Sabudana Vada (with Mint and Coconut - Groundnut Chutney)

Sabudana Vada is a traditional Maharashtrian breakfast dish which is often eaten on fasting days. Hugely popular, you'll find this dish in most restaurants in Maharashtra. As it is delectably soft on the inside and crispy on the outside, its flavors and taste have won all those who have had this dish. Sabudana is basically Sago.

I have taken a 2:1 proportion for the sabudana and groudnut which goes well with this dish. Choose your sabudana well as this will determine the quality of your end result - I myself use Tapioca Sabudana which is pretty great. Boiled potatoes, cumin seeds and coriander leaves add an immeasurable flavor and taste to these vadas. I have used dahi or curd for the Mint (Pudina) Chutney as it goes well with these vadas, but it is traditionally made without the dahi. The other chutney I have given below, the Coconut - Groundnut Chutney combines coconut and groundnuts, but they can be prepared separately, and they turn out quite awesome on their own as well.

So, here's the recipe for this fun breakfast dish

1. Soak the sabudana for 2 hours - the level of the sabudana and water should be the same, i.e. the sabudana should be soaked, not submerged in the water.

2. Dry roast the groundnuts and if they have skins, remove it - refer to my recipe for Sabudana Khichdi (in the section for Preparation) on how to do this. Then, grind them to a coarse powder in a blender - do not add any water, of course

3. Boil the potatoes and let it cool, then, peel and mash them.

4. Cut the red and green chillies finely.

5. Mix the soaked sabudana with groundnut powder properly. Then, add mashed potatoes, salt, cumin seeds, green and red chillies, and coriander leaves. Mix all this well.

Note - You may sprinkle some water if you find the mixture to be very dry.

6. Make medium size, round shaped balls of the sabudana mix and press them on both sides as shown in the images - make all the balls this way and keep them aside..

1. Add sufficient oil into a pan for deep frying the vadas and heat it. Then, on a medium flame, carefully drop 4 to 5 vadas and fry them till they turn golden in color, on both sides (flip each side when done to obtain the color). Fry all your vadas this way.

2. Your yummy Sabudana Vadas are ready.

Now, you can have this by itself, or with some chutneys, and I'm going to show you how to make these as well. First, we'll take a look at preparing Mint Chutney or Pudina Chutney, if you will. It takes just around 10 minutes to prepare. For this, you'll need,

Pudina Chutney -

• 1 cup of beaten curd
• 1 cup of mint (pudina) leaves
• 3/4 cup of coriander leaves
• 2 green chillies
• Salt (according to your taste)
• 1/2 tsp of sugar
• 1/4 tsp of cumin powder

1. Grind the mint and coriander leaves, and green chillies, with around 2 tbsp of water, and make a fine paste of it.

2. Mix this paste with the beaten curd, and add salt, sugar and cumin powder,and mix well.

3. Your delicious Mint (Pudina) Chutney is ready to be served with the Sabudana Vadas.

Coconut and Groundnut Chutney -

Another type of chutney you can enjoy your vadas with would be the Coconut and Groundnut Chutney. It takes 15 minutes to prepare. For this, you'll need,

• 3/4 cup of freshly grated coconut
• 1/4 cup of roasted groundnuts (if they've got skins, that's okay)
• 2 green chillies
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 inch of ginger
• 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
• 1/4 cup of chopped coriander leaves
• Salt (according to taste)
• Juice of 2 lemon

1. Grind all the above ingredients together by adding around 1/4 cup of water, to a fine paste - you may adjust water according to your preference.

2. Your tasty Coconut and Groundnut Chutney is ready to be served with the Sabudana Vadas.

This is such an awesome breakfast snack and I really enjoy having these soft, yet crispy vadas either on their own, or with the chutneys. You really ought to serve them hot to get the most out of them. And another great thing about them, as if being so tasty wasn't enough, is that they are easy to make.

So, if like me, you love vadas, try these out, and enjoy.