Sabudana vada should shatter at the edges and stay soft and chewy inside, with little pops of peanut in every bite. Small sago is the one to use here: it soaks quickly and binds tightly with the potato, so the vadas hold together in the oil without any flour.
Many homes make these for the evening meal on a fasting day, though customs vary and some families keep fried food off the menu altogether during Navratri. Serve them hot with green chutney or sweetened yoghurt.
Ingredients
- 150g Annam sago small (500g)
- 3 medium floury potatoes (about 400g), such as Maris Piper
- 80g Samayal pink peanuts (1kg)
- 1 tsp Heera white rock salt (400g)
- 2 green chillies and a small piece of ginger, finely chopped
- 1 tsp sugar and the juice of half a lemon
- 3 tbsp chopped coriander
- About 750ml Annam peanut oil (1L) for deep frying
Method
- Rinse the sago three times in cold water until the water runs almost clear. Drain, add water just to the level of the pearls, cover and leave for 4 to 5 hours. A pearl is ready when it presses flat between your fingers with no hard centre. Tip into a sieve and leave to drain for 10 minutes.
- Boil the potatoes in their skins for about 20 minutes until a knife slides in easily. Peel and leave to cool completely. Warm potato turns the mixture sticky and the vadas soak up oil.
- Roast the peanuts in a dry pan over a medium-low flame for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring, until the skins crack and the nuts smell toasted. Tip them into a tea towel, rub off the skins and crush the nuts coarsely with a rolling pin or in a pestle and mortar.
- Mash the potatoes in a large bowl. Add the sago, peanuts, rock salt, chilli, ginger, sugar, lemon juice and coriander, and knead with your hand for a minute until it comes together like a soft dough.
- Wet your palms and shape the mixture into 16 balls, then press each one into a flat round about 5cm across and 1.5cm thick. Keep the edges smooth; cracks are where they split in the oil.
- Heat the oil in a kadai or deep pan to 170 to 175C. Without a thermometer, drop in a pinch of the mixture: it should rise steadily with small bubbles, not sit at the bottom or burn.
- Fry one vada first as a test. If it breaks up, mix another spoonful of mashed potato into the rest. Then fry four or five at a time for 4 to 5 minutes, turning once, until deep golden all over.
- Lift out onto kitchen paper and serve straight away.
Cook's notes
If the oil is too cool the vadas drink it and turn heavy; too hot and they brown before the middle cooks. The shaped vadas can sit in the fridge on a tray for a few hours before frying, which makes them firmer and easier to handle. For a lighter version, brush with a little peanut oil and air fry at 190C for 15 to 18 minutes, turning halfway.
