What is sev?
Sev is like thin, crunchy noodles made from chickpea flour. The batter-like dough is made from chickpea flour and is seasoned with salt, pepper and turmeric powder. Then pressed into the sev maker to form thin noddles. These noodles are directly formed into the hot oil and deep-fried till crisp.
The thickness of sev:
Mostly the save maker comes with three different discs for the various sized thickness of sev. Very fine (thin sev or jini sev) – it is known as nylon sev. It is mainly used in chaat recipes like sev puri, radga patties. Use this same recipe with disc w/ very tiny small holes. Medium thickness – Same as shown in this recipe. This verity is mainly used while making chivda or any other Diwali namkeen mixtures. Thick sev – This is eaten as a snack as such or with a cup of tea or coffee. Here is the recipe – tikha gathiya.
Different flavors:
Today I am sharing the plain sev recipe. But in the market, you will find many different flavored ones e.g. Aloo sev (also known as aloo bhujia) Palak sev Tomato sev Mint sev
You will need the sevai maker or press to prepare this snack. Making sev without sev maker is not possible.
How to make sev?
- Take besan, black pepper powder, turmeric powder and salt in a bowl. Mix well.
- Add hot oil. Mix it well, it will have a crumbly texture.
- Then make the dough by adding little water at a time and make a soft, smooth dough. It is a very sticky dough, I just used a spoon to mix the dough in the beginning. Then at the end, I grease the hand with little oil then smooth out the dough (forgot to take this pic but you will see how the dough looks little later).
- Now use your sev maker machine with a disk which has tiny small holes. Grease the inside of it with little oil. On the other side, heat the oil in a pan on medium heat for deep frying the sev.
- Now fill the container with prepared dough and close it tightly.
- As you twist the handle sev will come out from the bottom holes.
- Now check the oil, it should be hot now. Drop a pinch of dough in the oil. If it comes on top immediately then the oil is too hot. If it comes on top after a long time then the oil is not hot enough. If it comes on top after 1-2 seconds, then the oil is ready to fry.
- Now hold the machine over the pan, turn the handle and thin sev will come out. These are starting to fall into the hot oil. As it falls into the oil, slowly move the machine in a circular motion.
- As you complete one circle, stop there and reverse the handle a bit to stop the sev from coming out.
- Fry both the sides till it becomes crispy. You will see it will stop bubbling, that time sev is ready. Remove it using a slotted spoon.
- And place it on the paper towel-lined plate. And continue the same process for remaining dough.
- Let it cool completely, as it cools it will become crispier. Then break it and crush it lightly with your hand and sev is ready to serve. store them in an airtight container. It stays good for 2-3 weeks.
Serving Ideas:
You can have it as a snack with a cup of tea/coffee. Use in making chaat like sev puri, sukha bhel, dahi puri. You can sprinkle over kachori chaat, ragda patties, aloo tikki chaat and so on. Many times I use in making sev tomato shaak. Add into vagharela mamra or add into cereal chivda.
Check out more Diwali snacks recipesNamak pare // Methi mathri // Shakarpara // Chakli // Chiwda namkeen