Navaratri is a festival dedicated to the worship of the Hindu deity Durga. The word Navaratri means ‘nine nights’ in Sanskrit, Nava meaning nine and Ratri meaning nights. is a festival dedicated to the worship of the Hindu deity Durga . The word Navaratri means ‘nine nights’ navameaning nine and ratri meaning nights.
During these Nine days, People usually keep fasts for 9 days or they try to avoid some food items like meat, onion, garlic, Alcohol etc. I believe all these traditions in our culture were originally made because they have science behind it.
Navratri always comes when there is the change of season. During this change , our bodies tend to have low immunity and are more susceptible to fall sick.People who keep fasts restrict themselves to only few food items for nine days. Well, all those food items are actually good for health and are light on the stomach, easy on digestion but are full of nutrients. Much importance is given to the consumption of dairy products, fruits, juices and light vegetables.
One of these food items is Sabudana or Tapioca Pearls. Tapioca is gluten-free and almost completely protein-free. Sabudana is full of starch or is, therefore, a very good energizer.
One of the most famous Navratri recipes is Sabudana Vadas. Vadas are generally deep fried. I made them in a pan and they are just made using less oil so I term them as tikkis and not Vadas.They are very easy to make, full of energy and easy to digest. Sabudana is soaked and then drained and then mixed with boiled potatoes to make Vadas.
Even if you are not fasting, you can make them for snack in your kids lunch box or even for evening snack. let us proceed toward the reicpe.
- 1 cup Sabudana or tapioca Pearls
- 2 medium potatoes
- 2 green chilies finely chopped
- 1/2 roasted peanuts
- 1/2 ginger grated
- 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
- salt ( Sendha namak used in fasts)
- 1 tsp of lime juice ( optional)
- 1tsp cumin powder
- First wash and soak the tapioca or sabudana for 3 hours. Mean while do the rest of the preaparations.
- Wash the potatoes and boil them in microwave or in a pan . The reason I didn't mention boiling in pressure cooker because for this recipe we want stiff boiled potatoes and not mushy ones.
- Once the potatoes are cooked, peel them and let them cool down completely. This is a great tip even for making other potato tikkis or koftas.
- Finish all the chopping work and roast the peanuts in a pan. After roasting make a coarse powder either in a dry spice grinder or a pestle.
- After 3 hours drain the excess water from sabudana and wash them in a mesh keeping it under running water.
- Once Sabudana is squeezed put them in a big bowl. Add mashed potatoes, Salt, green chiles, cumin powder,coarsely ground peanuts,ginger,coriander leaves, lime juice.
- Mix everything well and then make equal size tikkis or discs. Heat oil in a shallow non stick pan and place the tikkis one by one. Shallow fry them until they are brown on both the sides.
- Once the tikkis are cooked on both sides, take them out and serve hot with falahari chutney and enjoy.
- 1 soak the sabudana atleast for 2 hours.
- 2. Boil the potatoes either in a pan or microwave. Avoid using pressure cooker for boiling.
- 3. Let the potatoes come at room temperature before mixing them into the mixture.
