How Many Calories Are There in a Vada Pav & Does It Have Any Health Benefits?

How many calories are there in a Vada Pav & does it have any health benefits?

Vada Pav, also known as poor man’s burger is a vegetarian Indian street food.  It has been Mumbai’s favorite snack since decades. Basically, Vada Pav is a fried Potato patty which is stuffed between bread and garnished with Coriander sauce, Garlic sauce and spices. Being simple, tasty and inexpensive makes Vada Pav extremely popular and preferable street food. 

Vada Pav is one of the most popular Indian street food which is also known as the Indian vegetarian version of the American Burger. Deep fried and stuffed with boiled potatoes, it is usually served with garlic sauce and chilies. It contains boiled potatoes, ginger-garlic paste, finely chopped onion and coriander leaves, lemon juice, curry leaves, green chilly paste, salt, oil, Cumin and mustard seeds.

When you bite into a Vada Pav, you experience the flavor of boiled and seasoned potatoes, Garlic paste, tempering of mustard and curry leaves. Then there’s some gram flour, mint sauce with white bread. The oil or fat content of a Vada Pav is higher than idli which is a healthy substitute. Potatoes give you a healthy dose of carbohydrates while gram flour has high protein content. However, the nutritive value goes down when you fry the Vada, irrespective of the oil used. The healthier option would be to make the Vada Pav at home. Use whole wheat bread and bake the Vada instead of deep frying.

By modifying the cooking process it is possible to prepare healthy version of Vada Pav at home which has less fat and fewer calories than the street version. Avoid deep-frying and replace the refined flour bread with a wholesome whole wheat bread.

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