Sabudana Vada

 

 

Sabudana Vada is a traditional snack from Maharashtra. Sabudana is the main ingredient for this dish and is widely used in the Northern western parts of India. Sabudana is sago and many types of dishes are prepared with Sabudana like the Sabudana Kicchidi, Sabudana Kheer etc.

 

These dishes are normally made during the Navaratri festival and are considered the ideal food to eat during the religious festivals fast/ vrat/ upvaas especially the Navaratri vrats (fasting). Sabudana vada is fried dumplings made of sago, rice flour and spices and served with spicy green chutney. South Indian rarely prepare the Sabudana vada.

 

They use sago for making pappadams and vadiyalu (dry sago pappads). Sabudana vada are crispy and crunchy, melts in your mouth. They are absolutely delicious and can be treated as a wonderful snack. Sabudana vada goes well with hot Spiced tea (masala chai). This is snack is quiet filling to stomach and nutritious too.

 

Sabudana is full of starch and carbohydrates and is great for a quick boost of energy, hence often served in India for breaking fasts during religious festivals. It gives you quick energy and is easy to digest. Normally during the monsoon season, it is popular to eat bhajjis/pakoras (fried snack) with a cup of adrak chai (ginger tea). One such monsoon special crispy fried preparation is sabudana vada.

 

Despite it is deep fried, is sumptuous and light snack. In North Indian version of preparing the Sabudana vada they use potatoes and peanuts but in South Indian they include the buttermilk or yoghurt as a binding agent. There is no special occasion associated with this dish as it’s enjoyed at all times- as a snack or a quick appetizer. Its mostly enjoyed during the evening tea time especially during rainy and winter seasons.

 

Preparing the Sabudana vada is simple and quick. Soak the sabudana in water for 3 hours. Grate raw potatoes in a bowl, add green chillies, coriander leaves, curry leaves, red chilli powder, chopped onions, rice flour and chaat masala and mix well. Now mix till it forms to a dough and then make small dumplings like vadas. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the dumplings till it turns golden brown color.

 

Serve the sabudana vadas plain or with ketchup, and a hot cup of tea or coffee. Here are few tips to prepare your crispy and prefect Sabudana vada. Do not add water to mix as it contains moistures and adding extra water will make it thin and will be difficult to fry. You can shallow fry instead of deep frying. If you are shallow frying, instead of mixing flour, use the flour to coat the vada’s (like breadcrumbs).

 

You can even soak sago overnight. Make sure to keep the heat on medium flame. If it’s too hot the outer side would get crispy quickly without cooking the inside and too less heat will make the fritters oily. Fry the sabudana vadas in batches but make sure not to crowd the fryer as it will bring down the temperature of the oil making them oily. If you adopt the correct frying techniques, you should find that not a lot of oil must have drained on the paper towel and the fritters themselves are not oily.

 

Serve these hot as it is or with any condiment of your choice. You can serve them with tomato sauce/ ketchup, coconut / mint chutney. Sabudana vada is one of the widely cherished delicacies. Sago looks like many other starches, and are produced commercially in the form of "pearls". Sago pearls are similar in appearance to tapioca pearls, and the two may be used interchangeably in some dishes. This similarity causes some confusion in the names of dishes made with the pearls. Sago starch is either baked (resulting in a product analogous to bread, pancake, or biscuit) or mixed with boiling water to form a paste.

 

Sago can be made into steamed puddings such as sago plum pudding, ground into a powder and used as a thickener for other dishes, or used as dense flour. Many traditional peoples rely on sago as their main food staple, and because those supplies of sago are not unlimited, in some areas commercial or industrial harvesting of wild stands of sago can conflict with the food needs of local communities.

 

In Ayurvedic medicine, it is believed that sago porridge can be an effective and simple food to "cool and balance one's body heat" when taking strong medicine or antibiotics. The health benefits of sabudana (sago) are mainly in the carbohydrates it provides. In India, sago is used in puddings (payasam), in gruel or soup, and upma dishes. In gruel form, it's a good alternative to carbonated drinks as it gives energy without the added chemicals and artificial sweeteners. 

 

Recipe: Sabudana vada

Summary: a simple vada made with sago -sabudana and raw potatoes

Cooking time (duration): 25

Diet type: Vegetarian

Number of servings (yield): 4

Meal type: breakfast

My rating: 5 stars:  ★★★★★ 1 review(s)