How to Make Poppadoms (5 Minute Recipe)

Poppadoms are a delicious Indian appetizer popular in Indian restaurants. With this quick and easy homemade poppadom recipe, you can prepare perfectly crunchy poppadoms to serve during curry night! Included are fried, tava cooked, air fryer and microwave recipes.

Follow the video instructions or step by step method for homemade fried poppadoms in 5 minutes!

Making poppadoms at home couldn't be easier and they taste so much better than ready to eat poppadoms. Simply purchase your favourite uncooked poppadom and fry them within seconds in hot oil.

Now, you could make the poppadoms entirely from scratch, but I think frying store-bought uncooked poppadoms tastes just as good and takes a lot less effort!

Whether you are cooking your own Indian fake-away for curry night or waiting for delivery, homemade crispy poppadoms are the way to go!

What are poppadoms?

Poppadoms are a type of thin Indian cracker or crisp and are served as light starters or appetizers. These round lentil crackers are made from either urad dal, chickpea flour, rice flour or tapioca starch.

They are also known as poppadums, papadums, papad, appadam, appalam in different parts of India.

Papadums can be either deep-fried so they are light as air or cooked on a hot tava (Indian style concave griddle pan). This depends on the main ingredient of the poppadoms.

Poppadums prepared with urid/urad and rice flours are suitable for deep-frying and closely resemble the poppadoms from Indian takeaways.

It is important to use oil as simply cooking rice flour poppadoms on a tawa will not produce the same airy cracker texture.

The papad made with only urad flour are cooked on a hot tawa until they form bubbles and become crispy. These are suitable for frying too.

Papad can come in various flavours such as black pepper, garlic, cumin and green chilli to name a few.

In Western supermarkets, you can commonly find ready to eat restaurant style poppadoms. These are pre-fried poppadums that do not require any cooking.

Curry houses will serve poppadums in a basket as a starter with a trio of poppadom dips and biryani dishes.

Homemade Poppadoms from Scratch

In India, poppadoms are traditonally made from scratch and in bulk in individual homes. The method is labour intensive.

Firstly a dough is prepared with either urad flour or rice flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices.

The dough is divided into equal size balls which are then very thinly rolled out into rounds or discs.

These are then left to dry in the hot sun for a few days. The raw poppadoms can now be stored for months and cooked whenever needed.

Why you will love this recipe

Works well as a starter or side - serve ahead of your meal with poppadom dips or alongside your curry and rice dishes

Indian appetizer that is suitable for vegans and vegetarians

Simple ingredients - only 2 ingredients are required for easy homemade poppadums

Cheap - this starter is budget-friendly (approx £1-2 for 18-20) because you can make a large batch from one packet at a fraction of the cost of an Indian takeaway.

Perfect for get-togethers and parties

Oil-free poppadom recipe included in this post

Can be served with Shirazi salad too

Cook At Home Poppadom Ingredients

You need just two simple ingredients to make easy poppadoms at home.

Uncooked poppadoms

They are easily available in Indian grocery stores but are also sometimes stocked in the World Food Aisle of supermarkets.

Uncooked papad come in many different varieties. For restaurant style poppadoms that are served with the dips, go for plain Madras based ones. (Urad flour and rice flour)

If you want to make poppadom without oil or oil-free, go for regular (urad flour) and heat them on a frying pan or griddle.

Oil for frying - I have used vegetable oil, but you can also use sunflower or canola oil. Olive pomace oil is an option too but has its own flavour. I do not recommend mustard or coconut oil as they are strong-flavoured.

You do not need oil if making poppadoms directly on a pan.

How to cook Poppadoms at home

How to make poppadom by deep-frying

Use Madras papad for this method.

Heat oil approximately 2-3 inches high in a kadai or deep pan. A frying pan may be too shallow for this

Wait until the oil heats. You can check if the oil is hot by dropping in a small piece of papad. If it immediately rises and puffs, the oil is ready.

Tip - the oil must be hot and not warm for the crispiest poppadums.

Place one poppadum in the oil at a time. It should immediately rise and expand. As soon as it does this, remove from the hot oil using a slotted spoon or kitchen tongs. You do not want to papad to brown.

Place on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil if you wish.

Serve immediately or within 1 hour for best results.

Repeat for the remaining pieces. If the papad are browning, reduce the heat.

How to make papad without oil (tawa method)

Heat a tawa or flat pan without any oil on medium flame.

Hover your hand close (but not too close!!) to the pan, when you can feel warmth, place one papad on top.

Within seconds, you will see bubbles appear on the surface.

Using tongs, flip over the papad and cook on the other side. You will see that the rawness of the papad disappears.

Once you see this, remove from the heat. As the papad cools, it will become really crispy.

Do not use high heat as the papad will burn but remain raw.

This style of papadum is often eaten by Gujaratis who serve it with Gujarati Khichdi.

Homemade Poppadoms in Microwave

Brush a single papad with a little oil on both sides.

Place on a microwave safe plate and heat on high for 40-60 seconds depending on your brand of papad and microwave.

Again, they will crisp up as they cool.

Air Fryer Poppadom

Cooking poppadoms in the air fryer is much healthier than deep-frying but there are a few important points to note.

If you place a single piece of papad in the air fryer, it will fly in the basket, will stick to the filaments and likely cause your air fryer to start smoking! We do not want this.

Instead, place your papad in the basket but cover them with something heavy such as dried beans or baking beans.

Brush with oil Air Fry at 200C or 400F for 1-2 minutes. You do not need to preheat.

The results will not compare to deep-frying or cooking on a pan but it is an option you may wish to try out.

Have you tried our easy air fryer onion bhaji yet? It takes only 20 minutes!!

Serving Suggestion

Papad can be served before your meal or alongside tarka dal, curries and biryanis.

Prepare a copycat Indian curry house or takeaway meal with Indian bread like garlic and coriander naans or rotli.

I like saag aloo, matar paneer and chana masala with some takeaway style pilau rice.

A bowl of kachumber, Indian side salad, can be used as topping for masala poppadum.

Poppadom Dips

In Indian restaurants, poppadoms and starters are served with a trio of dips. This crunchy appetizer simply wouldn't be complete without poppadom condiments or sauces!

1. Indian Onion Chutney - my all time favourite is this Indian Onion Dip for Poppadoms. This red dip can be ready in 5 minutes as you just need to chop an onion and mix it in a red sauce of ketchup and simple Indian spices.
2. Indian Mint Sauce - Indian yogurt mint sauce is perfect for crispy poppadums, it has a tang with a little sweetness and is so good.
3. Mango Chutney - a classic! Scoop up plenty of mango chutney with your crispy papad. Alternatively, try amba sauce, a Middle Eastern pickled mango sauce.

Storage

Poppadoms are best eaten immediately after cooking. This is because they quickly become stale. For this reason, do not prepare poppadoms in advance.

If you do have leftovers, store in an air tight container at room temperature for up to a day. This will keep the poppadoms crispy.

Uncooked poppadoms can be stored for many months if kept in an round air tight container in a dark cupboard.

FAQs

Other Indian Restaurant Style Recipes

Bombay Potatoes

Brinjal Bhaji

Shahi Paneer

Chana Saag

Sweet Lassi

Mango Lassi

Carrot Halwa

As always if you make this recipe, be sure to leave me a comment, rate this recipe and tag me on Instagram @jcookingodyssey or #jcookingodyssey. I love seeing all your photos of my recipe recreations!

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