Batata Vada (Potato Vada)

This South Indian vegetarian street food favourite will surely spice up your BBQ!

Ingredients

450 grams Potatoes (boiled, peeled and grated)

1 tsp Garlic (minced/ crushed)

1 1/2 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Rai (red mustard seeds)

1 tsp Sarson (black mustard seeds)

7-8 leaves Kadhi Patta (curry leaves)

1/2 tsp Chilli Powder

2 cups Besan (gram flour)

1 1/4 cup Water

1 tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Baking Powder and a pinch of Salt

8 small bread buns

Method

To make the potato vadas, grate the boiled potatoes in a large dish and keep aside.

Add 1 1/2 tbsp of oil to a pan and once the oil is hot, add rai, sarson and kadhi patta, 1/2 tsp turmeric and let this temper on medium heat, then add to the potato mix. Add salt, chilli powder, crushed garlic and mix until everything is well incorporated. Divide the mixture into 8 equal parts and prepare potato balls of 60 grams each. Keep aside.

Prepare the batter by mixing gram flour, water, salt, remaining turmeric. Add baking powder and mix well. Dip the potato balls in this batter, dip off the excess and deepfry until yellow/ golden brown.

For the Garlic and Peanut Dry

1/2 cup Peanuts, 10 cloves Garlic, 1 tsp Chilli Powder and a pinch of Salt

Dry roast the garlic cloves and peanuts on medium heat until they are fragrant and brown. Let this mixture cool down for 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender and add salt and chilli powder. Pulse/ blend for not more than 10 seconds until everything just comes together and you have a powder like mixture, then transfer to a bowl to serve over the potato vadas.