Neena Gupta is the epitome of courage and humility at the same time. Devoid of being in the Indian film industry for decades, she has never let her feet off the ground. Be it cooking food for her daughter Masaba Gupta or sharing long-form video recipes of homecooked food, the Bollywood actor never forgets her roots.
Her fans love her for her originality, unapologetic confidence, and, of course, the relatable foodie. No matter where she goes, the actor who recently starred in Panchayat season 3 always shares snippets of her gastronomical adventures. Recently, she posted an Instagram reel about how she makes vada pav and pairs it with spicy lehsun chutney.
The Instagram video starts with some heated oil in a steel pan (kadahi) with some mustard seeds (rai), asafoetida (hing), curry leaves, and lehsun (garlic). Once the mixture sputters, Neena Gupta's house helps add a greenish paste. Neena Gupta goes on to tell the ingredients of the paste, i.e., adrak (ginger), lehsun (garlic), and hari mirch (green chilly).
After sauteeing all the ingredients, she adds a little turmeric powder and mixes it in. Then comes the main ingredient to make the crispy vada, and she adds boiled potatoes to the pan. Season the mixture with salt as per your taste and let the mixture cool down.
Once the mixture for the vada cools down, you can mash the masala to make it uniform. Next, Neena Gupta makes a consistent batter made with besan and water to coat the potato mixture. So, the next step is to take small portions of the potato mixture, coat it in the batter, and deep-fry in batches.
In the other half of the recent Instagram video, Neena Gupta shows how she makes spicy lehsun chutney for her vada pav. Firstly, she takes dried red chillies and takes out its seeds. Next, she sautees the dried chillies with chopped lehsun and salt in some oil. Once it is aromatic, she grinds the contents in an electric mixture.
Finally, she assembles the vada pav by spreading the freshly prepared lehsun chutney on the roasted pav buns. Next, she puts the crispy fried vadas in between the pav, and there you have the recipe for Neena Gupta’s homemade vada pav.