Sabudana Vada (Lower fat version)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 1/ Day 3

Theme: Nashta Time

Dish: Sabudana Vada

For the final day of this week's marathon, I made this delicious low fat sabudana vada. I bookmarked Varada's recipe the minute I saw it and was waiting to make them. Unfortunately I ran out of sabudana and didn't get a chance to buy it until last weekend and then I made it for our evening snack this week.

I rarely use sabudana in my cooking. Even though I love sabudana khichdi a lot, I don't make it that often. Couple of years ago a bought a packet of sabudana and when I soaked it tried to make khichdi, it turned into a big mass of goop. Not sure what went wrong but everything got sticky and lumpy. My MIL who was with us at the time, tried to resolve the situation by making vada out of the goop and I don't think that went down that well either.

Anyway, after all this time, I mustered some courage to buy sabudana again and bought the smallest pack available in the store. I followed Varada's instructions to the T and the vada turned out delicious. I probably ate half of them right out of the paniyaram pan. They were crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. I had some red pepper-tomato chutney in the fridge that I dunked the vada in and it was just the perfect snack to have while browsing TV and playing Temple run on the phone (yes, I can multi task like that :-) eat. watch, play :-)

Ingredients: Makes about 16~18 medium sized vada
Sabudana/ Sago/ Tapioca Pearls - 1cup
Potato - 1 medium, boiled and mashed
Roasted Peanuts - ¼cup
Green Chili - 1~2 (adjust as per taste)
Red Chili powder - 1tsp (adjust as per taste)
Sugar - 1tsp (optional)
Cilantro - ¼cup, finely chopped
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Rinse sabudana well and put it in a bowl along with ½~1cup of water. Cover and set aside for 1 hour. Check the sabudana to see if it looks too dry. Sprinkle some water if it looks too dry. If not, cover and set aside for 2~3 more hours. Once ready, sabudana will be slightly puffy and moist.
• Add all the remaining ingredients to the soaked sabudana and using your hands mix everything well. The mixture will look dry in the beginning, but the moisture from mashed potatoes and salt will make it clump together. 
• Form small lemon size balls and keep ready.
• Heat a paniyaram/ aebleskiver pan, add ½tsp oil in each of the cavities and carefully slide in the sabudana balls. Cook over medium-low heat until all sides are golden brown and crispy, make sure to move them around the cavity to brown evenly on all sides. It took about 7~8 minutes for my vadas to get golden. Serve hot with any chutney or ketchup.

Let's check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 48.