Last week the Hindu festival of Navratri started. Navratri is a Hindu festival that lasts 9 -10 days depending on the lunar calendar. The word Navratri is a sanskrit word, nava means nine and ratri means night.The festival is celebration of the victory of Goddess Gurga in the fight about good over evil. The nine days celebration are dedicated to Goddess Durga who has Nine Avatars. The festival is celebrated in different ways in different parts of India, however one thing that is in common is the delicious fassting Farali food that is made during this festival.
During this time many Hindus fast and follow a sattvic diet (no onion or garlic) and eat farali food. This means that they do not eat certain vegetables, grains, garlic and onions during this time. The reasons for the fasting is for spiritual body cleansing by consuming plain and simple foods that are not overly spicy and overly rich.
What can you eat during Farali Fasting?
- Certain flours such as buckwheat and chestnut flour
- Potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava and plantain
- Most Fruits
- Simple spices like rock salt, pepper and chilli is permitted
- All nuts and dairy such as milk and yoghurt and ghee can be consumed.
- Sago (Sabudana) is a popular fasting food.
- Any kind of alcohol or non vegetarian food is not permitted during this time.
Some Farali Recipes you can try:
Srikand - Hung Yogurt Dessert
Matoke -Green banana curry
Sabudana Kheer-Tapioca pudding
Todays recipe is Sabudana Khichdi, Sabudana khichdi is a simple yet very popular fasting farali food recipe. It is a type of hot salad made with diced boiled potatoes, peanuts and sago pearls tossed in simple spices such as cumin, rock salt and black pepper with a squeeze of lemon juice. Sabudana khichdi can be made with a gravy to serve with farari puris or made dry to serve as appetiser or warm salad.
The recipe is
- Sattvic(no onion no garlic)
- Gluten free
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
What is Sabudana (Sago Pearls)?
Sabudana is Tapioca (cassava) starch that is processed into small pearls. The pearls are made by extracting the starch from the Tapioca root. The moist starch is pushed through a sieve under pressure to form different sized balls, which are then dried before packaging.
To use the Sabudana Pearls they have to be rehydrated before use by soaking them in water for 3-4 hours. The dried sabudana swell and puff up after soaking. Once cooked they turn translucent.
Since the recipe requires potatoes that are boiled, it is best to use a waxy potato that holds shape and to avoid floury potatoes.
Saboodani Khichdi (Dry Version)
Ingredients
- Medium Boiled Potatoes 3
- Sabudana Pearls 50 g
- Green chillies 2
- Fresh Coriander finely chopped 1 Tablespoon
- Rock Salt 1 Tsp
- Freshly ground black pepper 1 Tsp
- Curry leaves 10
- Cumin seeds 1 Tsp
- Lemon Juice 1 Tbsp
- Sunflower Oil 1 Tbsp
- Peanuts coarsely Ground 50 g
Instructions
- Wash the Sabudana (Sago pearls) in three changes of water. After washing , add just enough water to cover the pearls, than leave them to soak for 4 hours.
- Dice the boiled potatoes into 1 cm squares.
- In a frying pan add the oil and wait for it to heat up, once hot add the cumin seeds and wait for them to splutter.
- Next add the curry leaves, green chillies and the coarsely ground peanuts and saute for 1-2 minutes.
- Drain the soaked sabudana pearls and add them to the pan and saute them with the rest of the ingredients for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the boiled potatoes and toss the potatoes into the pan. Add the lemon juice and toss again. Cover and cook on a low heat for 3-4 minutes.
- Transfer the sabudana khichdi to a serving dish and garnish with chopped coriander and lemon wedges
- Serve with fried green chillies, fried peanuts and some natural yoghurt.
Calories
221.89Fat (grams)
11.88Sat. Fat (grams)
1.25Carbs (grams)
27.52Fiber (grams)
4.30Net carbs
23.22Sugar (grams)
4.99Protein (grams)
5.99Sodium (milligrams)
3219.37Cholesterol (grams)
0.00