Recipe: Sabudana Khichdi/ Tapioca Pearl / Pearl Sago Snack - Vegan

Sabudana is a common ingredient in breakfasts in Maharashtra. On a 3 month contract with one of my clients in Mumbai, I ended up having Sabudana Khichdi or Sabudana Vadas almost everyday for breakfast in the office canteen.

Sabudana is also consumed in certain kinds of fasts when grains and lentils are prohibited. Sabudana Pearls could refer either to Tapioca Pearls or Sago Pearls. While Sago Pearls come from the Sago Palm, Tapioca Pearls come from the Tapioca Roots. In either case, they are both made from starch and are high in carbohydrates and low in any other nutrition, hence dishes made with sabudana are best kept for the morning or afternoon, when the energy from the carbohydrates will get expended.

Almost every savoury dish I have tasted that was made with Sabudana includes potatoes and groundnuts in the dish, so traditionally, I assume this means it was accepted as the best combination.

Ingredients:

200 gms Sabudana
2 medium potatoes cubed (about the same volume as the soaked sabudana - you can par boil them to use a little less oil when cooking)
100 gms groundnuts (1/2 the volume as the soaked sabudana)
1-2 tsp oil (this is unavoidable. You can't add water when cooking, so you will need the moisture from the oil for lubricating the dish, even if you are cooking it in a non stick pan)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 stalk curry leaves (rinse and dry)
1-3 green chillies chopped (depending on your heat preference)
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste
lemon juice to taste
1-2 tbsp grated coconut (optional)
2-4 stalks chopped corriander to garnish


Method:
Soak Sabudana for 30 minutes, then drain the water completely. Leave the moist sabudana for 8 hours for best results. Leaving it longer won't hurt it. But if you don't leave it long enough, it will not be soft enough. If you soak it in water for more than 30 minutes, the starch in the sabudana will start to dissolve and if you leave it in too much water overnight, you might as well just dilute it further and use it to starch your cotton clothes : )

Roast the groundnuts. Skin the groundnuts and crush them coarsely. You can use a mixi or a coffee grinder. I prefer to crush groundnuts with a rolling pin in a ziploc bag or in a tea towel. It gives me more control over the size - since I don't want it too finely crushed and it doesn't get too oily.

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and fry till it splutters. Then add the cumin seeds, curry leaves and green chillies.
Add the potatoes and salt and fry till the the potatoes are completely cooked through.

Add the sugar and the soaked sabudana and keep frying till the sabudana pearls turn glossy and start sticking to one another.

Add the groundnuts and lemon juice and stir well for a minute.

Top with the corriander leaves.

Serve with a wedge of lemon and sweetened curd/yoghurt (this traditional accompaniment for sabudana khichdi in Maharashtra is just a combination of sugar and yoghurt).