Sabudana Vadaસાબુદાણા વડા
Fried patties of soaked sabudana, potato and crushed peanuts: crisp outside, soft within. Eaten with curd, they are the best thing about a fasting day.
Ingredients
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- 1 cup sabudana, soaked
- 3 boiled potatoes, mashed
- ½ cup crushed roasted peanuts
- 2 green chillies, 1 tsp ginger, coriander
- 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp sugar, rock salt
- Oil for deep frying
Method
- Mix the soaked sabudana, mashed potato, crushed peanuts and everything else together.
- The mixture should hold; if it is loose, add a spoon of rajgara flour.
- With wet hands, shape round, slightly flattened patties.
- Fry slowly in medium-hot oil until golden and crisp.
- Serve hot with curd or peanut chutney.
Tips
- Very hot oil splits them; keep it medium.
- Fry one as a test before committing the whole batch.
Storing and reheating
Vada are best straight from the pan. Leftovers keep a day in the fridge; to crisp them again give them half a minute in hot oil or five minutes in an air fryer at 180C. Do not box fried vada while warm, as the steam softens them. The mixture holds four or five hours in the fridge but not overnight, by which time the potato sours and the sabudana leaks water.
What you can swap
- No rajgara flour? Use singoda (water chestnut) flour, or a tablespoon of gram flour if you are not fasting.
- Roasted sesame or broken cashews can replace the peanuts, though you lose that nubbly crunch.
- The sugar can be left out, or use half a teaspoon of jaggery for the same faint sweetness fasting food tends to have.
- If you have no rock salt and are not fasting, ordinary salt works in the same quantity.
What to serve with it
Fasting-day food, eaten at midday or in the evening on Ekadashi, Shravan Mondays, Mahashivratri and through Navratri, with lightly sweetened curd and peanut chutney. Even when nobody is fasting it gets made as a monsoon-evening snack with tea.
Mistakes to avoid
- Do not soak the sabudana submerged in water. Use just enough to cover, for four or five hours or overnight, then drain it fully in a sieve.
- Add no water at all to the mixture. If it feels loose, add rajgara flour or more crushed peanut.
- Do not mix while the potatoes are hot. The steam makes the sabudana sticky and the vada go slack.
- Do not let the shaped vada stand around. The salt draws out water and they break up in the oil.
Questions people ask
How should sabudana be soaked?
Rinse it two or three times, add just enough water to cover, and leave it covered for four or five hours or overnight. Press a pearl between your fingers; when there is no white speck left in the middle it is ready. Drain in a sieve and rest fifteen minutes.
Why do my vada fall apart in the oil?
Too much soaking water, water added to the mixture, or nothing in there to bind. Use well-drained sabudana, be generous with the crushed peanut, and add rajgara flour if you still need it.
Can I air fry them?
Yes. Brush the vada with oil and give them twelve to fifteen minutes at 180C, turning once. They crisp on the outside but will not be as short and crumbly as fried ones; working a teaspoon of oil into the mixture helps.
