Vada Pav Recipe (Mumbai Street Style)

Step 1

Pluck coriander leaves, you can keep the tender stalks. Rinse them well in lot of water a few times. Drain them well in a colander.

Step 2

Add all the ingredients to a blender jar. Make a thick paste by adding 1 tbsp water at one time and blending until smooth.

Step 3

Adjust salt, lemon juice and green chili to suit your taste. The chutney must not be very runny otherwise it makes the pav very soggy quickly.

Step 4

Store this in a clean dry airtight glass jar. Refrigerate until used.

Step 5

Skin the garlic and dry roast them for 2 to 3 mins.

Step 6

Add red chilies and roast until crisp. Transfer them to a plate and cool.

Step 7

To the same pan add coconut and just allow it to turn hot. Transfer this to a plate and cool.

Step 8

If using peanuts you can dry roast them on a medium heat until golden & aromatic.

Step 9

First powder red chilies with red chili powder and salt. Then add garlic and blend once. Then add coconut and peanuts. Powder them little coarsely. Set this aside.

Step 10

Boil potatoes until just done. They must be firm, fork tender and not mushy. You can boil them either in a pressure cooker, steamer or in a pot. Cool and crumble them lightly.

Step 11

Make a coarse paste on green chilli, garlic and ginger.

Step 12

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan on a low heat. Add mustard, when they begin to crackle. Next add curry leaves and fry until crisp.

Step 13

Add ginger garlic and green chili paste. Fry on a low heat until it turns fragrant.

Step 14

Next put in hing, salt, turmeric and red chili powder. Mix well and add potatoes and coriander leaves. Turn off the stove and mix everything well.

Step 15

Cool this mixture. Divide to 7 to 8 portions and shape to balls.

Step 16

Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai.

Step 17

Add besan and rice flour or corn flour to a mixing bowl. Next add salt, hing, turmeric and red chilli powder (optional). Mix everything well.

Step 18

Pour 4 tablespoons water and begin to mix to make a thick lump-free batter, adding more water as required. Add more water as needed and make neither too thick nor too thin batter. Adjust salt and spice.

Step 19

When the oil is hot enough, add a tiny pinch of soda to the batter. Mix well. This is optional.

Step 20

Check if the oil is hot enough by dropping a small amount of batter in oil. The batter should sizzle and rise to the surface, without turning brown.

Step 21

Regulate the flame to medium.

Step 22

Dip each ball in the batter, coat the potato balls with batter and drop in oil. You can use your fingers or a tbsp to do this. You can drop 3 to 5 balls in each batch depending on the size of your kadai. (Check video to see how I do)

Step 23

Do not disturb them for 2 minutes, until they firm up. Later gently stir and fry until golden. Remove them to a cooling rack or a colander.

Step 24

Wipe dry & Deseed green chilies to prevent them from bursting. Place the green chilies in a mess strainer or colander. In the same hot oil, fry the deseeded green chilies lightly. Do not over fry them.

Step 25

Slit each pav bun to sandwich it. Make sure one side is intact.

Step 26

Smear green chutney on both the inner sides of the pav. Sprinkle garlic chutney. If you want smear tamarind chutney of the other side of the pav.

Step 27

Place a batata vada. You can also flatten the vada first and then place it.

Step 28

Serve vada pav with fried chilies, tamarind and green chutney on the side.