Sweet, inviting, and made for sharing, Sabudana Kheer Recipe is a gluten-free, vegetarian Indian, North Indian desserts made with simple everyday ingredients in about 35 minutes. The recipe lays out the ingredients and each cooking step clearly, so you can adjust seasoning, texture, and serving size for your own kitchen.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 15 minutes
  • Cook time: 20 minutes
  • Total time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Desserts
  • Cuisine: Indian, North Indian

Ingredients

  • ½ cup sabudana (or sago (tapioca pearls) - for a thicker kheer, you can add ⅔ cup of sabudana)
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 4 to 5 tablespoons sugar (or raw sugar - add as required)
  • ½ teaspoon green cardamom powder (or 4 to 5 green cardamoms crushed in a mortar-pestle)
  • 2 tablespoon cashews (- chopped or preferred nuts)
  • ½ tablespoon raisins
  • 3 to 4 strands of saffron (- for garnish, optional)

Method

Soaking Sabudana

  1. Rinse the sabudana pearls until the water runs clear of the starch.
  2. Take a thick bottomed pan or sauce pan in which you will be making the kheer.
  3. Add the rinsed sabudana pearls and water in the pan.
  4. Cover and let the pearls get soaked in the water for 15 to 20 minutes.

Making sabudana kheer

  1. Later keep this pan on the stovetop and begin to cook the sabudana pearls.
  2. Meanwhile heat or warm the milk too. No need to boil the milk.
  3. After 4 to 5 minutes, add the milk to the pan and continue to cook.
  4. Add sugar and green cardamom powder and simmer till the sabudana have cooked well and softened - for about 20 to 25 minutes on a low to medium heat.
  5. The sabudana pearls should be soft and look translucent after they are cooked really well. They should not be hard or dense or chewy. This means that they need to be cooked for some more time.
  6. Keep on stirring often so that the kheer or the cooked sabudana does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
  7. Turn off the heat and add cashews and raisins. Do a taste test and add more sugar if the kheer has a less sweet taste.
  8. Easily adjust the consistency of the kheer by adding less or more milk. Keep in mind that the consistency thickens on cooling.
  9. Garnish with a few saffron strands while serving.
  10. Serve Sabudana Kheer hot or warm or chilled.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.