10 Must-Try Indian Tea Time Snacks Recipes

Indian Tea Time Snacks: Tea time in India wasn’t always what it is today. The concept first arrived during British rule, when afternoon tea was more of a formal affair among the elite. But like most things, Indian households made it their own. However, as the years passed, tea time gradually transformed into a much less formal procedure, and, more honestly than not, into a much more entertaining one. It became that familiar pause in the day. A time to unwind, chat, and reach for something delicious.

And the snacks of course came with tea. A simple biscuit or a toast slice easily evolved into a category of its own. There are favourites in every region, in every kitchen, in every household, spiced, fried, steamed stuffed or tossed, all based on habit, taste and the ingredients that were available at the time.

Below you will find 10 best Indian tea time foods that you can easily prepare at home, and that are easy to make, difficult not to finish, and that best accompany your warm cup.

10 Must Try Indian Tea Time Snacks You Can Whip Up at Home

These are 10 Indian tea time snacks and they are simple to prepare, flavourful and solve the problem of what to do when a cup of chai is not enough. One or two slices of bread, some potatoes left over, a portion of puffed rice or anything available in the house in 5 minutes, can become very serious snack stuff. Fried, flavored up, and plain old comforting, there is something good here to suit every type of craving.

1. Poha

Soft, spiced and satisfying, poha is the easiest way to kick off chai time.

Recipe: Wash 1 cup thick poha and keep aside in water to make it softer. Heat oil in a pan and put in mustard seeds, curry leaves, slit green chilli, and one finely chopped onion. Stir-fry until the onion is translucent; add turmeric and salt and add the soaked poha. Stir well and leave to cook about 2minutes. Coriander should be sprinkled over the lemon juice and roasted peanuts to finish it. Little effort, lots of flavour.

2. Pakoras – Mix it up or Pick Your Favourite

Whether you’re in the mood for mirchi, onion, potato or paneer pakoras, have your back.

Recipe: To 1 cup besan, add salt, ajwain, turmeric and red chilli powder in a bowl. To a thick batter, add sufficient water. Chop onion, potato, paneer or put as whole green chillies in the batter and deep fry till empty and golden. You can go all in and do a mixed platter or stick to your one true love (hello, onion pakora). Serve hot with chutney and rain sounds.

3. Vada Pav or Dabeli – Take Your Pick

Love the desi Mumbai street-style vibe? Then vada pav is your go-to. But how about giving Dabeli a try too?

Recipe (Vada Pav): Peel 2 potatoes and boil and mash. Cook mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chillies, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric and salt. Add the mash, and roll it out to the form of balls, dip in besan batter and fry in frying oil. Toast pav with butter, sprinkle dry garlic chutney, and sandwich the vada.

Recipe (Dabeli): Combine mashed potatoes, Dabeli masala, sweet tamarind chutney and salt. Add into buttered pav and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, roasted peanuts, sev and coriander. Grill lightly and make warm in both sides.

4. Bread – So Many Ways to Snack

Got bread lying around? Try turning it into a crisp cutlet or go the soft-spicy bread upma route.

Recipe (Bread Cutlet): Cut off 4-5 slices of bread and use a mashed cooked potato (add finely chopped veggies, spices and a pinch of cornflour or breadcrumbs to stick together). Form into cutlets and fry them in shallow fat till gold in colour.

Recipe (Bread Upma): Slice the bread into a cube. Heat oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves, plainly chopped onion, green chillies and turmeric in a pan. Add in the cubes of bread, stir and cook until it is slightly crunchy. Coriander and lemon is to be used as garnish. Fast, delicious and just right with old bread.

5. Misal Pav

Spicy, tangy and served with crispy farsan, Misal is literally a party on a platter.

Recipe: In a frying pan, saute onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and chopped garlic with turmeric, red chilli powder and goda masala. Prepare sprouted moth beans and boil them and then mix them with water to prepare a curry. Simmer, until flavours combine. Chopped onion, farsan, coriander, lemon and buttered pavas on the side is desirable. Messy? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.

6. Veg Cutlet

Crispy outside and full of veg inside, cutlets are easy to prepare and easily frozen.

Recipe: Blend two potatoes cooked and add into it grated carrots, beans chopped, peas, salt, garam masala and breadcrumbs or corn flour as binding agent. Form into cutlets, dip in breadcrumbs and shallow or deep fry to a golden brown. To serve them with ketchup, chutney or eat right out of the pan.

7. Upma

Comforting, fluffy, and surprisingly filling, Upma deserves more love.

Recipe: Dry roast 1 cup rava (semolina) till slightly golden. In a pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves, chopped onion, green chillies, and ginger. Sauté until onions soften. Add 2.5 cups of hot water and salt. Slowly stir in the roasted rava while mixing continuously to avoid lumps. Cook until fluffy and garnish with coriander and lemon juice.

8. Jhal Muri

Bengal’s no-cook, lightning-fast snack that’s got crunch, spice, and bite.

Recipe: In a large bowl, toss puffed rice with chopped onions, tomatoes, green chillies, boiled potatoes, roasted peanuts, mustard oil, lemon juice, and chaat masala. Add sev and coriander right before serving to retain that fresh crunch. It’s messy, addictive, and ready in 5 minutes.

9. Besan Toast or Chilla – The Desi Pancake Dilemma

Got besan? Whip up a savoury pancake or turn your bread into spicy toast, it’s a win either way.

Recipe (Chilla): Pour one cup of gram flour into a bowl and add finely chopped onion, tomato, green chilli, bit of turmeric, fresh coriander and salt in it. Put in just as much water as you need to make a heavy pourable batter. Take a pan lightly fried with butter or margarine, turn up a ladleful, and work it smooth like a pancake, and cook on every side till golden and crispy.

Recipe (Besan Bread Toast): Butter slices of bread in the same batter ensuring that they are well covered and pan fry in both sides to turn golden and crispy.

Eat them with chutney or with half a teaspoon of curd, one at a time.

10. Samosa – Classic Outside, Endless Possibilities Inside

The simple samosa never goes out of favour as an all-time tea-time snack. Keep it classic and use traditional fillings of spiced potatoes, or switch it up with paneer, pea, or even a spicy lentil filling (there is no up or down here).

Recipe: Begin by combining 2 cups of plain flour and pinch of salt, 2 tablespoons of oil and just enough water to combine them into a dense dough. Knead and leave to rest awhile.

To make the traditional filling, boil some potatoes and mash them with cumin seeds, green chilli, ginger, turmeric, coriander powder and few pea. Feel like a switch? You might experiment with crushed paneer with some chilli and garam masala, or spiced moong dal cooked with fennel seeds roasted and amchur.

Take the dough and roll them into small circles then cut each small circle into half, make them into a cone, stuff them with fillings, seal the edges, then fry them on medium fire till they come out looking so gorgeous golden. To be eaten preferably hot with tamarind or mint chutney and of course, the second cup of chai.

Time to Put the Chai on the Stove

In most Indian homes, the moment the tea goes on, the kitchen comes alive. Someone pops in for a quick visit, a neighbour turns up with no warning, or family drifts into the room as the smell begins to travel. And almost instinctively, the snacks follow.

They are not sophisticated and/or pretentious, they are rather bite-size and prepared out of what is currently in the kitchen. The type you can just chuck in with no planning, still they manage to go down exactly right.

Because in homes like ours, tea is rarely served on its own, and no one ever leaves hungry.

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