Sabudana Vada Recipe

Sabudana Vada is one of those recipes that is made during fast/vrat/upvaas. In the Indian tradition the shravan month and the navaratra or navaratri period are times when many devout hindus fast.

The food that is taken during the fast do not contain onions, garlic, wheat products, lentils or pulses. Sago or Sabudana is a common ingredient that is used in some recipes made during the fast and recipes like Sabudana Khichdi, Sabudana Vada, Sabudana Kheer are made.

I am not a very religious person and I don’t fast. But at my place certain rituals are observed. One of them is making the food without the addition of onions and garlic.

I made this sabudana vada for my mother-in-law who observes fasting. The Sabudana Vada snack can also be made during other times. Its crispy and delicious and can be made as a morning or evening snack. Sabudana Vada is served with sweet curd/yoghurt in Maharastra and this combination tastes great. To make the sweet curd, you will just need to add some sugar to the curd and mix it.

Basically, Sabudana Vada recipe comes from Maharashtra. In Mumbai, one will find many mithai shops selling sabudana vadas. In fact it is a street food in Mumbai and many vendors sell these. So here is the recipe for the Sabudana Vada.

Ingredients for the Sabudana Vada:

• 1 cup Sabudana/ Sago
• 3 – 4 potatoes
• 1/2 cup groundnuts
• 1-2 green chillies finely chopped
• 1 tsp finely chopped ginger
• 2 tsp lime juice (optional)
• few chopped coriander leaves (optional)
• 1 and half tsp sugar
• sendha namak – a kind of salt used in food made during fasts. You could use ordinary salt if the recipe is not being made during the fasting period.
• oil for frying

Method for making the Sabudana Vadas:

1: Soak the sabudana or sago  in water for 5 hours atleast or overnight. I soaked the sago overnight and in the morning they had become very soft.

2: Drain of all the water from the soaked sabudana.

3: Boil aloos/potatoes and then mash them. Mix the mashed aloos and sabudana together.

4: On a skillet or in a shallow pan, roast the groundnuts/peanuts well. Cool and then coarsely grind in a grinder.

5: Add the groundnuts, sendha salt, sugar, ginger, green chillies, coriander leaves and lemon juice. Mix the entire mixture well.

6:  Now take some portion of the mixture in your hands and shape them into falt round vadas. Do this till all the mixture is utilized.

7: Deep fry the sabudana vadas till golden brown. Serve with sweet curd/yoghurt or green chutney. You could also serve it with tomato sauce.

Tips for making Sabudana Vadas:

• The Sabudana/Sago has to be really soaked well. Not even a little hardness should be left in the sago.
• The water needs to be drained well. Use a seive or a colander to drain the water. The sabudana vada mixture is dry. If there is moisture in the mixture, then you won’t get a proper shape of the sabudana vadas and they will become soggy from inside.
• The oil has to be neither too hot nor warm. If its hot, the vadas will burn from outside leaving the inside portion uncooked. If warm, the vadas will absorb oil, making the vadas loaded with oil.
• If you want the vadas to be crisp from outside, you need to brown them a little more.
• You could use roasted groundnuts/peanuts. Only if the peanuts are not roasted, then you need to roast them. If they are skinned, then on roasting the skin becomes flaky and you can remove the skin easily from the peanuts with your fingers.