Sabudana Khichdi | Perfect Sabudana Khichdi Recipe

Sabudana Khichdi is a savoury dish made using sabudana/ sagu/ Tapioca pearls. It is generally made as a fasting food during Navratris/ Krishna Janam Ashtmi/ Shivratri.

Sabudana khichdi is prepared as street food also, mainly in the western parts of India; primarily in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. It is made by soaking the sabudana or Tapioca pearls in water and then cooking it with minimal spices and some nuts.

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Sabudana can be eaten during fasting, so it is used to make many sweet and savoury dishes. Sabudana khichdi, sabudana vada, sabudana kheer, sabudana idli etc. are a few dishes made by sabudana or Tapioca.

For Krishna Janamashtmi and Shivratri, I generally make Sabudana Khichdi and sabudana kheer. Earlier, the khichdi would always come out very sticky and mushy. The sabudana would stick together and make a lump. It used to be so upsetting to be not able to make a good sabudana khichdi.

But not anymore. Now I have understood a few important points about making a perfect sabudana khichdi. In this blog I will write all these points and you will be able to make a perfect khichdi with all the sabudana pearls separate.

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What is Sabudana?

Sabudana or Tapioca pearls are made from starch. Yes, sabudana is nothing more than a small round pearl shaped ingredient, made from the starch of underground root, tapioca. The starch is extracted from tapioca roots and then processed to form sabudana (the small spherical pearls).

This is one reason that however hard you try, the sabudana gets mushy very quickly while cooking. Therefore, it is very important to keep in mind a few points, that will help you to get a non sticky sabudana khichdi.

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Important Tips for Sabudana Khichdi

As mentioned above, sabudana is a starch. So, while cooking it we must take care of few points to be able to make it non-sticky, perfect sabudana khichdi.

1.Wash – Sabudana needs to be washed before you use it for making the khichdi. Wash it at least for about 3-4 times, until the water comes out clean and not whitish. Do not break the sabudana pearls while washing it.

2. Soak – When you soak the sabudana, water should be just enough for it and not too much extra. water level a little above the sabudana is good enough. If you will put in a lot of water while soaking the sabudana, it will get too mushy right form the start. So it is very important to take care of the amount of water you use for soaking it.

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Soaking sabudana for 4-5 hours is good enough time. I personally don’t like it to soak it over night, as it might get over-soaked. Plus, soaking it during the day time, lets me keep a watch on the sabudana. If you need to make it in the morning, soak it in the evening before, and then strain and keep it covered in fridge, in the strainer only. In the morning if you feel that sabudana has dried up a little, just sprinkle some water and it will be good to use.

3. Check – How will you come to know that sabudana, has soaked nicely? Take a sabudana pearl in between your fingers and press it. You should be able to squish it easily. if not, then soak it for a little more time.

4. Strain – After the sabudana is nicely soaked, put it in a strainer and keep it like that until you use it. That will help get rid of any extra water it might have.

At this stage many people, mix sabudana with the coarsely crushed peanuts powder. You can do that also. That ensures that tapioca pearls remain separate while cooking. I add sabudana and crushed peanuts, both while cooking only.

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5. Temperature while cooking – When you put sabudana pearls in the kadai / pan, then after that the flame should not be low at any point. You must cook sabudana on high flame with continuous stirring and mixing, but be careful to do so very lightly. Sabudana gets cooked very quickly, so it won’t take long to get done. When the sabudana pearls turns translucent, then you must understand that they are cooked. Do not over cook them or else you will get a sticky khichdi.

So, you can not go away for some other work while cooking sabudana. Also, it is a big no no to cover sabudana while cooking. Even after it is cooked, you should stir it for another couple of minutes to make sure it doesn’t get sticky due to its own heat or the heat of the pan.

It is not difficult to make a good, non-sticky sabudana khichdi. All you have to do is take care of these points and you will be able to make the amazing dish of sabudana khichdi.

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Preparations for Sabudana khichdi

There are a few small preparations required for sabudana khichdi.

• Soaking sabudana – You can soak sabudana and strain it, as mentioned in the above topic.
• Roasting peanuts – You need to roast the peanuts for sabudana khichdi. Dry roast them in a pan and then remove the skin of the peanuts. Now grind them into to a coarse powder, not very fine. Keep it aside, until you need to use it. I like to add some fried whole peanuts also in the sabudana khichdi. So I fry them before I start cooking the khichdi and then add it in the end. You can totally skip the fried peanuts, if you wish to.
• Potatoes – You can use potatoes, boiled or raw for the khichdi. If using boiled potatoes, then be sure that they are just about boiled and not soft and mushy. I always use raw potatoes and cook it on a little high flame, before I add sabudana. That way I get some crispy potatoes in the khichdi.

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Some other interesting recipes from my blog;

• Instant Dhokla
• Samosa, crispy and street style
• Soya Kebabs
• Whole wheat flour cake (Eggless)
• Kaddu Ka Mitha / sweet pumpkin veg (Fasting recipe)
• Kuttu Ki Puri / buck wheat flour, fried bread ( Fasting recipe )

Sabudana Khichdi for Fasting days

If you are on fast, then you need to check what you are adding in the khichdi. I have added, potatoes, green chillies, peanuts, curry leaves, coriander leaves, lemon and pomegranate in this khichdi. For fast you can add all these except coriander leaves and use sendha namak (salt used while fasting).You can also add in grated coconut, some other dry fruits, chilli powder, turmeric or other spices if you like.

For a non-fasting day, you can add onions and some other vegetables like diced carrots and capsicum in the khichdi. It’s all your choice. But traditionally, sabudana khichdi has only potatoes, peanuts and lemon juice, other than off course the sabudana.

Recipe Video of Sabudana Khichdi

Ingredients

• Sabudana – 1 cup
• Peanuts – 1/2 cup + 2-3 tbsp
• Ghee / oil – 2 tbsp
• Jeera (Cumin seeds) – 1 tsp
• Curry leaves – 8-10
• Potato – 1 (medium) , diced
• Green chillies – 1, finely chopped
• Fresh Coriander leaves, finely chopped, as required
• Lemon Juice – 1 tbsp
• Sugar – 1/2 tbsp
• Salt as per taste
• Water for soaking
• Pomegranate pearls as required

NOTE : You can increase or decrease the level of spices and lemon juice as per your taste.

Method

1.Soak the sabudana in just enough water for 4-5 hours or until well soaked and soft.

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2. Strain and remove the extra moisture from it.

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3. Dry roast 1/2 cup peanuts and remove the skin. Grind it coarsely and keep aside for using it later.

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4. Heat ghee in a pan and fry 3 tbsp peanuts until crisp. Keep aside.

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5. In the same ghee, add cumin seeds and let it crackle. Then add curry leaves.

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6. Put in the diced potatoes and some salt, as per the potatoes only. Cook on medium high flame to get crispy potatoes. You can cover them in between for a minute or two.

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7. Once potatoes are cooked, add soaked sabudana, peanuts powder, green chillies, salt and sugar. Be careful while adding salt, as we added a little salt while cooking potatoes too. Now cook sabudana on high flame until done. Keep stirring in between to avoid it getting sticky. When the sabudana pearls become translucent then you should understand that they are done. It took me about 6 – 7 min to cook the sabudana. Add the chopped corinader and lemon juice and mix.

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8. Once done, add fried peanuts and mix. Keep the pan aside keep stirring in between for a few more minutes. The sabudana has its own heat and the pan is also hot. This will make sabudana sticky. To avoid that, just lightly stir it to cool it down a bit.

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9. Serve the sabudana with some pomegranate pearls on it.

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I would love to hear from you if try out Sabudana Khichdi. Do mention it in my comments section how you liked it or if you made any changes. That would help the other readers to understand this recipe better.

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