Sago Vada | Sabudana Vada | Tapioca Pearls Fritters

Sago Vada – Appetizer prepared with Sago, Potatos and chilies ! A perfect evening snack

April 14 – Tamil New Year! The festival which I loved to celebrate from my childhood. It was celebrated in a grand way in my hometown. There will be car festival, giant wheels, Delhi appalam and much more. I used to wake up early in the morning, get ready and wait till evening to go with my mom for the temple, not to pray but to enjoy all rides placed at the back side of the temple and eat Mirchi bajji, appalam. Those days were awesome and still I long for that fun.

In USA, today is like every other normal day but I always do small pooja in my home, prepare some sweets in the evening and distribute to my neighbors. That’s how I celebrate all festivals here. Morning itself, I made up my mind to prepare Sabu dana vada for Tamil new year. Hence, I started early from office and bought flowers from my usual corner store for my Pooja. When I reached home, I prepared vada, played sasti kavasam in my phone and offered prayers to God. It was a pleasant feel – my favorite rose sticks, camphor smell and then, vada.
Sabudana vada is a Maharashtrian recipe which is usually prepared during fasting days. A vrat recipe!!!
Now, let’s get into the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup Sago
3 medium sized potatoes
½ cup Peanuts
4 Green chilies
Salt, as required
Sugar, a pinch
½ teaspoon Lemon juice
½ cup Coriander, chopped

Method:

• Soak Sago in water for 2-3 hours.
• Wash, clean and boil potatoes in a pressure cooker for 3 whistles.
• Dry Roast peanuts in a frying pan.
• Cool down the peanuts and grind them coarsely.
• Peel the boiled potatoes and mash them nicely.
• Combine potatoes, ground peanuts and sago together.
• Add salt, chilies, lemon juice and coriander to the mixture.
• Add a pinch of sugar and mix them well.
• Take a lemon sized flour in hand. Rotate them into balls and flatten them.
• Heat oil in a kadai/frying pan.
• Once the oil is hot, slide down the vadas in the pan.
• Deep fry for 3 minutes. Flip the vada 2-3 times and ensure the vada is in golden brown on both the sides.
• Drain on the paper and serve with chutney of your choice.

Newbie’s pitfalls:

• Wash sago and soak them at least for 2 hours.
• Don’t add more water to sago as it will become mushy.
• Don’t burn the peanuts.Grind peanuts coarsely. The smooth powder will make the dough sticky.

Happy Tamil New Year. Prepare this vada and enjoy with a hot Madras Coffee !

If you try the recipe, do let me know how they tasted in comments. If you like space, do like and follow my profile at here –
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Yours Truly

Karthi