Iconic Vada Pav

Vada Pav is an emotion. My first taste of the iconic Mumbai street food snack was at my school – that ran from pre-K to the 10th grade – Jamnabai Narsee School. Mom would allow us to have a snack during our short recess, a couple times a week – and vada pav was the first choice always.

What is Vada Pav?

Vada means fried ball of some sort – in this case, boiled potatoes tempered with Indian spices like turmeric, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, and curry leaves. Lemon juice is a must for that slight tang, along with cilantro leaves.

Balls are made with the mashed tempered potato dough, and dipped into a gram flour batter that is simply 4 ingredients, and deep fried to golden goodness.

These balls are then slapped between a pillow-like soft pav or bread or roll, that is slathered with chutneys like Cilantro Mint, Tamarind Date and a Garlic Peanut chutney, along with some fried crunchies of the batter and a fried green chilli for an extra kick.

Close your eyes for that first bite into the vada pav – and feel the emotions rushing through your mind and body. You will not talk for the next couple of minutes or less, because this concoction simply melts in your mouth, and leaves you craving for more – THAT is a Vada Pav.

History of the Vada Pav

Excerpt taken from BCC: The dish is believed to have been invented in 1966 by a Mumbaikar, Ashok Vaidya, who opened the first vada pav stall opposite the Dadar train station, through which hundreds of thousands of workers – often in need of a quick, inexpensive snack – passed every day on their way to the textile mills in suburbs such as Parel and Worli.

Vada pav was an instant hit with Bombayites (as Mumbaikars were then known). Vaidya remains a Mumbai icon; one local journalist even made a documentary about him, called Vada Pav Inc.

After strikes throughout the 1970s and ‘80s eventually led to the textile mills’ closures, many former mill workers opened vada pav stalls of their own with the encouragement of Maharashtra state’s right-wing political party, Shiv Sena.

You can read the whole story here.

The Vada Pav is also called the Indian Burger. It is mind blowing to think that such a small snack has become historic and iconic – and to think even plant based non-Indians around the world have been making TikTok videos and reels about this recipe. Vada pav is vegan – not necessarily healthy, but hey who is counting calories here?

Ingredients of the Vada Pav

The ingredients of the batata vada (or fried potato balls) are as follows:

• Mashed and boiled potatoes : be sure to use the white potatoes for this recipe, which are best for making batata vada.
• Neutral Oil: Any kind of neutral oil such as vegetable oil, saffola oil, grapeseed oil is ok. The oil is used for tempering the spices
• Curry Leaves: Fresh curry leaves can be found at Indian stores and lend a fantastic taste to the vadas
• Mustard seeds and cumin seeds: These are essential spices added to the vada – or any tempering in Indian cooking.
• Turmeric : Ground turmeric is added for that iconic yellow color and flavor.
• Salt: I use table salt. If you are using kosher salt, be sure to add ½ teaspoon more.
• Lemon juice: adds a bit of tang to the potato filling.
• Cilantro: Any Indian dish has cilantro in it. It gives a lovely earthy flavor to the vadas.

Other ingredients to complete the Vada Pav are:

• Cilantro Mint Chutney and Date Tamarind Chutney : The chutney recipes can be found in my cookbook – Mumbai Modern or in a blog post here.
• Garlic Peanut Chutney : I have shared the recipe here. It gives that garlicky, spicy and nutty taste to the entire dish. I love using it with any meals actually! It is so versatile and I always have it in my fridge
• Vada Pav : Without the Batata Vada there is no Vada Pav :).
• Pav: Pav has its own story and deserves it’s own blog post. I will have to document this separately. Pav originated in Mumbai from the Portuguese – who brought the soft rolls to India, centuries ago.
• Chura: Or the fried besan (gram flour batter) crunchies that are fried in the end. They provide the added crunch to this vada pav.
• Fried green chillies: provide the necessary kick to the vada pav.

The times that I have made vada pav, my son has eaten the same lunch and dinner, until the vadas are over. It is a family favorite meal, and no other dinner is required if I have made vada pav!

This is THE Mumbai Street Food that is a MUST TRY.

Other Mumbai recipes are:

• Beetroot Tikkis
• Gujarati Samosas with Green Peas and Green Garlic

If you do make this recipe, please tag #thejamlab on Instagram and/or leave a comment on this blog post.

XO
Amisha

Iconic Vada Pav

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• Amisha Gurbani

Vada Pav is a spiced potato ball, fried in a chickpea flour batter, slapped between pav or bread(comes from the Portuguese) , with 3 chutneys including the famous peanut garlic chutney.

The dish was invented in 1966 by Ashok Vaidya, who opened the first vada pav stall opposite the Dadar train station, for workers in need of a quick, inexpensive snack. You will find it on every nook and corner of Mumbai being sold for a mere 80 cents. This iconic snack serves as dinner, and leftover vadas make a great after school snack as well.

Makes about 18 vada pavs

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Batata vada:

• 1 kg white potatoes, boiled, cooled and skin peeled
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 inch ginger
• 2 green chillies
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 8 – 10 curry leaves
• A pinch of asafoetida
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 ½ teaspoons table salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ¼ finely chopped cilantro

Besan coating:

• 1 cup (100 grams) gram flour or besan
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• ½ cup + 1 tablespoon warm water

Garlic Peanut Chutney:

• ½ cup garlic cloves
• ⅓ cup roasted peanuts
• ⅓ cup desiccated coconut (get the frozen one from the Indian store)
• 2 ½ tablespoons Kashmiri red chili powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• Oil for frying

Accompaniments:

• Cilantro Mint Chutney
• Date Tamarind Chutney
• Fried green chillies (fry green chillies in the same oil as the batata vada and set aside)

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Method:

Batata Vada:

1. Mash the potatoes completely. There should be no coarse bits.
2. Grind the garlic, ginger and chillies in a mini food processor.
3. In a large saucepan, on medium heat, add the oil. After about a minute, once the oil is heated, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida. Saute for a minute, or until the seeds start crackling.
4. Add the boiled potatoes and saute to combine.
5. Add the remaining ingredients like turmeric, salt, lemon juice and cilantro.
6. Mix until completely combined, about 1 to 2 minutes.
7. Cool completely.
8. Make about 18 equal sized balls and set aside.

Besan Coating:

1. In a medium bowl, add the besan and spices, and whisk to combine.
2. Add the water slowly, whisking while adding. Keep whisking until well combined. It may require rigorous whisking. There should be no lumps.

Garlic Peanut Chutney:

1. Combine the ingredients in a food processor, until well combined. Store in an airtight container in the fridge, for upto 2-3 months.

Frying:

1. In a medium heavy bottom pot, filled with 3-4 inches of oil, place it on the stove at high heat. Oil will take about 5 to 7 minutes to heat up.
2. Reduce the heat to medium high.
3. Place a large plate with parchment paper or paper towel to drain off excess oil.
4. You can use your hands for the next step or a large spoon.
5. Dip one batata vada in the besan coating, drip off the excess and drop it gently into the hot oil.
6. Repeat the process to add 2 more.
7. Fry them on one side for about a minute or so or until golden brown in color. Turn them over and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove and place on the plate on the side.
8. Repeat the process of dipping the vada in besan coating, and then into the oil for the remaining vadas.
9. To fry the chura or the crunchy bits: lower the heat to medium. Using a small spoon, drop the besan coating into the oil, fry until golden brown and remove immediately onto a plate. Repeat a few more times.

Assembly:

1. Setup an assembly station of Cilantro Chutney, Tamarind Date Chutney, Peanut Garlic Chutney, fried green chillies, chura, the fried Vadas and the Pav.
2. Place a spoonful of the cilantro chutney and tamarind date chutney on the insides of a pav. Place some peanut garlic chutney on one side. Place one vada, and some chura on the top, along with the fried green chilli. Close the pav and eat immediately! Enjoy with some Masala Chai!

Notes

• Use Russet potatoes if you do not have white potatoes.
• Cool and rest the boiled and peeled potatoes after mashing them to dry out the water.
• Chutneys like Cilantro and Mint Chutney and Date and Tamarind Chutney can be made 3 to 4 days in advance.
• The Garlic Peanut Chutney keeps well for upto 2 months in the fridge.
• The leftover vadas can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for upto 2 days.
• Warm the vadas in a toaster oven and enjoy.