• Heat a tbsp oil, add mustard seeds and let it crackle.
• Next add curry leaves, chopped ginger, garlic and green chillies. Fry on a low heat until it is fragrant.
• Next add in the hing, salt and turmeric powder. Saute well.
• Now add the mashed potatoes and coriander leaves. Turn off the flame and mix everything well.
• Cool this mixture and then shape them into small balls that will fit in the mini buns. Shape all the balls and keep them aside.
• Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai. Once oil is hot, regulate to medium flame.
• Start dipping each ball in the batter, coat the potato balls with batter and deep fry in hot oil. Batata vadas are ready. Keep them aside.
• Finally deep fry the de-seeded green chillies lightly by placing it in a mesh strainer. Do not over fry them.

Assembling the Vada Pav

• Slit each pav bun to sandwich it and make sure one side is intact.
• Spread/Smear green chutney on the inner sides of the pav and sprinkle garlic powder on it.
• Flatten the batata vada and place it on the pav. Pour a tsp or two of the tamarind date chutney on the vada.
• Place a fried green chilli on top and make it like a sandwich. You can eat at least 6 of the mini vada pavs totally guilt-free if you have worked out that morning 🙂

Tips

• Boil potatoes until just done. I usually steam them in instapot. Steaming is better than boiling them in water since it will be a little mushy if it is boiled. You don’t want soggy masala.
• You can also pound garlic, ginger and green chillies using a mortar and pestle instead of finely chopping them. This gives a great aromatic flavor.
• Check if the oil is hot by dropping a small drop of batter in oil. It should sizzle and rise to the surface without turning dark brown.
• To make the recipe fast, you can choose to buy the chutneys from local Indian stores. I normally make my own green chutney which is super yummy with this recipe and all chaat recipes.