Baked Vada Pav Using Canned Pillsbury Biscuit/ Air Fryer instructions
The ultimate street food with a modern twist. Here the pav or the bread is replaced with biscuit. The potato filling is stuffed into the biscuit along with the dry garlic chutney. Its healthier than the traditional vada pav because here we are not frying the vadas. Its easy to carry to picnics and in lunch boxes and is non messy to eat and serve. Plus it gets a 10 on 10 for looks and presentation.
Equipment
- 1 mixing bowl
- 1 small tarka pan
- 1 large baking sheet
- 1 chopping board
- 1 Knife
- 1 pastry brush
Ingredients
- 1 can Pillsbury Grands 8 Big biscuits 462 grams/1 lb/ 16 oz can of biscuit
- 5-6 tbsp Vada Pav Chutney/ Dry Garlic Chutney
For Tarka/tempering the potatoes
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds/Rai small or large, I used large mustard seeds
- 3/4 tsp cumin seeds Jeera
- 3/4 tsp white sesame seeds Safed til
- 1 pinch Asafetida Hing
- 10-15 curry leaves
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder Haldi powder
- 2 tbsp cilantro stems, chopped fine optional
For Potato filling
- 5-6 medium potatoes boiled, peeled and grated or mashed
- 1 tbsp ginger, minced
- 2 tsp green chilies, minced
- 3 tbsp cilantro, chopped finely
- 1/2-2 tbsp lemon juice start with 1.5 tbsp and add more if needed
- 2-3 tsp sugar start with 2 tsp and add more if needed
- salt as per taste I used 1/2 - 2 tsp
For topping
- 1 tbsp white sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp Vada pav Chutney/Dry Garlic chutney
- 2 tbsp oil ,butter or ghee for brushing the rolls before baking I prefer ghee, use oil for vegan
- 1 tbsp Garlic butter for brushing the rolls right after baking optional
Instructions
For oven baked Vada pav
- Preheat oven at 350 F/ 180 C
- Chop cilantro and also chop the stems. We will use the chopped stems in the tarka.
For tempering/tarka
- In pan heat oil and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and white sesame seeds and cook till they crackle
- add asafetida, curry leaves, turmeric, stir and add the chopped cilantro stems and cook for a minute. Turn off heat
Prepare Filling
- In a large bowl put the boiled, grated mashed potatoes.
- Add the tempering to the potatoes.
- Add ginger, green chilies, lemon juice, salt, sugar and chopped cilantro and mix well
- Make 16 balls. You will have some filling left over
Assemble the Vada Pav
- Split a biscuit in half (In thickness ). On one half of the biscuit, place 1/4 - 1/2 tsp vada pav chutney/Dry garlic chutney.
- Put a potato ball on top of the dry chutney and close the biscuit over the potato ball. Make sure the biscuit completely covers the potato ball and is sealed from all sides and makes a smooth ball. Repeat with all the biscuits. You will get 16 vada pavs.
- On a large ungreased baking dish, place the 16 vada pavs, keeping a little bit of space between each. Brush with oil/ butter or ghee sprinkle some white sesame seeds and bake at 350F/180C for 17 minutes.
- As soon as you take the vada pav out of the oven, brush some melted garlic butter on the vada pavs(optional) and sprinkle some dry garlic chutney on them Serve right away with green chutney and additional dry garlic chutney.
For air fryer
- Preheat the air fryer to 370F/ 190C. This is the lowest setting on my air fryer.
- Place 4-5 vada pavs in air fryer. Brush with oil/ butter or ghee sprinkle some white sesame seeds and air fry for 6 minutes or till golden. Brush garlic butter(optional) and sprinkle some dry vada pav chutney on top
Notes
You can use any brand biscuit, follow the baking time listed on the biscuit package. I started checking at 15 minutes. Bake till golden brown. I felt the air fryer ones had better color than the baked ones and got done faster. The biscuits will expand a little while baking, so keep some space between the vada pavs while baking. Brushing with melted garlic butter in the end really elevates the taste.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!