Homemade Vada Pav Recipe

5 from 24 votes

One of Mumbai's most popular street food, Vada Pav has spiced potato filling sandwiched with layers of chutney inside a fluffy bread (pav).

Prep Time40

Cook Time20

Total Time1

Course: Snack

Cuisine: Indian

Diet: Vegetarian

Servings:

Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan on medium heat. Then add ¼ cup garlic cloves (around 15 large cloves) and fry for 1-2 minutes until the garlic turns slightly brown in color. Drain on a paper towel.
To the same pan, now add 1 cup freshly or frozen grated coconut. Cook for 2 minutes until the coconut is light golden brown in color. Then transfer the coconut to a blender along with the roasted garlic.
Add 3 teaspoons Kashmiri red chili powder and ½ teaspoon salt. Blend to a coarse chutney. The dry garlic chutney is now ready.

To a blender add 1 small bunch of cilantro (around 30 grams). Discard the hard stems, the softer ones are okay to use.
Add 1 to 2 green chilies (or as much as you like), 2 cloves of garlic, ¼ teaspoon cumin powder, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon sugar (if using) and juice of 1 lime juice. Add 1 tablespoon of water or as needed to bring it all together. Blend to a smooth chutney.

To the pan add 1 cup water, ¼ cup tamarind paste, 50 grams jaggery,3 tablespoons sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, red chili powder, cumin powder and ginger powder. Bring mixture to boil.
Reduce heat to medium and let it boil for 3 to 4 minutes until the chutney turns thick and coats the back of a spoon. Set it aside to cool. It will thicken more as it cools down.

Boil 4 medium potatoes (around 600 grams) until soft, peel them and set them aside. Using a mortar and pestle, crush together 1-inchginger, 5 to 6 garlic cloves and 2 green chilies. Set it aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add ¾ teaspoon mustard seeds and let them pop.
Then add 12 to 15 curry leaves and ¼ teaspoon of hing and mix.
Add the crushed ginger-garlic-green chili mixture. Cook for one minute until the ginger and garlic starts changing color.
Then add the boiled potatoes to the pan and remove pan from heat. Add ¼ teaspoon turmeric, ¾ teaspoon salt and mash the potatoes using a potato masher. Add 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro and mix well.
Now make lemon sized balls out of the potato mixture. I was able to get 10 balls out of this mixture. Set these aside.

To make the batter, take 1 cup of besan in a large bowl. Add¼ teaspoon turmeric, ½ teaspoon salt and pinch of baking soda to it.
Start adding water little by little to the bowl.
Whisk to make a smooth batter. You may need a couple of extra tablespoons of water to reach the desired consistency. The batter should be neither thick nor thin. I used around ½ cup plus 1 to 2 tablespoons of water.

Heat around 2-3 inches of oil in a kadai/wok on medium-high heat. Dip one potato ball into the batter, using a fork and make sure it's coated from all sides evenly. Drain off the excess batter while taking it out of the bowl and then drop it carefully into the hot oil.
Fry the vada in hot oil until golden brown in color. Fry all vadas in a similar way. Drain on a paper towel.

To assemble the vada pav, toast the pav with some butter on a pan until slightly toasted. I use salted butter.
Then slice each pav but not entirely. It should still be attached at one end. Apply green chutney on one side and tamarind chutney on the other side of the pav. Then sprinkle garlic chutney on top of these chutneys.
Place the fried vada in the center. Serve vada pav immediately with more chutney on the side!

To speed things up even more, you can use store bought tamarind chutney. You can find it at Indian grocery stores. I would recommend making the garlic and cilantro chutney at home.
If you can't find a ladi pav or any other dinner rolls at all, you can just sandwich the batata vada between 2 slices of white bread. It won't be vada pav but it will still be delicious.