Mumbai Vada Pav Recipe - Vada Pav captures the spirit of the city like no other street food. Born on the bustling streets of Mumbai, this humble "Indian burger" brings together a crisp, golden fried potato dumpling tucked inside a soft pav and layered with spice powders and delicious chutneys.
What began as a simple, budget-friendly snack has grown into a cultural symbol, and it is comforting, bold, and irresistibly delicious!
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Why is Vada Pav so popular and loved?
- This popular dish is usually sold on the streets of Mumbai, catering to the fast-paced lives of people there.
- Vada is the deep-fried potato patty, and the pav is the burger bun. This is different from the other vadas posted earlier, like sabudana vada, parippu vada, as they are usually had by themselves with a chutney or dip. Vada Pav is all about the harmony of the two. It's a delightful duo where the vada shines on its own, yet becomes truly iconic when paired with the pav.
- It's incredibly easy to fall in love with Vada Pav, even if you've never tasted it before. After all, who can resist a crisp, deep-fried potato patty tucked inside a soft pav or burger bun?
- This iconic Mumbai snack is also easy to make and requires just a handful of basic ingredients.
- The chutneys and spice powders that accompany it can be prepared ahead of time, picked up from the store, or even skipped entirely when you're short on time.
- And the best part? Both the vada and the pav taste great on their own, but together they create a comforting, flavor-packed combo you'll want to make again and again.
Ingredients needed for Vada Pav
- Hamburger buns, savory rolls, or pav - Some folks make them from scratch, but I prefer the store-bought ones for convenience.
- Mashed potatoes - They form the main ingredient of the patty.
- Ginger, garlic, and green chilies are crushed in a pestle and mortar.
- Mustard seeds for tempering,
- Lemon Juice, Curry leaves, and coriander leaves for garnish.
Mumbai Vada Pav Recipe - how to make?
To make the Vadas, first start by boiling potatoes until soft, then mash and set aside. Have the ginger, garlic, and green chili coarsely crushed ready. Heat some oil and splutter mustard seeds, then add turmeric, the chili, ginger, garlic coarse paste, followed by the turmeric, mashed potatoes, and salt.
- Step 1:Splutter mustard seeds, add turmeric and the ground coarse ginger, garlic, and chili paste.
- Step 2: Add the mashed potatoes.
Finish with lemon juice, curry leaves, and coriander leaves. When cooled, make round-shaped balls and keep aside. We made similar potato mixtures with different combinations of spices when making vegetable malai kofta, aloo paratha, stuffed shimla mirch and masala dosa. Next, make the batter with the chickpea flour, rice flour, and spices.
- Step 3: Add the lemon juice, curry leaves, and coriander leaves.
- Step 4: Take all the ingredients to make the batter.
The batter should be thick so it can easily coat the potato balls by dipping them into it.
- Step 5: Make a thick batter.
- Step 6: Keep the rolled potatoes and batter ready.
- Step 7: Coat the potato balls with the batter.
- Step 8: Heat oil and deep-fry the vadas until they are golden brown, and keep aside.
When ready to serve, assemble the vada on the pav (burger bun) and add the spiced powders and green chutney.
How to make the green chutney?
This is one of the easiest chutneys to make. You will need coriander leaves, chilies, and garlic. Grind them to a smooth paste, and then add oil and lemon juice. If you like, add a little sugar and salt to taste.
The chutney is spread on the pav or bun, and then the vada is placed on top of it. Some folks also add the garlic chutney and have a fried green chili to go with it. You can also use dry chutney powder if you like. All the chutneys are optional, and just the vada and pav by themselves taste awesome.
If you love this recipe, you may also love other delicious Indian Street foods like Street Pav Bhaji and Soft Dahi Vada.
Related Recipes
If you tried this Mumbai Vada Pav Recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and a 📝 comment below. I love hearing from you!
Mumbai Vada Pav Recipe
Ingredients
For the vada (potato patty)
- 3 medium potatoes boiled and mashed
- 3 green chillies
- 1 inch ginger
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 stalk curry leaves
- ¼ cup coriander leaves finely chopped
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
- 1 pinch
asafoetida - 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 cups oil to deep fry
For the batter to deep fry patty
- 1 cup chickpea flour besan or
- 1 tbsp rice flour
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp red chilly powder
- 1 pinch asafoetida
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup water or as required to make a thick batter
Other ingredients
- 12 dinner rolls pav
- 10 green chillies fried optional
- 1 cup green chutney
- 1 cup dry garlic chutney
Green chutney ingredients
- 1 bunch coriander leaves
- 2 green chilies
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp oil
- ¼ tsp salt or to taste
Dry garlic chutney ingredients
- ½ cup coconut dry
- 5 to 6 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp groundnuts
- ½ tsp tamarind
- ¼ tsp salt or to taste
Instructions
To make the Potato Patty or Vada
- Heat a little oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds.
- Add the roughly crushed green chilly, garlic and ginger .
- Add turmeric powder salt and mix well.
- Add mashed potatoes and combine well.
- Add chopped coriander leaves, curry leaves and lemon juice.
- Make small round balls of the mashed potato mixture and keep aside.
- Make the batter with the ingredients in the batter section .It should neither be too thick nor runny but just enough to coat the potato patty.
- Coat the potato balls in batter by dipping them evenly.
- Deep fry in hot oil till they are golden brown.
To make green chutney
- Grind green chillies, coriander leaves, garlic into a fine paste
- Add salt, lemon juice and a little oil
To make the dry garlic chutney
- Grind garlic, dry coconut , red chilly powder, peanuts, sesame, salt and tamarind to a rough paste.
To assemble the vada pav
- Use store bought pav or dinner rolls .Make a slit all the way till the end.
- Spread butter and fry on a pan on both sides
- Spread green chutney , dry garlic chutney if you like and place a vada on top of it .
- Add a fried green chilly if you can tolerate the spice .
- Cover it up and have a big bite.
Very interesting! Good one to try!
They are really yum , hope you will try them! Thank you so much 🙂
Perfect street food for rainy season!!
Yes rightly said Deeksha, Thank you !
I totally agree, Nisha -- how can you go wrong with a deep fried potato between two buns? 😉 I really enjoy learning about street food from other countries, and I'm really looking forward to trying this in India someday!
Thank you Lynn
I’m so glad you explained this, like how vada is the potato and pav is the burger bun - I’d never come across it before but that deep fried potato looks so yummy! My carb-loving brain is wanting one of these! xx
Thank you! Its sure very tempting 🙂
Yum, yum, yummy! 🙂
Thank you!
Looks delicious 😋
Such a delightful treat, I never say NO to this😁.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Looks yummy
Thank you!