Vada Pav | The Perfect Sunday Breakfast

Some mornings ask for quiet. Coffee steaming in its cup, sunlight stretching slow across the table, and food that feels like comfort more than ceremony. That’s what Sunday Breakfasts has always been about: slow, soulful mornings told through the language of food.

And today, we close this season with a dish that carries a city’s heartbeat in every bite: vada pav. Mumbai’s most iconic street food, reimagined for a calm Sunday kitchen, where the rush of the street gives way to the ease of home.

The Heart of Mumbai’s Street Food

Ask anyone who has lived in or visited Mumbai: vada pav isn’t just food, it is a way of life. A spicy potato fritter, crisp and golden, tucked into soft pav (a bread roll), often served with chutneys and a fried chili on the side.

It is the snack of students running late for class, office workers grabbing a quick bite, or friends catching up on a street corner. Affordable, filling, and bursting with flavor, vada pav is Mumbai’s answer to the burger.

Vada Pav in a Slow Kitchen (No Deep Frying)

But today, the vada pav slows down. Instead of the chaos of crowded train stations or roadside stalls, it is born in a quiet kitchen where there is no rush and no queues.

Here, the spicy mashed potato filling is rolled gently, dipped in a gram flour batter, and cooked in an appe pan, turning golden in little pockets of heat without deep frying. It is still crisp on the outside, pillowy on the inside, but just a little lighter.

This appe pan vada pav is street food comfort made calm. The soul of the snack stays intact, while the method feels right for a Sunday morning at home.

Why Vada Pav Feels Like Comfort Food

Food is not always about presentation. Sometimes it is about memory, nostalgia, and the way one bite can transport you.

The vada pav is a vegetarian snack that delivers all of that. It is humble, hearty, and honest. Street food stripped of the rush, placed back into the rhythm of a quiet breakfast. When the crisp vada meets the soft pav, it feels less like fast food and more like comfort, the kind of meal that reminds you you are home.

A Sunday Breakfast to Remember

As this season of Sunday Breakfasts pauses, it feels right to end on vada pav. A dish that belongs to the streets of Mumbai, yet fits so easily into the warmth of home.

Because mornings will always deserve to be slow. Kitchens will always carry stories. And there will always be another plate waiting to be shared.

Potato Filling:

• 2 tsp oil

• ½ tsp mustard

• ¼ tsp asafetida

• 1-2 Thai chilies

• 3 tbsp coriander

• 1 inch ginger

• 3 cloves of garlic

• ½ tsp turmeric powder

• 2 large potatoes, cooked & hand mashed

• Salt to taste

• Small pinch of sugar (optional)

• Juice of ½ lime

Cook potatoes and set aside to cool. 

In a small blender or using the mortar and pestle make a coarse paste out of the  the ginger, garlic, chilies, and cilantro.

In a pan heat up the oil and add in mustard seeds, once they start crackling add in the asafetida and then the prepared spice paste. Stir and cook until the raw flavor goes away. 

Lower the flame and add in the potatoes and mix well. Cook for another minute. Set aside to cool.

Divide the mixture and roll into balls and set aside.

Dry Garlic Chutney:

• ¼ cup whole garlic

• 1 tbsp peanut

• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

• 1 tsp coriander seeds

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• 2 tsp oil

• ⅓ cup dried coconut flakes

• ½ tsp dry mango powder (aamchur)

• ½ tsp red chili powder

• ¼ tsp asafetida

• Salt to taste

In a small pan heat the oil and add in the whole garlic cloves, you can chop them up but it’s all going into a blender at the end so the step can be skipped.

Sauté on low flame for a couple of minutes.

Then add in the peanuts and sauté for a minute or two. Add in the sesame seeds, cumin, & coriander and sauté for another minute until aromatic.

Add in the coconut and sauté for only a minute, be careful to not burn the coconut.

Turn off the stove and allow to cool.

Once cool add in the chilli powder, dried mango powder, asafetida, salt, and blend until it’s a coarse powder without any water. This is a dry chutney. You want the texture to be that of lightly crushed corn flakes.

Green Chutney I used Swasthi’s Recipe, linking it here

8-12 dinner rolls or pav

Chickpea Batter:

• ½ cup chickpea flour

• 1 tbsp rice flour

• 1 tbsp corn flour

• ½ tsp turmeric 

• ¼ tsp asafetida

• ¼- ½ cup water, add in a little at a time

• ¼ tsp of eno (or you can do baking soda here as well)

• Salt to taste

• Paniyaram/Ebelskiver pan

• Oil 

Add in all ingredients except the eno and water to a pan and mix well. 

Add in the water a little at a time and mix to for a runny but thick batter. 

Just before you are ready to fry or cook the vada add in the eno and mix to incorporate.

To make the vada and assemble:

Add the rolled out potato balls to the chickpea batter and either deep fry or cook well in a paniyaram pan adding just a little oil to crisp the outside

To assemble to your pav, or dinner rolls, smear a little green chutney, add a little of the garlic chutney, tamarind chutney (optional) and add in your vada pressing it down a little. 

Add in more of the garlic chutney on top and serve with pan roasted Thai chilies (optional)