One should ideally chant “Om Namah Shivay” on Mahashivratri day, but instead my kitchen was filled with chants of “Har Har Mahadev”. The reason why my kitchen turned into a war zone was this guest recipe of Sabudana Vada made by my husband, Kalpesh. Now normally I am very happy when someone submits a recipe to be posted. A guest recipe, especially when it is given along with nicely clicked pics. But not when that someone hijacks my recipe idea.
I made the mistake of telling Kalpesh that I will make sabudana vada as a Mahashivratri special, vrat recipe for the blog. I was also gullible enough to confide in him that I’ll make them in appam pan to cut down on oil. “Yes yes let’s make them tomorrow morning.” he tells me, “I’ll soak the sabudana.” Next morning I find out he has already made the vadas and clicked snaps. After I declare war, he nonchalantly tells me there’s more mixture left, you can make the next batch. And so I do, MY way. :)
On the days of vrats or fasts, we try to give our digestive system rest to. We abstain from food, either partially or completely. In partial abstinence we eat only certain types of food. But, even within those restrictions we find ways to cheat and pile on the calories. Needless to say fasts like that don’t help in mental or physical cleansing. Now I can’t claim that I was looking for spiritual upliftment by this exercise. But I certainly wasn’t looking forward to piling on calories while satiating my taste buds with yummy sabudana vada. That’s why I thought of making them in appam pan instead of deep frying. I watched many videos of sabudana vada recipe.
What I found interesting is that in the North, people add garam masala in the sabudana vada. Whereas Maharashtrians, Gujaratis don’t add it. My great husband didn’t add ground peanuts powder in the vadas. Apparently he prefers them that way. But I add it and would recommend adding it, as the vadas taste good with the slightly crunchy, coarsely ground peanuts powder.
Two methods of making Sabudana Vada
As I mentioned earlier, Kalpesh and I cooked the vadas a bit differently. Kalpesh cooked them from one side till they were done, he kept the other side flat. He then cooked the flat side on a flat non-stick pan. I rounded both sides slightly and cooked both sides in the appam pan. I may be partial, but I think mine cooked more evenly and turned out softer. ;-) Moreover, sago, boiled potatoes, green chillies, lemon juice, coriander leaves and roasted peanuts make a delicious combination and gives you that perfect flavorful snack which you can enjoy on a vrat/upwas day or just about any day. Give this recipe a try and let me know how you like it.
Whether you’re aiming to detoxify your mind and body, or you just want to enjoy low-calorie vrat food, you’ll like this sabudana vada for sure.
Sabudana Vada Recipe
Ingredients
- One and a half cup sabudana
- 4 medium-sized potatoes
- 4-5 tbsp coarsely powdered roasted peanuts
- 1 small piece ginger approx. half an inch
- 1 tsp cumin seeds jeera
- 1 small chili
- 1/2 lemon
- 1-2 tsp chopped coriander
- 1-2 tsp oil
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Soak sabudana in water such that the water level is same as that of sabudana, keep it soaked for at least 5 hours (overnight is preferable).
- Cook potatoes in pressure cooker, and then peel and mash them when they cool off.
- Grind the chili and ginger in a mixer to make a fine paste.
- Take sabudana, roasted peanuts’ powder, chili and ginger paste, salt, jeera, and coriander in a large bowl.
- Add mashed potatoes to the bowl and squeeze half a lemon. (Ensure that the lemon seeds don’t end up in the bowl.)
- Mix the contents of the bowl properly.
- Grease your palms with a bit of oil, and make lemon-sized balls of the mixture and then flatten them a bit. (Kalpesh made small balls of the mixture, and then cut them in halves using a knife such that they fit perfectly in the pan. Refer to the picture. As I mentioned in the intro, his method required less intervention but the vadas turned out to be slightly drier.)
- Heat appam pan on medium-low flame and then drop approx. 1/4th tsp oil in each section of the appam pan.
- Put vadas in sections of the appam pan. The vadas in the sections in the center tend to get cooked fast, so ideally fill the outer sections with vadas first.
- Use a wooden spoon and flip the vadas to cook the other side every couple of minutes till both sides turn golden brown in color. (If you are cooking the vadas using Kalpesh’s method, you need to cook the vadas till the rounded side is turns golden brown. Then transfer the vadas to a non-stick flat pan and cook the till the flat side turns golden brown.)
- Serve hot with curd, chutney, or tomato ketchup.
Both recipes are nice. Prefer the one that doesn’t require the sabudana vada to be chopped into two halves
Tried it. Turned out to be very good. All of us in the family loved this.