Swetha's Fusion

Mixed Vegetable Sagu

Friday, June 19, 2020

Mixed vegetable sagu (Saagu) is a Karnataka dish. In Karnataka, most of the local restaurants, when you order Poori (Puri), it comes with mixed vegetable sagu unlike in North India, where they would serve Aloo bhaji(potato curry) or chana (chickpeas) masala. It will be even listed as Poori Sagu on the menu, and in some restaurants there is the option of ordering poori bhaji too. It is also served with chapati and dosa along with chutney and/or sambar. There are many variations of sagu recipes. Some don't use onion and some even add garlic. I am sharing the recipe the way I make. Hope you like it.

Sago is usually served with breakfast bread like poori, dosa or chapathi. It is a very simple and easy to make dish, but delicious. If you ignore the poori, sagu on its own is very healthy. In other words, you can feel less guilty eating the fried poori :P

In my opinion, using Chayote makes the Sagu taste better. They are very rich in nutrition. Chayote has many names, depending on which part of the world you are, you will have to learn a new name. I grew-up knowing it as Seeme Badanekaayi in Kannada, and Chou Chou in Tamil.

Ingredients:

1 - Big Potato
1 - Chayote [ Seeme badanekaayi ]
1 - Long Carrot
1 - Medium size Onion
1 cup - String Beans
1 cup - Green Peas fresh (or dried peas- soak overnight and pressure cook with salt)
Salt - as per taste
1 tbsp - oil
½ tsp - mustard seeds
pinch - Asafoetida / Hing
10 - curry leaves

Ingredients for Masala:

½ cup - grated coconut
1 tbsp - fried Split Chickpeas/ Hurigadale/ Roasted Channa dal
1 small - onion -cut
1 inch - ginger chopped
4 - 5 - Green chillies
1 tsp - Poppy seeds
1 handful - Fresh coriander/cilantro leaves,
Optional: Cashew( 4 to 5), cloves (3), cinnamon (1")

Method:

Wash all the Veggies.
Peel the skin off of Potato, Carrot and Chayote. Cut them into small cubes
Cut Onions into big chunks to be cooked along with veggies
Cut string-beans into 1 cm long pieces.
Shell green peas and keep aside. If using dried peas, you need to soak it for at-least 8 hours and cook. I usually cook them separately in pressure-cooker with salt.
In a sauce pan, add all the veggies, 2 to 3 cups of water and salt. Cook on medium flame. I first add potato, carrot and Chayote as it takes longer to cook, then after a while I add onion, beans and peas.

Meanwhile, with sufficient water, grind all the Masala ingredients to a smooth paste.
Once the veggies are half cooked, add the ground Masala, mix and cook further on low-medium flame.

Once veggies are cooked, turn off the flame
Seasoning: Heat oil in a small seasoning pan, when oil is hot, add mustard seeds. As the mustard seeds start to sputter, add Asafoetida and curry leaves. Pour the seasoning over the Sagu.
Serve hot Sagu with Poori, dosa, chapathi or rice.