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Kara boondi recipe | Easy Diwali snacks recipes

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boondi recipe
     Kara boondi is another recipe I used to help my mom when I was a kid. I love the process of making this. Always fascinated by the method they make this. Pouring the batter over a slotted ladle and forming boondis. My mom also makes sweet boondi, that’s another favorite of mine. Few times, we have made boondi laddoos too. May be next year I will share those recipes. My mom passed me a cookbook that has recipes very close to our way of making. Some other recipes me and my mom wrote in a note and till date, I refer it.
   This particular cookbook is ‘Rani Samayal’ by the famous Tamil novelist Ramani chandran. Its really very useful for me at various preparations. And I followed the kara boondhi recipe also from this cookbook. Turned out perfect. Crispy and flavourful.

kara-boondi recipe

Kara boondi recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time: 10 mins    |  Cook time: 25 mins    |  Makes: 2 cups

Ingredients

Gram flour/ kadala maavu – 1 cup

Rice flour – 1/2 cup

Cooking soda – 1 tiny pinch

Salt – As needed

Coarse Pepper powder – 2 tsp

Garlic – 4 flakes

Cashew nuts –  8

Ground nuts – 2 tbslp

Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Ghee – 1 tsp

Oil – for deep frying

Method

  1. Mix gram flour, rice flour, cooking soda, salt well (sieve if possible) and add water gradually to make a batter like bajji batter. Slightly thin than that. May be 1 tblsp more water.

  2. Heat oil in kadai. You will be needing two big ladles with holes as seen in the picture below(slotted) . One for making boondi and one for draining from oil. Use another deep ladle to spoon the batter. Pour one ladle of batter over the ladle with hole holding it just above the oil and spread it.

  3. Wipe the laddle as seen below. Fry with constant turning to ensure even cooking and drain once the bubbles ceases and shhh sounds reduces or until golden colour.

  4. Drain using other big slotted ladle in kitchen towel. Repeat the process to finish the remaining batter.

  5. Heat another pan, add ghee, when hot, add broken cashews, peanuts if using and fry till golden. Then add curry leaves and well crushed garlic(with skin) and fry till nice aroma rises and add half of the pepper powder, give a quick stir and switch off the flame. Add this to the boondi, add the remaining pepper powder and little more salt and toss well to get all mixed.

    6. 5-kara

Notes

  • Since I add crushed garlic, I do not add asafoetida. If you want you can add a little.
  • If you like red chilli powder version, add 1 tsp to the batter and 1/2 tsp while tossing. Others the same.
  • If the batter is too thick, you will get boondis with tail. So add more water and try.
  • If the batter is too watery then the boondis may fall flat. So add more gram flour and try.
  • Cooking soda is added for crispiness. Since I use more rice flour, use very very tiny pinch of cooking soda.
  • We personally dont like groundnuts, so I have not added here.

Store in air tight container and enjoy as a tea time snack! The garlic, pepper and curry leaves fried in ghee adds a great flavour to the kara boondi.

காரா பூந்தி

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Nice boondhi Raji!

    நெய்யில முந்திரி,மிளகுத்தூள் தாளிச்சு போடுவது புதுசா இருக்கு! நான் அரிசிமாவும் சேர்த்ததில்லை பூந்திக்கு! அடுத்த தீபாவளிக்கு செய்து பார்க்கிறேன்! 🙂

    Reply

  22. Hi Geethu, mine also not the traditional boondhi karandi, just bought this broad karandi and used it. You can sure try the small one we use in day to day cooking. I did try last one with that and saw, came out perfect. Only that you have to pour less batter, at a time to prevent overflowing. But you can do it twice acting quickly. Note that spreading also has to be done carefully,otherwise it may flow in the sides.

    Reply

  38. Hai Raks,
    The pics were so tempting that i tried it immediately. In the beginning it was taily. Si i added little bit water.. Then it was perfect.. Thanx for the wonderful recipe…

    Reply

  40. lovely!!!

    I am going to cheat by using ready made boondis that are sold as raita boondis…but will surely use ur idea of the ghee and masala .. 🙂

    Reply

  48. Hey Raji,Geethu again,tried kara bhoondhi for the first time and the result is 50-50 :)) i did with normal jalladi karandi only,at first it came out well,but later on the boondis turned out like corn flakes!! then i added lil besan and finally finished it…over all the result is 'passed my bhoondhi exam' thanks again..cheers 🙂

    Reply

  52. Raks..this one is a winner..Looks even better than the store bought ones..Loving it:-)I have bookmarked ur Murukku and planning to make it this weekend:-)

    Reply

  78. Hi raks…. i did made this today noon and for the first time i am really amazed…. it came out very well….. but few things i just wnt to clear with u .. do we hav to hold the big laddle (with holes) close to hot oil while droping the batter or just little above or more of distance makes better round boondhis ??? because mine came out with 80% perfect rounds and 20% with tails… and some may be around 10 pieces came out flat.. so i wonder is there any methodology to be followed while dropping the batter into oil..?? another thing is, it was very crispier when i prepared and after i tempered with cashews, garlic and curryleaves i found it lost the crispiness which it had before.. is there anyway we can maintain the crispiness throughout for longer period?? kindly answer… and i really thank u for the wonderful recipes u r posting here. i am doing most of ur recipes at home and everything is dooper hit!!! thanks once again.. HAPPY DIWALI to u and ur family 🙂

    Reply

  80. Hi Raks,
    i tried this one. it came out very well. It had some tails too. but that was ok. It was my first time i'm preparing kara boondhi. Everyday you keep on posting some recipes. i don't know what to make or what to leave. All are tempting.Soon i'll send you my tried recipes

    Reply

  84. Hi Vanisree, Thank you for your feedback. Yes you are right, for each batter consistency, the distance also plays a role for perfect shape. For that we have to estimate ourselves and adjust as we make it. No other go. But generally, roughly about 8-10 cm from oil it should work fine. You should leave some space for the batter to drop and get the shape,so not too close to oil.
    And regarding the crispiness, for me till last day I finished it was crisp as I ate in the beginning. There could be 3 reasons why yours went that way. One could be the tadka you did, you should fry the items well without moist. If you want to make sure 100% then you can deep fry in the hot oil that we used to make boondi, after finishing the boondi. Deep frying gives a better result.
    Two – may be any one of your batches was not crispy.
    Three, you might not have stored in airtight container?
    Hope this helps you next time 🙂

    Divya, thanks for your feedback as well 🙂 If you get tails, you can add a tblsp of water and try.
    Happy Diwali to you all

    Reply

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