Sel roti recipe — traditional dish from Nepal

Name: Sel roti
Prep time: 240 min
Cook time: 480 min
Total time: 720 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Nepal
Ingredients: 500 g rice; 150 g sugar; 60 g ghee; 250 ml milk; 1 tsp green cardamom; 100 ml water; 1000 ml oil for frying

A sweet Nepali ring fried from a batter of wet-ground soaked rice, left to ferment on its own and poured straight into the hot fat.

How to make Sel roti

Soak 500 g long-grain white rice for 6 hours, drain it well, then grind it wet into a very fine rice paste. Ground soaked rice, not wheat flour, is what makes sel roti.

Beat in 150 g sugar, 60 g melted ghee, 1 tsp ground green cardamom and 250 ml milk, working the batter by hand for 10-15 minutes until it pales and falls in a ribbon.

Cover and rest 4-6 hours at around 30°C. No baker's yeast is added: the natural fermentation gives both the flavour and the lift.

Beat the batter again. It must pour in an unbroken stream, so adjust with a little water or rice flour.

Heat 1 l of oil or ghee in a wide pan to 170-180°C.

Pour the batter from a squeeze bottle or a cloth with a hole, tracing a 12-15 cm ring straight onto the surface of the oil.

After 1-2 minutes turn it with two skewers and fry the other side to a deep red-brown, about 2 minutes.

Drain upright on a rack. Sel roti is sweet, crisp outside and soft inside, and keeps for several days.

What is Sel roti?

Sel roti is a traditional dish from Nepal, baked in the oven, and takes about 12 hours from start to finish. It is built around oil for frying, rice and milk. The recipe below uses 7 ingredients and is written out step by step.

How long does Sel roti take?

At 720 minutes it is slower than 83% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 5 dishes built on oil for frying. The method runs to 8 steps, the longest being 10 minutes.

Any tips for making Sel roti?

After its long rest, beat the batter again and adjust it with a little water or rice flour: it must pour in an unbroken stream to trace a ring.

How Sel roti compares

Green cardamom appears in only 2 other dishes in the atlas.

Cooked with the same thing elsewhere

Other traditional dishes built on green cardamom, from other countries.

Kabuli pulao 🇦🇫 Afghanistan
Bhuna khichuri 🇧🇩 Bangladesh

Copper documents Nepal alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.