Bebbari Pappu Garelu, has always been one of my favorite tea time snack. For me, Garelu is not just a tea time snack. I have it with my lunch or dinner on the side and also in between as well. Garelu are a humble deep-fried snack prepared with rice flour, soaked split lentils, and basic spices. This Bebbari pappu garelu are utterly crispy, spicy, and super addictive. They are the perfect snack to munch on a rainy evening, during tea-time, and while travelling.
Now you may wonder, aren’t garelu supposed to be the soft ones, like the medu wada ? Yes, you are absolutely right. So basically, there are two kinds of garelu, one uses whole lentils and the other uses rice flour. Now when it comes to Snacks & Appetizers, Indian cuisine has mastered the art. Because of the diverse cultures and cuisines across India, there are endless variations of a single recipe. And what’s even more surprising the names, how it changes with region and with every region the flavor varies accordingly.
Festival is a tool to bring family together and life to a state of exuberance and enthusiasm. We in India have the pleasure enjoying various festivals with traditional delicacies according to the season. Among many traditional festive treats, Garelu are an amazing irresistible snack.
Various avatars of Garelu!!
In India, especially with many diverse cuisines across the country, there are numerous cultural and culinary influences among each state. There are two kinds of garelu, a softer variation uses whole lentil, and another uses rice flour. Now I’m sharing the crispy version here, where we use rice flour as the base ingredient.
In Telangana, Garelu has various names for Garelu across the state.
- Garelu – In the Karimnagar region of Telangana.
- Karam billallu – In Warangal region of Telangana.
- Katte appalu – In Adilabad and Nirmal region of Telangana.
- Odappalu – In Nizamabad
- Appalu, Gaare appalu, Kara billallu, billa appalu, kara appalu – In other parts of Telangana.
- Chekkalu – In Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema region
- Thattai – In Tamilnadu
- Nippattu – In Karnataka
Call them Nippattu, Garelu, Chekkalu, Appalu, Odappalu, Billallu, these are nothing but rice flour crackers. In South India, rice has a prominent role in their daily cuisine. And when it comes to making snacks, they have mastered the art. Murukulu, chegodilu, garelu, sakinalu, chuttalu/chakralu, and many more snack recipes traditionally use rice as a base ingredient. The main ingredient for these garelu or chekkalu is rice flour, and with legumes we use in the preparation, hence the dish named accordingly. In this recipe, we are going to use split black-eyed peas or bebbari pappu and hence the name “BEBBARI PAPPU GARELU“.
What rice flour can we use for this recipe?
Any rice flour, store-bought or homemade anything will work for this recipe. You can also make rice flour at home, just grind some rice in a blender and use a fine sieve to get smooth rice flour. And usually back at home, my Amma used to get our rice flour milled locally, and we use DODDU BIYYAM for these kind of rice flour based snacks.
Doddu biyyam or coarse whole rice are distributed as part of PDS or ration rice in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The snacks made using this rice flour yields utterly crispy and delicious snacks. But, you can use store-bought rice flour and it works just fine. Also, feel free to substitute the white rice flour with brown rice flour and red rice flour.
What all lentils can we use in making these crispy Garelu?
- Chana dal
- Split black-eyed peas
- Moong dal
- Split peanuts
Traditionally any split-lentils or legumes, that are easy to cook, are used in this recipe. Any traditional recipe of Garelu from Telangana, calls for chana dal and split peanuts.
In the Karimnagar area of Telangana, split black-eyed peas are available and sold abundantly. Growing up, I have watched my mother using soaked chana dal and split peanuts in Garelu. I never came across split black-eyed peas until I got married, and this was quite a revelation for me how diverse our Indian cuisine is.
Storage and shelf life!!
As these Garelu are deep-fried until crisp, they have a long shelf-life of up to 3 weeks.
Checkout more festive food treats from my blog.
Palm jaggery whole wheat biscuits
BEBBERI PAPPU GARELU
Equipment
- Wok / Kadai/ Deep frying pan
Ingredients
- 3 cups Rice flour
- ¾ cup Split black-eyed peas soaked for 2 hours
- ⅓ cup Chana dal optional, soaked for 3 hours
- ¼ cup White Sesame seeds wash and drain the excess water
- ¼ tsp Carom seeds
- ½ tsp Cumin seeds
- 2 sprigs Curry leaves finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Red chilli powder or substitute with green chili paste
- Salt to taste
- Oil for deep frying
- 2 cups Filtered water
- 2 tbsp Onion paste optional
- 5 cloves Garlic minced (optional)
Instructions
Prepping
- Wash and soak split black-eyed peas, and chana dal if using for about 2-3 hours.
- Wash the sesame seeds until you see water turns clear and later drain the water.
- If using onion and garlic, then make a paste and keep it ready.
Making the dough
- Heat a saucepan, add water, red chili powder, salt and bring it to a rolling boil.
- Meanwhile in a mixing bowl, add rice flour, washed sesame seeds, cumin seeds, carom seeds, chopped curry leaves and give everything a good mix.If you're using onion-garlic paste add at this stage.
- Now add the boiling hot water to the mixing bowl, give everything a good mix. Close the mixing bowl with a lid, and let it sit for about 5-10 mins.
- Remove the lid, taste and adjust the seasoning(spice and salt) as per your taste preference. If you feel the dough is too salty or too spicy add some more rice flour.
- Now slowly sprinkle some cold water and bring the dough together to make a soft pliable dough.
- Divide the dough into lemon sized balls and keep them covered all the time to avoid drying.
- Cover the dough until we start making Garelu.
Method -1 Making garelu by hand
- Use a silicon baking sheet if you have or take a ziploc bag/stiff plastic sheet and cut it open. Apply some oil to it, place one lemon-sized dough ball and slightly press it with your fingers evenly about 4-5 in circle.
- Make a hole in the center and keep the shaped gare aside on a cotton cloth, until we make remaining garelu.
Method 2- Making garelu using Tortilla press/Poori press
- Place the half of plastic sheet on poori press/tortilla press and place the lemon-sized dough ball on it.
- Cover the dough with another half of the sheet, close the lid/poori press cover and gently press to make Garelu.
- Make a hole in the center and keep the shaped Gare aside on a cotton cloth, until we make remaining garelu.
Frying the Garelu
- Heat a Kadai / wide wok, add oil enough for deep frying.
- Drop a tiny piece of dough to test the temperature, if the oil is hot the dough should float to the top immediately. Else, give it some more time until the oil is hot enough.
- Reduce the heat to medium and gently slide the shaped garelu one by one into the wok and fry the garelu on both sides until they turn orangish-brown and crisp.
- Using a slotted spoon take out the fried garelu, place them on a paper towel to remove excess oil.
- Repeat the procedure for remaining shaped garelu, and fry them in batches for uniform cooking.
- Let the garelu completely cool down before storing them in airtight container. These garelu stay good at room temperature up to 3 weeks.
Serving
- Serve these crispy and irresistible Bebbari pappu garelu with some yogurt or just as is.
Notes
- Split Black-eyed peas can be substituted with chana dal or split peanuts.
If using peanuts, dry roast them, remove the skin and split the peanuts. - We used store-bought white rice flour here. But you can get the rice milled locally if you are in India.
- White rice flour can be substituted with brown rice flour and red rice flour too.
- Do not forget to add hot water to the flour, else the dough tends to crack.
If you’ve tried this recipe and loved it, I’d love to hear your feedback by tagging your photo and share it with #mycurryveda on Instagram @mycurryveda or on Facebook . Also follow @taste.of.telangana on Instagram for more traditional recipes, culture and stories.
When did you add bobbarlu in the recipe