Every time I visit home from London, Mumbai’s famous street food – vada pav – is something I have to have. The pipping hot, batter fried spiced potato balls, stuffed inside soft pavs (dinner rolls) are my favourite. And with the chilly weather here, coupled with my cravings of spicy food, the batata vada with garlic chutney popped up in my mind! Then what followed is, what you see in the pictures. I had this yummy, deep fried potato snack with the chutney, some fried chilis and my chai. And I was instantly, reminded of the wonderful memories of my college days. When my friends and I, after classes, would chill over innumerable cups of cutting chai and these aloo bondas.
Batata is a Marathi word, which means potatoes and vada loosely means croquettes. Hence, batata vada means potato croquettes. And the garlic chutney that I am talking about here, is typical to this snack. It generally is orange in colour, because of the dried red chilis in it and is loaded with garlic. However, it isn’t very hot, rather more flavourful, because of the garlicky aroma. Another crucial accompaniment to the vada pav or batata vada are the seasoned and fried green chilis. Again, not extremely hot, these are amazing to bite into along with the croquettes.
Also see,
Mumbai street style roasted corn
Tea time snack
My batata vada with garlic chutney is a mouthwatering evening snack, which goes especially great with masala chai. Also known as aloo bonda, these, alternatively taste yum sandwiched between breads and dinner rolls, too. And making things even better is the fact that, the batata vada recipe is pretty easy. Moreover, the ingredients’ list isn’t too lengthy. You will simply require some boiled potatoes along with a few aromatics like hing, curry leaves, ginger, garlic and chilis. Like the chutney, the vadas too have an appetizing garlicky flavour. Additionally, making the chutney too, is hassle free and in fact, half it’s process lies in the batata vada recipe, itself.
What I mean by that is, the chutney is made with the gram flour batter along with garlic and dried chilis. Yes, that is correct. It is the the deep fried batter that gives the chutney it’s body. Amazing isn’t it? So, you won’t actually need to provision for it separately. I love it when delicious food is so easy to make as well! I’d call this is a win-win situation. 🙂
If you aren’t a fan of garlic, then you could also make some green chutney to go with the batata vadas. Also, you could tame the heat levels in the vadas as per your taste. And in the chutney, you could use those dried red chilis that have colour and not so much heat.
Now, if you are thinking that these are deep fried and so not really healthy, then you aren’t wrong. But, you surely can indulge once in a way. Treat yourself to this yummy snack over a weekend with family and friends over chai and conversations!
Here is the easy peasy batata vada with garlic chutney recipe for you to try it out soon.
Eat hearty!
Batata vada with garlic chutney
Equipment
- Kadhai/Indian wok
Ingredients
For the batata vadas
- 4-5 large potatoes boiled & mashed
- 1 cup besan gram flour
- 10-12 fresh curry leaves
- 3 tbsp ginger crushed
- 3 tbsp garlic crushed
- 3 tbsp green chilis crushed (optional)
- ¼ cup coriander leaves chopped
- 1 tsp hing asafoedita
- 1 tbsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp mustard seeds
- 10-12 large green chilis slit from the centre
- oil for deep frying
- salt to taste
For the garlic chutney
- ½ cup gram flour batter*
- ¼ cup garlic cloves peeled & roughly chopped
- ¼ cup dried red chilis roughly chopped
- salt to taste
Instructions
To make the batata vadas
- Heat a small frying pan with 2-3 tablespoons of the oil. When hot, add the mustard seeds and wait until they splutter
- Then add the curry leaves, hing, ginger, garlic, chilis and turmeric
- Fry this well for 2-3 minutes or until the raw smell of the ginger and garlic goes away. Remove from flame
- In a mixing bowl, take the potatoes and pour the fried ginger and garlic mixture into it, along with salt and the chopped coriander leaves
- Mix well so that everything is well incorporated. Divide this mixture into equal sized balls
- In another bowl, whisk the gram flour with a touch of salt and add water gradually to form a lump free and moderately thick batter**
- Set the kadhai with the oil to heat. Add a tablespoon of the hot oil to the besan batter and mix well - this results into crispy vadas
- Dip the spiced potato balls in the gram flour batter, coat well and deep fry them over moderate heat, until golden brown all over
- Remove and drain the batata vadas on kitchen towels
- In the same oil, fry the large green chilis for 30 seconds each. Remove on kitchen towels and drizzle some salt over them
To make the garlic chutney
- Give the the gram flour batter, made in step 6, a good mix with about 2 tbsp of water, with your fingers, to loosen it up
- Now, over the same frying pan, drizzle this mixture and fry until they are crisp. Do this for about ½ cup of the leftover batter
- Remove these gram flour bubbles on a paper towel
- When slightly cooled down, blitz this along with the garlic cloves, dried chilis and salt in a blender, until everything is broken down and homogenous
- This is your garlic chutney for batata vadas. Remove in a bowl
- Serve the batata vada with the garlic chutney and fried chilis, hot and fresh, as is or with dinner rolls or pav. Enjoy!
Notes
- *Use the batter made for the batata vadas itself
- **The batter should neither be too thin nor too thick. If too thin, it will not coat the vadas well and if too thick, the fried vadas will taste more of the batter than the potatoes
- Do not over crowd the kadhai/wok when frying them
- I was able to make 12 large batata vadas out of these quantities
- tbsp - tablespoon
- tsp - teaspoon
Thanks For Sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope the will like it.