Vada Pav (Mumbai Style Vada Pav)

For the Mumbai roadside vada pav recipe, let’s start with making the spicy potato filling for the vadas. For that, first heat oil in a non-stick pan.

Add the 1 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson). in the heated oil, the seeds will crackle and release its full flavour. This condiment is widely used in Indian cuisine, as in tempering for dals, subzis , chutneys and raitas and also in paste and powder form in pickles and kachumbers.

Then add a few 6 to 8 curry leaves (kadi patta), they will also release their flavour which will be absorbed by the oil.

Add 1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing).

Add the 1 1/2 tbsp garlic (lehsun).

add the 2 tsp roughly chopped ginger (adrak).

Add the 2 green chilli, chopped. The spicy tempering is ready.To make it spicier you can add red chilli powder as per your taste for spiciness.

Sauté again for a few seconds.

For this you will need ¼ cup of besan, the binding nature of the besan makes it a key ingredient in the batter. It is a popular ingredient in India, used for savoury as well as sweet snacks.

Add turmeric powder. This provides a yellow hue to the fried vada covering.

Then add salt to taste.

To make the batter add water to the besan.

Mix well. The batter should be smooth without lumps.

To makevada pav recipe | Mumbai style vada pav | batata vada pav |take a portion of the potato mixture and shape it into round ball.

Dip the round ball of the vada filling into the batter and allow it to coat the mixture well.

Immediately add it to hot oil.

Keep rolling and turning the vadas with a slotted spoon at intervals.

Take a laadi pav and slit it from the centre, but do not cut fully. These days whole wheat laadi pav are also available in many bakery stores.. If you wish you can make them at home, check out our recipe for whole wheat laadi pav.

I will first show you how to serve the vada pav as it was done originally. For this first spread some sukhi leshun ki chutney on the bottom half of the laadi pav.These days there are many ways to make and serve the vada pav. Some vada pavs are made with an array of chutneys and some of the vada pavs are made with chutneys, topped with onions, mayonnaise and cheese while some vada pavs are served with the besan chura made from left over besan batter along with chutneys.

Then place a vada on it.

Press the pav, the traditional style vada pav is ready to serve.

Now let’s make the vada pav the Mumbaiya style with chutneys. First spread some meetha chutney on a slit pav.

Then spread some teekha chutney over it.

Finally spread some sukhi leshun ki chutney over it.

Press the pav and thevada pav | Mumbai style vada pav | batata vada pav |is ready to serve.

Serve immediately while thevada pav | Mumbai style vada pav | batata vada pav |are still hot. You can also serve along with some fried green chillies.

Vada Pav on Mumbai streets comes packed in a newspaper. The vendor sells it with or wihtout chutney depending upon the customers prefrence.

This is how the Vada Pav looks inside the parcel. You will always get the Vada Pav hot or warm as fresh batches are continuously fried and sold. The vendors also fry some green chillies in hot oil, sprinkle some salt over the chillies and pack it with the Vada Pav as an accompaniment.

This is how a typical Vada Pav vendor sells hot Vada Pav's. The vendor keeps only a few number of Vada's fried in the box to ensure the customer gets a hot Vapa Pav everytime. He refills the box when required.

Prefer to use the old variety of potatoes than the new variety. This is because the new variety tends to be slightly sticky on cooking. This can make the shaping of the vadas difficult.

While you can use green chilli paste, but finely chopped green chillies is what we suggest to get the most authentic taste.

A pinch of baking soda in the batter will help to make the outer covering soft. But if you wish, you can avoid it.

The vadamixture can be made and refrigerated for 4 to 5 hours.

The batter to fry the vadas has to be thick enough to make a slightly thick coat on the vada.

The oil has to be hot before you add the vadas, else the vada will soak excess oil.

Prefer to fry 3 to 4 vadas at a time. Too many vadas will stick to each other.

Now to the tempering add the boiled, peeled and mashed potatoes.

Add the chopped coriander.

Add salt to taste.

Add 1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi) and mix well. Keep the potato mixture aside to cool.

Deep fry in hot oil, till golden brown. Similarly dip all the potato mixture balls in the besan batter one by one and deep-fry them in hot oil, till golden brown.

Drain on an absorbent paper and keep aside.

In a deep kadhai add enough oil and put it on a gas stove to heat. While the oil for deep-frying the vadas is heating, let’s prepare the batter for the outer covering of the vadas.Immediately add it to hot oil.