Sabudana Khichdi Recipe: Step By Step

When I was a kid, I hated a lot of foods. I also hated my dad coz he made sure that I ate everything on my plate. We had sessions where I have spent two hours with a plate of dal and rice with a green peas stir fry that dad made me eat when all I wanted to do was throw it out of the window.

So many years down the line, I love dad to bits and he is gone but that legacy of eating everything on the plate survives. No matter how much I hate what's in front of me, I eat it and I leave my plate clean. Sabudana Khichdi was one of those things I hated - you know, as a non-vegetarian, we do not always appreciate the subtleties that vegetarian ingredients bring to the palette. So I mostly lived my non-vegetarian life hating upma, poha, sabudana khichdi and paneer too. Oh, and spinach too.

Life sucked.

But those are the very things I crave now, as a vegetarian, mostly when mom makes them. And Sabudana Khichdi? It is my go to breakfast when there is some festival thing happening and you are supposed to avoid onion-garlic - the man insists that taste is not compromised in the process and Sabudana Khichdi is that recipe sent from the heavens in precisely those situations.

Name: Sabudana Khichdi

Prep time: Soak time (3-4 hrs), prep time 15 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Recipe Source: Mom

Serves: 2

You need:

2 fistfuls of sabadana - folks, that stuff doubles in size

Enough water to just barely soak the sabudana in - the water should cover the sabudana but water level should stop precisely at the level of the sabudana in the vessel.

2 potatoes, boiled, peeled

2 tbsp ghee

1 1/2 tsp jeera / cumin, whole

1 tbsp jeera powder

2 green chillies chopped

A fistful of peanuts if you love them, a bit less if you are neutral

(Some people also add curry leaves but that is entirely optional)

Chopped coriander leaves

Salt

More ghee

Here's how you make it:

- Soak the sabudana as instructed - leave it soaking overnight. In about 3-4 hours minimum, you will have fluffy but soaked through Sabudana - it should not e soggy, it should not drip water. You should be able to squish it between your fingers with a small amount of effort.

- Here's how they should feel. Light. Soaked through but not sticky.

- Meanwhile, the peanuts need roasting. High flame, not burnt, but the woody aroma must hit you.

- Meanwhile, pressure cook the potatoes - 2 whistles for big potatoes. Leave the skin on, they will peel off when you are finished.

- Roasted peanuts. These will be hot so be careful while handling them. Leave them aside for a bit.

- Once they have cooled down a bit, rub the peanuts between your finger - the skin will come off easily. Why do we do this? Roasted peanut skin is bitter - you do not want to bite into that stuff.

- Here's what you have - now how do you separate the skin from the nuts? Gently, and on a skin, fan them. The skin will fly off and land in the sink - leaving the peanuts behind. Use a newspaper to fan them, or a mag or whatever you have handy.

- Clean, eh?

- Now place them on some clean plastic. We are about to powder them - and no, you cannot do this in the grinder coz we do not want a fine powder, we want coarse chunky bits.

- Fold the plastic over.

- Use a rolling pin to crush them. Use both hands, even if the pic suggests you can sue one hand - remember, I have a mobile camera in my other hand, you need not.

- Here's what you have. Uneven lovely nutty toasty bits of peanut.

- Now, throw them in with the sabudana, cover and shake until it gets all mixed up. Add a dash of salt.

- Chop up some green chillies.

- Meanwhile, the potatoes should be ready. Peel skin away, cut into cubes, keep aside.

- Heat some ghee in a kadhai.

- Add cumin seeds, cumin powder, green chillies. People who want to use curry leaves, chop them and add them now.

- Now throw in the potatoes. Gently toss to coat.

- Bruise the potatoes a bit with your spatula - just coz I want bits of mashed potato on the sabudana when I put that in. Add a teensy dash of salt.

- Add the sabudana-peanut thingamajig. Find what that means, thank me for adding to your vocab.

- Toss, gently, coating, mixing. Adjust salt.

- Serve. Garnished with potatoes. So, some people add a tiny dash of sugar to their sabudana but I just do not get it so I don't. Serve with a side of thin whipped and mildly sweetend curd. Me? I do not care for anything else when I have a bowl of hot sabudana in front of me. Add a dash of ghee on top, dig in.