Cooking Sabudana Dishes This Navratri? Avoid These Mistakes

During Navratri, sabudana is the star ingredient as people observe fast. It is nutritious and versatile to prepare main dishes, snacks, and a comforting delicacy. The best aspect of tapioca pearls is they are gluten-free, good for digestion, and rich in vitamins and minerals essential to your health. 

While cooking sabudana is easy, a few mistakes can spoil your entire recipe. Often amateur and sometimes even seasoned chefs end up making small errors in the kitchen which impacts the taste and texture of the dish. This article mentions a few things you must keep in mind while working with sabudana this festive season.

Stirring Too Much

Sabudana is loaded with starch, and despite all your effort, the pearls will stick together when you cook them. If you think stirring will help you separate the pearls, you could not be more wrong. Continuous stirring will only cause sabudana to release more starch, and your entire dish will turn into a lump of tapioca pearls. Occasionally stirring while cooking dishes khichdi or kheer is enough.

Not Soaking

Soaking is the key to cooking sabudana without hassle. If your recipe calls for a cup of tapioca pearls, soak them in a cup (or 1.5 cups) of water. Not using enough or more water can also ruin the texture of the pearls. You should also ensure that you have soaked sabudana for at least 4-6 hours or even overnight for the dish to come out as well as you expect.

Also Read: Handle Hunger Pangs With Sabudana: 5 Creative Recipes For Midnight Cravings

Not Adding Enough Ghee

If you are someone who thinks adding ghee in a sufficient amount might compromise your diet, then cooking sabudana is not for you. When pearls are subjected to heat, not only do they stick together but also to the surface of the pan. Hence, adding enough oil or ghee helps with swift stirring without the ingredients sticking to the surface and ruining the coating of the cookware. It also keeps the pearls shiny and apart.

Cooking On High Heat

Sabudana dishes are not Indo-Chinese, therefore, don’t make the mistake of cooking the pearls on high heat. It will lead to uneven cooking, and the pearls will also stick to the surface (or worse, they will burn). Whether you are making khichdi, kheer, paratha, or kheer, you should sabudana on a low or medium flame. It will prevent clumping and sticking.

Overcrowding The Pan

Overcrowding a pan can lead to more starch developing in the pan which will combine the pearls into a clump. The sticky mass will stick to the surface and become a huge lump unfit to consume. Moreover, this will lead to uneven cooking. You must always use a wide pan and add a decent amount of tapioca pearls while following a recipe.

Adding Salt At The Wrong Time

Many amateur cooks don’t know that if you add salt early in the process of cooking, it can hinder the absorption of water. Thus, sabudana will turn hard and be unfit for eating. When you start cooking tapioca pearls, add salt to taste them. It will mix easily and even prevent clumping of sabudana. You will notice the texture will be fluffy and soft.