Rinse and then soak ½ cup sabudana pearls in ½ to ⅔ cup water for 4 to 5 hours or overnight. Depending on the quality of sabudana you can even soak for 2 hours. When properly soaked, the sabudana pearl, should get mashed when pressed. If you feel some hardness in the center, then soak for some more time.
Then strain the soaked sabudana pearls very well in a strainer. Do strain very well as there should not be any water.
preparing sabudana vada mixture
Take them in a bowl.
Now mash them well with your hands. The mashing has to be done very well or else they are not easy to bind. Keep aside.
In a small pan, add 2 tablespoons peanuts.
On a low flame, stirring at times, roast peanuts till you see a few black spots on them. They should become crunchy. Instead of peanuts, you can also add cashews.
Then take the peanuts in a mortar-pestle and coarsely crush them. Keep aside.
Add 1/2 inch ginger (finely chopped), 1 or 2 green chilies (chopped) and 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds to the mashed sabudana.
Add 1 teaspoon lemon juice.
Now add the coarsely crushed peanuts. Also add 1 tablespoon grated fresh coconut. Coconut is optional and you can skip it.
Add 3 tablespoons rajgira atta (amaranth flour). You can also use buckwheat flour (kuttu ka atta) and water chestnut flour (singhare ka atta).
Add 1/2 teaspoon sugar. You can add sugar as per taste.
Mix very well and then add rock salt. Mix again very well. Check the taste and add more rock salt, sugar or lemon juice if required.
The whole mixture should stick and bind to each other. Make 2 to 3 small or medium balls from the mixture and flatten them a bit.
frying sabudana vada
Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai.
Add a tiny ball made from the mixture.
Fry it on medium flame. If this ball does not break while frying, then you are good to go. If it breaks, then add 1 tablespoon amaranth flour again to the mixture and mix well.
Now gently place the sabudana vadas in the oil. Keep the flame to medium while frying. If the oil is cold, sabudana vadas will absorb lot of oil and become soggy.
Add sabudana vadas for frying depending on the size of the kadai. Do not crowd the kadai or pan.
When one side gets golden, then only flip the vadas. Otherwise don't even touch as they might break if not cooked.
Flip a couple of times and fry the vadas till they are crisp and golden.
Remove with a slotted spoon.
Place on kitchen paper towels to absorb excess oil. Prepare sabudana vadas with the remaining mixture this way.
Serve sabudana vadas with tamarind chutney or coconut chutney.
Notes
- you can add coriander leaves if you want. - can use cashews instead of peanuts. No need to roast cashews. - instead of amaranth flour, you can use buckwheat flour or water chestnut flour.