Champakali Recipe, How To Make Champakali Nimki, Crispy Karela Snack

Champakali -A crispy savory beautiful shaped snack made with refined flour and few spices

Champakali -crispy karela is a savory snack made with refined flour and few spices.It is rolled and then shaped in a form of a flower bud which opens while frying.It is many interesting names in different  Indian States.Fried karela is used as a savory snack and as a sweet also,The plain unsalted ones are fried and then dipped in sugar syrup .

In U.P it is named as crispy karela, Champakali in Maharastra, and Elo Jhelo in Bengal, Kardoi in Assam.The savoury and sweet both version taste delicious.

Karela can be made just plain salted or you can add cumin/jeera, carom seeds/ajwain and crushed pepper corns .I prefer the spiced one.The fried karelas can be served as a snack with tea or coffee and you can also make tangy karela chat with fried karelas.

Just put fried karelas on the serving plate ,put some boiled potatoes cubes on it and then drizzle Green mint chutney , Tamarind chutney and beaten salted yogurt and the final garnish with come red chili powder,roasted cumin powder ,same as we do on dahi vadas. These fried karelas easily stays fresh for minimum 15 days if kept in an airtight container.

As the festival of Rakshabandhan is coming so I made these beautiful looking crispy snack .It’s a tradition to serve  Home made sweets and savoury on festivals.So I often made Kalakand, Lachcha Rabri , Dahi vada, Punjabi aloo samosa etc on Rakshabandhan but This time, I made these karelas and everyone at home love the karela chat, still few are remaining for my brother which he will surely enjoy on Raksha Bandhan day 🙂

Karelas are made with refined flour/maida or with a mix of wheat flour and maida.A medium stiff dough is made with it and kept to rest for 15 minutes.Small thin pooris are rolled from the dough and then made vertical slit all over it leaving some area around the edges ,then roll the poori and press the sides ,no need to apply water on it.

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Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Karela Chat

A crispy savory beautiful shaped snack made with refined flour and few spices

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time50 mins

Course: Kids Friendly, snacks/starters, Tiffin recipes, Travel Food

Cuisine: Uttar Pradesh Cuisine

Keyword: champakali nimki snack, crispy karela nimki, mathri, nimki

Servings: 25 pieces

Author: Anjana Chaturvedi

Ingredients

• 2 cup Refined Flour / Maida
• 1/4 cup Cooking Oil
• 1/2 tsp Carom Seeds / Ajwain
• 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds / Sabut Jeera
• 1/2 tsp Peppercorns / Sabut Kali Mirch crushed
• To taste Salt / Namak

Instructions

• In a bowl take refined flour,cumin,carom,crushed pepper corns ,salt and 1/4 cup cooking oil.
• Mix every thing well then add some water and make a medium stiff dough.
• Cover with a cloth and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
• Make small balls from the dough.
• Roll the dough balls to make small thin pooris.
• Make vertical slits all over leaving some portion on the sides.
• Now roll the pooris to make a cylinder.
• Heat enough oil in a deep pan.
• Deep fry the prepared karelas on medium to low heat in batches.
• Fry all the karelas and drain on a paper napkin.
• Karela chat- Arrange few fried karelas on a plate and put some boiled potato cubes over it.
• Drizzle some yogurt ,green chutney and tamarind chutney.
• Sprinkle roasted cumin powder,red chili powder and black salt.
• Serve immediately.