Sabudana vada (sago fritters)
As I write here, I’m amazed to realise there are so many gluten free foods in Indian cuisine. Sago is one of the favourites amongst gluten free alternative flours. It has travelled right from Asia to Europe to America in recent years and the varieties of recipes developed are interesting. One such old recipe is sabudana vada which is from Maharashtra state of India. We Marathi folks usually make fasting food with sago and unknowingly convert fasts into feasts 🙂
What is sago?
It is a starch of the spongy centre of some palm stems which is later cooked and rolled into small balls or pearls which we call as sago or tapioca. Its widely used in Asia so there are plenty sweet and savoury recipes with sago.Whereas in Europe and America it is usually used just for puddings. Recently it has become very popular as it is used to make gluten free flour. As the other flours in the mixture lack the stickiness, sago does the perfect job .
Nutrition:
Its pure packet of starch..carbohydrate! It doesn’t essentially have any vitamins or minerals as such but in Ayurveda soaked sago is stated to have a cooling effect on body.
What is Sabudana vada?
Probably because it is so rich in starch, in India, sago is used as food in fasting days..little will go long way to provide energy as you meditate and worship the almighty , forgetting rest of the World and daily chores. Well nowadays we can’t do all these but of course we can relish sago ..not in raw form but tastier cooked form …sabudana vadas!
Sabudana vada is a patty or small fritters which are made up of soaked sago, boiled potatoes, crushed peanuts and some chillies. They are deep fried but taste equally good when shallow fried or air fried.
Saok sago pearls in water and leave for at least 4 hours.If using small pearls even half an hour is enough.
Steps to make:
Mix soaked sago, boiled potatoes, peanut powder, chillies, ginger, lemon juice, salt and sugar.
It should come together well and form a dough like consistency.
Take little portion and shape into patties or balls.
Deep fry till light golden.
This is how they look after frying.
Serve warm with choice of chutney or ketchup etc.
: Recipe Card :
| Prep Time | 2 hours |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 1 cup sago (tapioca) I've used small pearls
- 3 potatoes...boiled and peeled (medium size)
- 1/2 cup roasted crushed peanuts
- 1-2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt (I've used Himalayan salt)
- 1/2 tsp ginger grated
- pinch of sugar (optional)
- 2-3 chillies...coarse paste (or chopped finely) (or to taste)
- oil to fry
- few sprigs of coriander..chopped
- 1 cup thick yogurt
- 2 tsp dessicated coconut
- 2 tsp roasted crushed peanuts
- 1/4 tsp salt (to taste)
- 1 green chilli
- few sprigs of coriander
- 1/2 tsp Sugar (optional)
Ingredients
For Sabudana vada
For Chutney:
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- Wash and soak sago pearls with 1 1/2 cups of water. Leave it overnight or minimum 3-4 hours. Ive used very small pearls of sago which require only half an hour to soak .
- There should not be any water left at soaked sago.But if there is any then drain it. To soaked sago, add boiled potatoes, salt, sugar, lemon juice, ginger, peanuts powder and mash well to mix everything together.
- Take little portion from the mix and shape into a patty or a ball. Make all patties with remaining mix.
- Deep fry all patties on medium flame till they turn light golden. Drain on absorbent paper.
- Serve with chutney (for fast) or ketchup (if not fasting).
- In a blender put all ingredients listed under 'for chutney' except yogurt.Use little water to make fine paste and later add yogurt. Give a last pulse to mix all ingredients.Chutney is ready to go with Sabudana vada. You can even temper it with ghee + cumin .
- if soaked sago has any water left or it's too moist, vadas soak up lots of oil while frying.
- Make sure potatoes are also not too much cooked else they absorb oil.
- To beautify the Sabudana balls, I reserved little soaked sago and rolled the balls into this before frying.
- If you like you can even add little cumin seeds or cumin powder in sago mixture.
- Vadas can be shallow fried or even roasted in appam pan as well for less oil option.
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