Sabudana Khichdiસાબુદાણાની ખીચડી
The dish most Gujarati homes make on a fasting day: soaked sago pearls tossed with potato and crushed peanuts. Soaking the sabudana correctly is the whole skill.
Ingredients
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- 1 cup sabudana (sago pearls)
- ½ cup coarsely crushed roasted peanuts
- 2 potatoes, cut small
- 2 green chillies, 1 tsp ginger
- 2 tbsp ghee or oil, cumin
- Rock salt, 1 tsp sugar
- Lemon, coriander, grated coconut
Method
- Rinse the sabudana and soak it in just enough water to cover, for 4-5 hours or overnight. Drain; a pearl should crush easily between your fingers.
- Mix in the crushed peanuts, salt and sugar and set aside.
- Fry cumin, chillies and ginger in ghee, add the potato, cover and cook until tender.
- Add the sabudana and stir on low heat for 4-5 minutes, until the pearls turn translucent.
- Finish with lemon, coriander and coconut, and serve at once.
Tips
- Too much soaking water and the pearls turn to glue; use just enough to cover.
- Overcooking makes them sticky, so take the pan off early.
Storing and reheating
This is a dish to eat as soon as it is made. It holds a day in the fridge, but the pearls harden and set into a lump as they cool. Reheat it covered on low for five minutes with a few drops of water sprinkled in, or steam it. In hot weather do not leave it out more than three or four hours; it sours.
What you can swap
- Peanut allergy? Use coarsely crushed roasted almonds or cashews. The flavour holds, though you lose the particular crunch peanuts give.
- Raw banana can replace the potato, which helps if your family avoids potato during a fast.
- Oil works instead of ghee, but the smell of ghee is half the taste of this khichdi.
- If you are not fasting, use ordinary salt instead of rock salt, and add curry leaves and a pinch of asafoetida to the tempering.
What to serve with it
It is the farali breakfast or evening meal of an Ekadashi, a Shravan Monday or Navratri, eaten with a bowl of curd and farali green chutney. Plenty of families also make it as a plain Sunday morning breakfast with no fast involved.
Mistakes to avoid
- Mix the crushed peanuts, salt and sugar into the drained sabudana before it hits the pan. Coating every pearl is what keeps them separate; adding the peanuts at the end does not do the same job.
- Do not cook it covered. Trapped steam makes the pearls sticky and they clump together.
- Do not press and stir with a flat spoon; you mash the pearls. Use a wide ladle and lift from the bottom.
- Avoid the very fine 'nylon' sabudana. It disintegrates in the soaking water and the khichdi turns into porridge.
Questions people ask
Why does my sabudana go sticky?
Too much water during soaking, most of the time. Use only enough to cover the pearls, and let them drain in a colander for fifteen or twenty minutes afterwards. Cooking it covered and cooking it too long are the other two causes.
How do I know the soaking is done?
Press one pearl between two nails. If there is no hard white dot left in the centre and it crushes easily, it is ready. If the dot is still there, sprinkle in two or three spoons of water and give it another hour.
Can I soak in the morning and cook at night?
Yes. Drain the soaked sabudana and keep it covered in the fridge, taking it out half an hour before you cook. Left out all day in the heat it starts to smell sour.
