Spicy Indian burgers with a spicy potato patty sandwiched with a layer of pungent garlic chutney and served with fried green chillies.

Vada pav is a popular spicy vegetarian fast food dish native to Maharashtra. It consists of a batata vada sandwiched between 2 slices of a pav.

Pav refers to unsweetened bread or bun. It is also known as Indian Burger.
Batata vada is synonymous with the south Indian Potato Bonda and is the Indianized burger.

Crispy vada sandwiched between soft buns with spicy garlic/ mint/ coriander chutney. It’s a hugely popular street food in India and has its origins in the state of Maharashtra.Vada Pavs are common to find in every part of India and is sold by roadside vendoors and some shops

Everyone loves Vada pav and it is one of the most popular much loved street foods in chaat varieties.

I do not think anyone would have come away from Mumbai or any part of Maharashtra without having a taste of this delicious anytime snack .

The spicy perfectly flavored smooth Vada that is deep fried to a crunchy texture and sandwiched between a pav bun that is smeared with spicy garlic chutney and a green chutbey. To the finale is a green crispy chili that goes into the layer .

A smattering of some Sev on top , and generous handful of the fried remnants of the Vada batter that is actually a key element to devouring a Vada pav . All these come together to give you that mouth ful of flavours .

Ingredients:

Paav buns as required.

Ingredients for the filling/potato patty

4 medium size potatoes depending on the no of people you want to serve.

2 green chillies

1 clove garlic or more if you like also it is optional.

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

pinch of turmeric powder

salt to taste

1 tbsp lime juice.

oil for tempering.

Oil for deep frying as needed.

Ingredients for the batter.

1 cup gram four/besan

salt to taste

2 tbsp rice flour

pinch of cooking soda

Pinch of turmeric powder.

Water as needed to make a batter.

Ingredients for the green chutney

1 cup coriander leaves

1/2 cup mint leaves

Pinch of salt

Small piece of ginger

2 green chillies and you can add more chillies if you want a spicy green chutney.

To prepare the chutney, grind all the ingredients to make a thick paste with little water.Keep aside.

Ingredients for the spicy red chutney powder

2 tsp Chilli powder
¼ cup Coconut powder ( dry )good brands are available easily in stores.

3 Garlic cloves, chopped
4 Green chillies, chopped
Pinch of Hing (asafoetida)
1 tsp jeera powder
¼ cup Peanuts, roasted
Salt to taste
¼ cup white Sesame seeds, roasted.

To prepare the chutney powder

1. Dry roast peanuts and sesame seeds separately and then add them into a blender to make a fine powder.

2. Keep this aside. In a pan, heat very little oil. Add pinch of hing, chopped garlic, green chillies and sauté well. 

3. Add coconut powder and fry till they get slightly browned. Switch off the flame. Add chilli powder, cumin powder and mix well. 

4. Allow to cool and then add the roasted peanut and sesame seeds powder and mix well. Add salt to taste and keep stirring until all the ingredients are nicely mixed together. Keep this aside.

Method

1. First prepare the potato patty by first preparing the tempering with little oil, mustardseeds,cumin seeds, garlic, green chillies. Pressure cook potatoes with pinch of turmeric powder for 4 whistles. Remove when cooled, peel , and mash well to a smooth texture.

2. Add the cooked mashed potatoes to the tempering and add the turmeric powder, salt and cook well till blended.

3. Add lime juice after the gas is switched off. Mix well and when cool make small portions of balls to dip into the gram flourbatter and deep fried

4. .Prepare the besan/ gram flour batter by mixing all the ingredients mentioned under batter.

5. use verylittle water at a time and make a batter by mixing well, and should be of thick droppingconsistency so that the potato patty gets coated well.

6. Keep the oil to heat and prepare the potato patty ready to be dipped in batter.When the oil is heated well, dip the potato patty in the batter and drop in the hot oilcarefully.

7. Prepare all the patties in this manner and drain well. I have used appae pan to shallow fry the potato vada into small balls . they came out well too , so use the paniyaram pan if you do not want to deep fry the batata vada .check the collage below where i have used the paniyaram pan to fry the potato balls .

To assemble the vada paav

1. Take one paav, dont cut them in two, just slit them open wide enough to smear the greenchutney on one side, the red chutney powder on the other and sandwich the potato patty inbetween by flattening it a bit.

2. Slightly press the paav to hold the potato patty well beforeserving,.

3. Serve with fried green chillies as it is normally done by thechaat wallas.

4. Sometimes pieces of fried batter is placed in between the paav while serving too as shown in the pic.