Vada Pav Recipe – Vada Pav, once known mostly in Mumbai is now captivating everyone’s heart across the world. Also named as Indian burger, this vada pav is food for rich and poor alike. It is a vegetarian fast food made of vada (pakora) and pav (burger bun). Continue reading for authentic mumbai style vada pav recipe.
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What is Vada Paav
Anything which is almost round in shape and is deep fried is normally called vada or pakora in general. However the wada of a wada pav is made from gram flour coated balls, which have a stuffing of masala potatoes.
When this vada is served with Paav, it is called vada paav. It is one of the most common fast food in Mumbai. Some people spell it as wava pav too.
I grew up in northern part of India in 90s. I never heard of this wada pav when I was growing up. When I relocated to Noida in 2007 and that’s when I first heard of wada pav. However, for some reasons, I never got to try this out. I then got married and for my honeymoon, I went to Switzerland and at the foothill of Mt. Titlis, for the first time I tasted wada pav. I am not sure if that small time vendor still sells vada paav there. However, his vada pav with masala tea was just fabulous.
Once I tasted it, I really wanted to try this out myself. I looked around on internet, and the material on internet in 2010 was not so good. I tried a first time and realised my vada was lacking the finish and the coating of gram flour (besan) was also not as thick as what I had at eaten. Subsequently, I realised how to fix my mistakes and since then I have used this vada paav recipe many time to make vada pav at home.
I have still not been to Mumbai, but I have had this a few times at other places too, which asserts that my vada pav tastes as good or sometimes better than restaurant style wada pavs.
Ingredients for Vada Pav
Key ingredients are:
- Vada – the fried potato balls with gram flour coating.
- Pav – burger buns
- Mint Coriander Chutney
- Date Tamarind Chutney
How to make Vada Pav
- Start with making potato stuffing. For this, heat a pan over medium flame and add 1.5 tablespoon oil to it. Once warm add Asafoetida and mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the curry leaves and sauté for a few seconds. Lastly add Grated garlic, Ginger and green chillies and sauté till the raw aroma fades away.
- Add the potatoes, turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder and salt and mix well. Switch off the heat and let it cool.
- Once this has cooled, divide it into 8 equal portions and shape them into round ball.
- For outer coating, take a mixing bowl and combine gram flour, turmeric powder, salt, red chilli powder, baking soda, oil and make a smooth batter.
Vada Pav Coating | Your Food Fantasy 
Vada Pav coating | Your Food Fantasy
- Dip each round ball of the potato stuffing into the batter and coat the mixture well from all sides.
- Drop these balls into hot oil and deep fry till they golden brown. Take them out and drain on a kitchen towel.
Frying Vada | Vada Pav Recipe 
Vada for Vada Pav
- For assembling, slice each pav / bread roll into half and spread some green chutney first, then spread the sweet tamarind chutney and dry garlic chutney inside. Place one vada in each bun and serve immediately with fried green chillies.
How to make garlic chutney for vada pav
- Take a pan and heat 2 tbsp of oil. Now add 12-15 garlic cloves and fry till these turn brown.
- In the same pan, add 100 grams of grated coconut (fresh coconut is best), fry till this is golden brown.
- Now transfer this fried coconut in a blender and add fried garlic, red chilli powder and salt. Blend it and your garlic chutney is ready.
Pro Tips for best Vada Pav
- Success of this recipeis in the vada. Vada should have a reasonably thick coating, not too thin, nor too thick. Add oil in the gram flour batter to get this smooth skin and thickness.
- Do not fry the vada on high heat. High heat will burn the skin of vada and batter layer inside will be uncooked. Fry the vadas on medium heat.
- Keep the size of vada not too big, else it may be difficult to fry properly.
- Always use fresh soft buns. In India, you can get these from super stores and are sold as ladi pav. In UK, you can get the white buns from any superstore. I found the in Sainsbury’s closest to original buns of India.
- Assemble the vada pav just before serving with hot vadas.
- People who loves chilli, can use green fried chillies on side. If frying these green chillies, be careful as they can splitter in hot oil.
This Vada Pav is
- Authentic street food from Mumbai.
- Great evening snack and is absolutely filling. You can actually make a meal of it.
- Suitable for vegan diet.
- Super hit among all age ranges. Kids love it as the concept of burger and adults like it for it being authentic Indian.
Storage and serving suggestion
You can make vada in advance if required, however I recommend making fresh. If you need to make it in advance, keep these refrigerated and then microwave or air-fry before seving.
Serve this with hot vada between the buns / pav, along with masala chai.
If you wish to explore more of mumbai cusine, you may like to try pav bhaji and papdi chaat.
Recipe Card
Vada Pav
Ingredients
For The Vada Stuffing
- 3 Boiled Potatoes Mashed
- 2 Green chillies Finely Chopped
- 1.5 Tbsp Ginger Grated
- 1 Tbsp Garlic Grated
- 1 Tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1/3 Tsp Asafoetida
- 6 Curry leaves
- 1 Tsp Coriander Powder
- 1/3 Tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/3 Tsp Roasted cumin powder
- 1/3 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1.5 Tbsp Oil
For the outer coating
- 2/3 Cup Gram flour / Besan
- 1/3 Tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/3 Tsp Salt As per taste
- 1/3 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
- A pinch Baking Soda
- 1.5 Tbsp Oil
Other Ingredients
- 100 ML Oil For Deep Frying
- 8 Whole wheat flour rolls / white roll
- 4 Tbsp Mint Coriander Chutney
- 4 Tbsp Date Tamarind Chutney
- 4 Tbsp Dry Garlic Chutney
Instructions
- Start with making potato stuffing. For this, heat a pan over medium flame and add 1.5 tablespoon oil to it. Once warm add Asafoetida and mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the curry leaves and sauté for a few seconds. Lastly add Grated garlic, Ginger and green chillies and sauté till the raw aroma fades away.
- Add the potatoes, turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder and salt and mix well. Switch off the heat and let it cool.
- Once this has cooled, divide it into 8 equal portions and shape them into round ball.
- For outer coating, take a mixing bowl and combine gram flour, turmeric powder, salt, red chilli powder, baking soda, oil and make a smooth batter.
- Dip each round ball of the potato stuffing into the batter and coat the mixture well from all sides.
- Drop these balls into hot oil and deep fry till they golden brown. Take them out and drain on a kitchen towel.
- For assembling the vada pav, slice each pav / bread roll into half and spread some green chutney first, then spread the sweet tamarind chutney and dry garlic chutney inside. Place one vada in each pav and serve immediately with fried green chillies.
Notes
- You can fry the chillies in the same oil after frying all the vadas. Be little careful as they splutter when you add them in hot oil.
- The trick for getting smooth coating and thick layer is adding oil in the mix, don’t miss out on that.