Sabudana khichdi and wada were two of my favourite breakfast dishes while growing up. They were not only delicious but also instantly satiating, energy giving, easy on the stomach, and kept me full for a very long time. No wonder it is eaten on days of fasting.
I love the combination of sabudana, potatoes, peanuts and jeera. Whoever created this dish knew their ingredients really well. Even today, I seek them out if I have to travel somewhere because they are available as street food in a lot of places. The best thing about such traditional Indian dishes is that they can be had for breakfast, lunch, dinner or as a snack.
Recipe: Darshana Muzumdar
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 2 cups medium sized sabudana (sago/tapioca balls)
- 2 medium sized potatoes
- ½ + ½ cup unsalted roasted peanuts, preferably the light colored variety
- 2 sprigs curry leaves
- 4 green chillies, chopped finely
- 2-3 tbsp chopped coriander
- 4 tbsp groundnut oil, preferably cold pressed
- 1½ tsp salt or to taste
- 1 lime
Method
Wash the sabudana gently in enough water to cover it and a little more and then drain it off. Add 1½ cups of water to it, cover it and keep it aside for 6-8 hours or overnight. After they are soaked, gently separate the tiny balls with a spoon or fork till there are no lumps and keep them aside.
Boil/steam the potato, peel it and chop it into 2 cm cubes.
Powder half a cup of peanuts coarsely, add them to the soaked sabudana and mix it all till the peanut powder has coated all the sabudana well.
Heat the oil on medium to high heat in a thick bottomed steel kadhai (Indian wok) and add the cumin seeds to it and roast them for a few seconds.
Add the potato and sauté for a couple of minutes or more till they become slightly crispy on the outside.
Break the other half cup of peanuts in half by rubbing them between your palms, add them to the potatoes in the kadhai and sauté them for one minute along with the potatoes.
Add the curry leaves and sauté them for 20 seconds or till they are slightly crisp.
Add the chopped green chillies and sauté for another 10 seconds.
Add the sabudana and peanut mixture and salt and sauté it all well for at least a minute till all the sabudana is coated with the oil in the pan and is semi-translucent. Keep the heat medium to low to prevent the khichdi from catching at the bottom.
Cover the kadhai and cook it on low heat for 2 minutes or till the sabudana is completely translucent.
Add the coriander, squeeze some lime on it, give it a mix and serve hot.
For the Whole-Food Plant-Based (WFPB) version:
Use unrefined salt like rock salt.
Soak half the peanuts overnight separately from the sabudana, rinse and use them without roasting or powdering them and add them to the khichdi at the end.
Dry roast the other half of the peanuts, powder them and mix them and the salt with the sabudana. I usually use a little more peanut powder to prevent the sabudana balls from sticking to one another.
Use the potato without peeling it. The peel is alkaline in nature and helps the healing activities of the body.
Dry roast the jeera in a heated iron tempering ladle and add it to the sabudana and peanut mixture. Add the chopped green chillies and curry leaves, and cook it all in a thick bottomed steel pot adding a tablespoon or so of water if it starts catching at the bottom. Make sure you don’t add too much water otherwise it will become very mushy. The khichdi in the pics is made without any oil so I’m sure you’ll get the right texture in a couple of tries if you aren’t successful the first time.
