Keesadi

If you have been following me on Instagram, you know about this exclusion diet I have been following for the last couple months now. If you’re not following me on instagram, what are you waiting for – here’s a link – Follow Perfectionist Living on Instagram. I am not allowed to eat most spices and acid, therefore, the only ingredient I can add to balance bland foods is sugar. Naturally, I ended up eating a lot of sugar and rice in the first few weeks which obviously wasn’t very healthy. Keesadi was a result of many experiments I have done with the limited foods that I am allowed to eat to come up with tasty appetizing dishes 🙂

Luckily I am allowed to eat Sabudana, cumin and peanuts – But I am not allowed to eat potatoes, cilantro and green chillies, the other essential ingredients for the Perfect Sabudana Khichadi. So Keesadi was my way to:

substitute potatoes with sweet potatoes
Add more interest, depth of flavor and texture (to make me miss the banned ingredients less 🙂 )
Get away with adding way less sugar that I normally would in Sabudana Khichadi, because sweet potato is sweet!

If Ratalyacha Kees and sabudana khichadi were to have a baby, it would be Keesadi!! If you love either or both, you must try this delicious baby 🙂

Serves 6

you will need:

2 Japanese sweet potatoes – there are many varieties of sweet potatoes available. you want to make sure you get the Japanese sweet potato, I always find them in Whole Foods in the US. they have a mauve skin and are white inside
1 cup of Sabudana – soaked the night before – if your sweet potatoes are large-ish, increase the quantity of sabudana a little bit. To soak sabudana, take it in a large bowl (3-4 times the volume of the sabudana that you are soaking) was it 3-4 times then add just enough water to cover all the sabudana and a layer of 1-2 mm on top. Keep covered for 6-8 hours. After ~8 hours, loosen it a bit and add a sprinkle of water if the pearly don’t feel hydrated – check by squishing a pearl between your fingers.
4-5 tbsp Crushed/ powdered roasted peanuts (Danyacha root)
2-3 tbsp Ghee and/ or peanut oil
1.5 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp sugar
Salt
1-2 Crushed green chillies and/ or 1-2 tsp of red chili powder – optional
Fresh grated coconut and cilantro for garnishing

Procedure:

wash, peel and grate the sweet potatoes, I use my food processor for this

In a pan heat some ghee or a mixture of ghee and peanut oil. Once hot add the cumin seeds and let crackle then add the crushed green chillies (this is optional)
Next add 3-4 tbsp of the crushed peanuts, let it toast a bit in the hot oil, once nice and golden, the grated sweet potatoes

Mix well and cook covered for about 5 minutes, the potatoes will turn semi-translucent at this point.
Add salt, mix and let it cook covered for some more time.

When the potatoes are almost translucent, add the soaked sabudana, rest of the peanut powder, salt and 1 tsp of sugar (this is optional)
mix well, until it looks uniform and cook covered until the lid is steamy

Lastly add some red chili powder for a nice color and mix well – this is completely optional, it tastes great just with green chilies or without any spice as well!