Vada Pav

Vada pav is one of the most popular street foods in India. When all else fails to crave the snack-time hunger, vada pav never disappoints.

Surprisingly, this famous snack was invented by a snack seller by a railway station who was experimenting with some combinations. This snack is a quick fix for the vegetarians, easy to make, and a treat for the taste buds. Packing this for your kid’s lunch? Make sure you pack them in an insulated lunch kit or in your kid’s lunch box.

Health Benefits:

Two of the main ingredients of Vada Pav are potato and gram-flour and both are generous with their health benefits. Potatoes in general are an excellent source of Vitamin C, and potassium. They are free from sodium, fat and cholesterol. When feeling down on energy, nothing works better than energy-packed potatoes.

Gram flour on the other hand is very high in protein and promotes weight-loss, controls diabetes, lowers cholesterol and improves the health of heart.

Following is the nutritional chart of Vada Pav:

Energy                  2895 cal

Protein                 72.3 g

Carbohydrates  416.1 g

Fat                         105.3 g

Ingredients

tbsp oil and more to deep-fry: 1

tsp turmeric powder: 1/4

tbsp lemon juice: 1

salt to taste

large potatoes--boiled and peeled: 6

A pinch of asafetida

tbsp green chili-garlic paste: 1

cup fresh coriander leaves (chopped): 1/4

small loaves of pav: 8

salt to taste

tsp turmeric powder: 1/4

cups coarse gram flour: 1 1/4

tsp red chili powder: 1/2

Pinch of soda bicarbonate

How To Make Vada Pav

1. Mix gram flour, salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder and soda bicarbonate in a bowl. Add water required to whip it into a smooth and thick batter. Set it aside to settle down for at least 15 minutes.
2. In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil on a medium flame and add turmeric powder, green chili-garlic paste, asafoetida, and stir for half a minute. Add boiled potatoes, and season with salt to taste. Mix the ingredients well. Drizzle lemon juice, coriander leaves and mix some more. While mixing, use the spoon to completely mash the potatoes.
3. Remove from heat and make 8 ballsusing your hands.
4. In a deep pan, pour enough oil to deep fry the potato balls. while the oil is heating, dip the potato balls in the gram batter, and put them in the pan to deep fry. Remove when all the 8 balls are golden and crispy.
5. Slit the pav bread from the center, spread dry garlic sauce, place one fried potato ball (vada) and press the pav close, gently.

Trivia:

• Gram flour is known by many names such as cici flour, chickpea four, and garbanzo bean flour.
• The plants of potato are usuallypollinated by bumblebees.
• Potato is a relative of tomato and tobacco.
• For as long as 18^th century, French used to think it was potato that caused leprosy.