potato vada sandwiched between bread/pav is favourite snack of busy always on-the-run Mumbaikars.
While batata vada had been traditional Marathi dish and pav was popular with mill workers of Mumbai, invention of vada pav can be credited to Ashok Vaidya who started selling batata vada along with pav and dry garlic chutney outside Dadar railway station way back in 1966. Learn more about him and the journey in the short documentary – Vada Pav Inc. by Siddharth Aalambayan
Ingredients
- 6 medium sized potatoes, boiled and smashed
- 1/2 cup coriander leaves, chopped
- 1 small piece ginger, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- 4 green chillies, adjusted as per taste
- 2 teaspoons oil for tempering
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds,
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/2 cup coriander seeds
- 1 pinch hing / asadoetida
- Oil for frying
- Salt
- 2 cups gram flour / besan
- 1 teaspoon red chilli powder, for batter
- 1 pinch hing / asafoetida, for batter
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, for batter
- Pav / baked tray bread
- Tamarind chutney / ketchup
- Green chutney
Instructions
- Grind ginger, garlic and green chillies coarsely.
- Add this paste along with chopped coriander leaves and salt to mashed potatoes.
- Heat Oil. Splutter mustard seeds and coriander seeds. Add the mixture along with turmeric powder and hing. Mix well till mixture is uniformly coloured.
- Shape this potato mixture to lemon sized balls. Keep aside.
- In a separate bowl, add besan, salt, turmeric powder, hing and chilli powder. Add water gradually to make flowing yet thick batter.
- Heat oil for frying. Dunk the potato ball in batter mixture as it gets coated with besan and drop in hot oil. Fry till golden brown on all sides. Strain and remove excess oil.
- Split a pav, apply green chutney or tamarind chutney, place hot batata vada and enjoy your vada pav.