A popular snack from Mumbai: Vada Pav, potato dumplings with chutneys in a bun, can be bought on almost every street corner, mostly from street vendors – so-called Chaatwalas. With this authentic Vada Pav recipe from Mumbai, you can also make them at home!
Batata Vadas are mouth-watering potato dumplings, deep fried in a batter made with gram flour. They are usually eaten in a pav (a soft Indian bun) along with chutneys as so-called vada pavs. What also pairs great with them and is optionally served alongside them at most chaatwalas (the street food vendors): fried chilies with coarse salt.
The sides for batata vadas
You don’t have to eat batata vadas with chutneys and in a bun, but batata vadas (potato dumplings) taste much better with chutneys, if nothing else! Pav (pronounced pao), a soft bun, you won’t find outside India, even in the typical Indian supermarkets. If you want, you can replace the pav with any other good white bread. I would rather not use industrial burger buns. Rather use a Turkish pita bread. Pavs are softer, but at least the pita bread is tasty and should go well with it in terms of flavor. But it is not really necessary. With chutneys they are very tasty.
You can find the recipes of the chutneys right here on my site. Some more basics on cooking and things to know about street food, or chaat, from Mumbai can be found here.
The chilies as a garnish lose some of their spiciness by frying. Watch for them to turn whitish on the outside. Then they are done frying and are not as spicy anymore. And be sure to score them in one spot, otherwise they will burst open (happened to me, luckily I only got scared, nothing else happened).
Generally, there are two different types of green chilies here in Mumbai: light green milder ones and the dark green hot ones that are also available in Europe. I prefer the light green ones, but the hotter ones are also tolerable and tasty, but in smaller bites 😊. But you’re still biting into chilies here, so no good for the faint-hearted.
My conclusion and the recipe for Vada Pavs
Batata vadas definitely do take some effort. I honestly wouldn’t make them myself again here in Mumbai, but would rather buy them on the street. When we are back in Europe I might make them again. They are simply very tasty and you pretty much can’t get them anywhere to buy or in a restaurant! I don’t have a deep fryer though… That would at least be a lot easier to clean up.
The recipe follows below the video.
Vada Pav – popular fried potato dumplings from Mumbai
Equipment
- deep fryer optional, alternatively a pot with oil
Ingredients
For the filling
- 4-5 potatoes
- 2-3 green chilies finely chopped
- ½ in ginger finely chopped
- 1 tsp mustard seeds brown
- 1 tsp cumn seeds
- 10 curry leaves fresh or frozen
- 1 pinch asafoetida
- ½ cup coriander leaves chopped
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp chaat masala
- ½ tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp salt
For the vadas
- 2 cups chickpea flour sifted
- 1 cup water
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp red chili powder
- 1 tsp soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 cups oil
For the vada pavs
- 8 pavs alternatively good white bread, or you eat the vadas without pav
- 4 tsp green chutney
- 4 tsp sweet chutney
- 4 tsp dry garlic chutney optional
Instructions
The filling
- First cook jacket potatoes and peel them. Then mash them coarsely.
- Chop the green chilies and the ginger into fine pieces.
- It is advisable to prepare everything in small bowls next to the stove: Heat 1-2 Tbsp. oil in a frying pan and add the mustard seeds. As soon as they splutter (burst open), add cumin and shortly after curry leaves, green chili, ginger and a pinch of asafoetida.
- When bursting, the mustard seeds jump in (and out) of the pan. Therefore, quickly put the lid on. You will hear when everything is done because the mustard will stop popping.
- Put the mustard seeds in the pan just before the other ingredients and wait until they burst before adding the rest. Otherwise, you run the risk of burning the other ingredients before the mustard splutters. And it should splutter, to release all its flavor.
- This oil-spice mixture (called baghar), you now put on top of the potatoes. It is best to make a depression in the mashed potatoes and put the baghar in it.
- Now chop the coriander leaves coarsely.
- Add the coriander leaves, coriander powder, turmeric powder, chaat masala, garam masala and salt to the potatoes and knead well.
- Now form small balls, each about 2-3 inches in diameter and flatten them slightly.Put them aside for the time being.
The vadas
- For the batter, mix the chickpea flour with water, turmeric powder, chili powder, soda and salt. The whole should be a smooth, thick batter. Better use the water sparingly so that it does not become too thin.
- Now heat oil in a pot over medium heat or use a deep fryer.
- Once it's hot, put the potato balls into the batter and place them directly into the hot oil. They don't have to be covered with oil, just turn them over.
- For the batter, mix the chickpea flour with water, turmeric powder, chili powder, soda and salt. The whole should be a smooth, thick dough. Better use the water sparingly so that it does not become too thin.
- Now heat oil in a pot over medium heat or use a deep fryer.
- Now put the potato balls into the batter and place them directly into the hot oil. They don't have to be covered with oil, just turn them over.
- But they should be deep-fried, not shallow-fried. Make sure that the batter does not touch the bottom of the pan, otherwise they will stick. In the video above, you can see that I hold them in briefly at first to fry the batter on the bottom a bit before I put them in completely.
Vada pavs
- To turn your vadas into vada pavs, add a blob of sweet chutney, green chutney and whoever likes dry garlic chutney (I like 😀) to your pavs. As written above, it is hard to get pavs outside India.
- For other dishes, I substitute pavs in Germany with Turkish pita bread. But in this case I would rather eat it instead of stuffing it. But they also taste amazing without bread.
Please rate my recipe before you leave 🙂:
My source for the recipe for Vada Pav or Batata Vadas: http://www.flavorsofmumbai.com/vada-pav-recipe/.
Cooked with lots of love ♥ on From zero to curry.
