Vada Pav is Mumbai. It's not just a street food — it's the city's identity, its fuel, its daily ritual. An estimated 10 million vada pavs are consumed every single day across Mumbai alone. It was invented in the 1960s by Ashok Vaidya outside Dadar station as a quick, cheap, filling snack for commuters — and within decades it became the most eaten street food in India. The global food media has called it "India's original burger" and that comparison has made it one of the most trending Indian food searches of 2025–2026, as international audiences discover that India had a burger concept decades before the modern gourmet burger movement.
The vada is a spiced potato ball coated in gram flour batter and deep fried until golden and crispy. The pav is a soft, slightly sweet bread roll — similar to a brioche bun. Between them: a smear of dry garlic chutney (the fiery, red, powdered condiment that gives Vada Pav its signature heat) and green coriander-chilli chutney for freshness. The combination — soft bread, crispy shell, fluffy spiced potato, fiery chutney — is one of the most perfectly balanced flavour-and-texture experiences in any cuisine. At Pick N Save, we stock everything: gram flour for the batter, potatoes, fresh curry leaves, mustard seeds, and green chillies for the filling, plus pav buns (Quickbury Burger Buns). We've been supplying Mumbai-food-obsessed customers in Harrow since 1999.
This is the soul of Vada Pav — without this chutney, it's just a potato fritter in bread. In a dry pan over medium heat, toast 6–8 dried red chillies (whole, stems removed) for 1 minute until they darken slightly and become brittle. Add 4 cloves of garlic (Fresh Garlic Medium) and toast for 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Let cool for 1 minute, then grind to a coarse powder in a spice grinder, small blender, or mortar and pestle with 1 tablespoon of desiccated coconut (TFS Desicated Coconut 250g), ½ teaspoon of salt, and a squeeze of lemon juice. The result should be a dry, coarse, fiery red powder — intensely garlicky and hot. This is the chutney that makes Vada Pav famous. A tiny smear inside the pav delivers a slow-building heat that lingers.
Shortcut: Use 2 tablespoons of any ready-made garlic chutney from our shelf if available, or mix 1 teaspoon of red chilli powder with ½ teaspoon of garlic powder and a pinch of salt for a quick approximation.
Blend a handful of fresh coriander (Fresh Coriander Bunch), a handful of fresh mint (Fresh Mint Bunch), 2 green chillies (Indian Chilli 400g), 1 clove of garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice, and salt to taste with 2 tablespoons of water into a smooth, bright green paste. Alternatively, use Sagar Coriander Chutney 200g directly from the jar. Set aside.
Boil 4 medium potatoes (Potato White 2kg) until fork-tender. Peel and mash roughly — keep some texture, don't make it completely smooth. The slightly chunky texture gives the vada character.
Heat 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil (KTC Pure Sunflower Oil) in a small pan over medium heat. Add ½ teaspoon of mustard seeds (TFS Mustard Seeds Large 100g) — wait for them to pop (5 seconds). Add a pinch of asafoetida / hing (Ramdev Hing 100g) and 8–10 fresh curry leaves (Fresh Curry Leaves) — they'll crackle. Add 1 teaspoon of finely chopped green chilli (Indian Chilli 400g) and ½ teaspoon of turmeric (TFS Haldi Powder Rajapuri 100g). Stir for 10 seconds.
Pour this tempering over the mashed potatoes. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander (Fresh Coriander Bunch). Mix everything together. The potato mixture should be flavourful, slightly yellow from turmeric, and fragrant with curry leaves. Let it cool enough to handle.
Divide the potato mixture into 8 equal portions. Roll each into a smooth, round ball — about the size of a golf ball, slightly larger than a ping-pong ball. The surface must be smooth and crack-free — cracks allow the batter to seep inside during frying. If the mixture is too wet to hold shape, add 1 tablespoon of gram flour and mix. Set the shaped balls on a plate.
In a bowl, mix 1 cup (100g) of gram flour (Fudco Gram Flour 1kg), ¼ teaspoon of turmeric, ¼ teaspoon of red chilli powder (TFS Red Chilli Powder 100g), ¼ teaspoon of baking soda (for extra crispness), and a pinch of salt. Add water gradually — approximately 100ml — whisking to form a smooth batter. The consistency should be like thick paint — it should coat the back of a spoon and drip slowly when lifted. Too thin = the coating slides off the vada. Too thick = heavy, doughy coating.
Heat sunflower oil (KTC Pure Sunflower Oil 5 Litres) in a deep kadhai or pan to 175°C — slightly below the standard 180°C to give the thick potato ball time to heat through before the batter burns. Dip each potato ball fully into the gram flour batter, turning to coat completely. Gently slide into the hot oil. Fry 3–4 vadas at a time — don't overcrowd. Fry for 3–4 minutes, turning occasionally, until the batter is deep golden-brown and crispy all over. The coating should be audibly crispy when tapped with a spoon. Drain on kitchen paper.
Slice 4 pav buns (Quickbury Burger Buns or any soft white bread rolls) horizontally — don't cut all the way through, keep a hinge. Heat a tawa or pan with a thin layer of butter (Anchor Butter Salted 500g). Place the pav cut-side down on the buttered tawa for 30 seconds until golden and slightly crispy — this step adds flavour and prevents the bun from going soggy.
Assembly order — this matters:
Serve immediately with an extra fried green chilli on the side. Eat in 3–4 bites — no knife and fork, no plate needed. This is handheld street food at its most perfect.
Every single ingredient for this recipe is available at picknsave.co.uk with home delivery across London and the UK, or click and collect from our store in Harrow. Here's your shopping list:
*RI = Reference Intake. Per serving = 1 vada pav + both chutneys. Values approximate.
