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Garlic kara sev recipe, also popularly known as poondu kara sev, is a classic crispy and flavorful South Indian savory snack made with besan, rice flour, crushed garlic and black pepper. Perfect for Diwali and tea-time snacking, it comes together easily with minimal ingredients!

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Pepper Garlic Karasev is Sendhil’s favorite snacks. He loves karasev with pepper(Milagu) & Garlic (poondu) more than with red chilli powder. In Tamilnadu, Sattur is very famous for Karasev. I should try that version soon. But today I made Kara sev as per my MIL’s recipe. She usually adds more besan flour & less rice flour. But nowadays she follows a different recipe adding equal amounts of Besan & rice flour.

She adds butter or vanaspati but I used hot oil as I din’t have enough butter in hand. It came out well with melt in mouth crispness and white in color. I was so happy with the results. Immediately I made another batch adding more besan and less rice flour to find out the actual difference. I referred Vahchef’s recipe video for this preparation. It was slightly harder to bite and light golden in color. So I have shared both the recipes I tried. Choose & try any based on your liking. Both has its own taste & flavor. I have posted a full video recipe for easier understanding. Do watch it below.

Lets see how to make this easy Diwali Snacks Recipe – Kara Sev !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ak06QurGvE

Quick Notes for US & Abroad Kitchens

Besan & Rice Flour: Use fine besan (gram flour) from Indian grocery stores (like Laxmi, Deep or Swad) and fine idiyappam/rice flour. Sieve thoroughly to prevent lumps in the dough.
Pressing Tools: If a traditional brass perforated kara sev ladle (karasev jhar) is unavailable, use the single large round hole or star disc in a standard stainless steel murukku press.
Oil Heat Management: On electric or induction cooktops, maintain oil temperature around 360°F (180°C). If the oil is too hot, the exterior will brown before the center crisps up.
Storage: Cool completely before storing in an airtight tin or glass jar. Stays crisp for 3 to 4 weeks at room temperature.

Garlic Kara Sev Recipe (Poondu Kara Sev)

Chitra

Crispy and spicy garlic kara sev recipe, also known as poondu kara sev, flavored with crushed garlic and black pepper for Diwali.

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Course Snack

Cuisine Indian

Servings servings

Ingredients

Version 1 (Crisp & Melt-in-Mouth)

1 cup Besan flour / Gram flour (approx. 100 g / 3.5 oz)
1 cup Rice flour (approx. 130 g / 4.6 oz)
2 tbsp Hot oil (approx. 30 ml / 1 fl oz)
2 tsp Black pepper powder (coarsely ground, or 1 1/2 tsp red chilli powder)
10 cloves Garlic (peeled and ground to smooth paste)
1 tsp Salt (or as needed)
Water as needed to make soft dough
Cooking oil to deep fry

Version 2 (Traditional Crunchy Texture)

1 cup Besan flour / Gram flour (approx. 100 g / 3.5 oz)
2 tbsp Rice flour (approx. 20 g)
2 tbsp Roasted gram dal powder (Pottukadalai maavu) (approx. 20 g)
1 tbsp Butter (softened at room temperature, approx. 14 g / 0.5 oz)
1 ½ tsp Red chilli powder or pepper powder (adjust to taste)
¼ tsp Asafetida / Hing
Salt and water as needed
Cooking oil to deep fry

Instructions

Peel the skin of garlic cloves. Take pepper corns and garlic in a mixie jar. Grind it to a paste without water. Add some water and grind to a smooth paste. Skip this step and use hing instead of garlic if you wish to make a no garlic version. If you use pepper powder like me, grind garlic alone to a smooth paste adding required water. (A small tip:) – Instead of grinding to a paste, add some besan flour along with garlic cloves and powder it. It will powder easily. You can mix this powder with the remaining ingredients.
Take a wide bowl and add sieve besan flour, rice flour. Break the lumps and sieve it well. To this add salt, pepper + garlic paste and hot oil. Mix well to make a crumbly mixture.
Add water and make a thick dough. No issues if the dough is slightly sticky. If the dough is too hard, you may not be able to rub the dough in the slotted ladle. If you use murukku maker, you may find it difficult to press. So make the dough little loose.
Heat oil in a kadai and check the oil temperature by dropping a pinch of dough. If it rises immediately to the top,oil is just right. Now hold a slotted ladle 15 cms above the kadai. Take a big ball sized dough and rub it using the heel of your palm. Rub continuously by gathering all the excess dough. Kara sev will start to fall into the oil. Repeat it until the kadai is 3/4 th filled with karasev. Keep the flame medium and cook both sides till bubbles cease completely.Drain in a tissue.
If you want to use Murukku maker, take a ball sized dough and fill in the single holed murukku mould. Press it over the hot oil and cook till bubbles cease. Kara sev made using this method takes more time to cook than the traditional rubbing method. So keep an eye !
Give some standing time of an hour to a day to enjoy its best taste. Generally it tastes the best with full flavor by next day! For second version, follow the same procedure but add rice flour & gram dal flour(pottukadalai maavu) as mentioned above. Store the kara sev in an air tight box once it cools down completely.It stays good for a month. Munch them with your coffe or tea ! Enjoy !