Namkeens & Savoury Snacks

Haldiram's Dry Petha is the Agra-style sweet made from ash gourd, candied in sugar syrup and then dried so the outside is firm and lightly crystallised while the inside stays soft and juicy. It is a sweet, not a namkeen, and it is far less rich than a milk-based mithai.

Best with

• Serving after a meal
• Festival sweet boxes and gifting
• Chai in the afternoon

Pack and storage

400 g pack. Store in a cool, dry place and keep the pack sealed after opening.

Beyond Chips Original Style is the plain, lightly salted chip in the Beyond range — the one to reach for when you want crunch without a flavour taking over. 100g.

Salted alone, it works as the neutral partner to everything else on the table: a dip, a chutney, a sandwich, a beer, or simply a bowl put out when people arrive. It is also the chip to crush over a chaat or a salad when you want texture rather than seasoning.

Serve straight from the pack, ideally in a bowl so the pack stays closed between handfuls. Store in a cool, dry cupboard and reseal tightly — once opened, chips soften within a day or two.

Telugu Foods Sakinalu is the Telangana festival snack: rice flour worked with sesame seeds and ajwain, piped into loose coils and deep fried until hard. This is the spicy version, so there is a clear chilli warmth behind the sesame. It is a substantial, brittle snack that shatters rather than crumbles, and the sesame is what people recognise it by.

Best with

• Tea or filter coffee
• Sankranti and other festival snack plates
• An evening snack with something plain alongside
• Sending to family, since it travels well

Pack and storage

130g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Sakinalu are fragile, so keep the pack somewhere it will not be knocked about, and move them to a rigid airtight container once opened to hold the crunch.

ja! Roasted & Salted Peanuts are shelled peanuts, dry roasted and salted, in a 200g pack.

The roast is what makes them: deep and even, so the nuts snap rather than bend, with just enough salt to keep you going back to the bowl. Straightforward beer-and-cricket snacking, but they earn their place in cooking too — scattered over poha and upma, stirred into chivda and bhel, crushed into a peanut chutney, or pounded for a Thai salad dressing.

Tip them into a bowl rather than eating from the bag if you want them to last the evening. Store sealed in a cool, dry cupboard.

Leicht & Cross High Protein Crispy Bread is the thin, crisp German knusperbrot in the high-protein version of the range — 115g of light, airy slices with an open, bubbly structure rather than the dense snap of a rye crispbread.

It is a base rather than a snack in its own right: topped with cheese, quark, cream cheese and cucumber, smoked salmon, avocado, hummus or jam, it becomes breakfast or a quick evening plate. The neutral taste means it carries sweet and savoury toppings equally well.

Top it just before eating, since the slices soften quickly once something moist sits on them. Store the pack sealed in a dry cupboard.

Haldiram's Khatta Meetha is the sweet-and-sour namkeen — fine sev, fried lentils, peanuts and crisp flakes tossed with sugar, salt and tangy spice. The sweet and sour hit at the same time, which is why it is the mix people keep reaching back into.

Best with

• Tea-time and evening snacking
• Snack bowls at parties
• Lunchboxes and road trips

Pack and storage

200 g pack. Store in a cool, dry place and reseal tightly after opening.

Haldiram's Methi Sev mix is a gram flour sev mix seasoned with dried fenugreek leaves, which give it a faintly bitter, herby edge behind the salt. That touch of methi is what sets it apart from a plain or aloo sev — savoury rather than sweet, and more interesting on its own.

Best with

• Chai and coffee breaks
• Scattering over dal, khichdi or curd rice
• Mixing into homemade bhel

Pack and storage

200 g pack. Keep sealed in a cool, dry place.

TRS Roasted Chickpeas (Chana), Unsalted are split chickpeas already roasted dry — known as daria, putani or roasted chana dal. They are crisp and nutty straight from the packet and need no further cooking. Being unsalted, they leave the seasoning entirely up to you.

Best for

• South Indian coconut chutney, where they do the thickening
• Chivda, namkeen and trail mixes
• Grinding into chutney powders and masala blends

Using it

For chutney, grind a handful with coconut, green chilli and a little water until smooth — no soaking, no cooking. For a chutney powder, grind dry with red chilli, garlic and salt to a coarse meal. Eaten as they are, a short toss in a hot dry pan with salt and chilli powder wakes them up.

Pack and storage

300 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening so they stay crisp.

Haldiram's Bhelpuri with Chutney is a complete bhel kit — puffed rice and crisp sev in the pack with sachets of chutney to stir through just before eating. Add chopped onion, tomato and coriander if you have them, mix everything together and eat it straight away while it is still crunchy.

Best with

• A quick evening chaat at home
• Serving at parties as a make-it-yourself bowl
• Chai on the side

Pack and storage

350 g pack. Store in a cool, dry place and keep the pack sealed until you are ready to mix, as the puffed rice softens quickly once dressed.

Haldiram Aloo Bhujia is fine, brittle bhujia made with potato and gram flour, seasoned with a warm everyday spice blend. The potato gives the strands a softer bite and a rounder, less sharp flavour than plain bhujia, which is why it disappears so fast from the bowl.

Best with

• Chai in the afternoon
• Sprinkling over dal, khichdi or curd rice
• Adding crunch to sandwiches and wraps

Pack and storage

200 g pack. Store in a cool, dry place and reseal the pack after opening.

Townbus Chakli Murukku is the familiar spiral cracker of rice and lentil flour, lightly spiced and fried until it snaps cleanly. It is the everyday murukku rather than a hot or specialised one, which makes it the safe choice when you are feeding a mixed table including children. The coils are sturdy enough to survive a snack box without shattering.

Best with

• Tea and filter coffee
• Diwali and festival snack plates
• An evening snack for the whole family
• Lunch boxes and journeys

Pack and storage

170g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. An airtight jar keeps the snap in; a bag left open overnight in a humid kitchen will not.

Townbus Kai Murukku is the hand-shaped murukku, coiled by hand rather than pressed through a mould, which gives it the uneven, rustic look and the thicker bite that sets it apart from machine-pressed spirals. The flavour is mild and buttery with cumin through it, and the texture is dense and crisp rather than light.

Best with

• Filter coffee or tea
• Festival and wedding snack plates
• An evening snack with something spicy alongside
• Gift boxes and hampers

Pack and storage

150g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. The thicker coils hold their crunch better than fine murukku, but an airtight jar is still the difference between a week and a day.

Townbus Ompudi is the fine gram-flour sev of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, extruded into thin strands and fried, then seasoned with cumin and pepper. It is the lightest thing on the snack shelf: the strands break on the tongue rather than needing to be chewed, and the flavour is gently peppery instead of chilli-hot.

Best with

• Tea or filter coffee
• Sprinkled over curd rice, bhel or chaat
• An everyday snack for a mixed table, since it is mild
• Mixed into a homemade namkeen with peanuts and raisins

Pack and storage

150g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Fine sev is the first thing in any snack cupboard to go soft, so an airtight jar makes a real difference here.

Townbus Pepper Thattai is the flat, disc-shaped rice cracker of Tamil Nadu, made hot with black pepper rather than chilli. Pepper heat behaves differently: it arrives late and sits at the back of the throat, so the first bite reads milder than the third. The discs are thin and snap sharply.

Best with

• Filter coffee or strong tea
• Diwali and festival snack plates
• An evening snack with something cooling alongside
• Gifting and hampers

Pack and storage

150g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Thattai are brittle as well as crisp, so keep the pack somewhere it will not be crushed, and move the discs to a rigid airtight container once opened.

A2B Madras Mixture is a savoury Indian snack mixture from A2B (Adyar Ananda Bhavan), a well-known South Indian sweets and snacks brand. Madras mixture, also called mixture or namkeen, is a blend of ingredients such as sev, fried lentils, peanuts and curry leaves, typical of South Indian tea-time snacks.

The mixture has a crunchy texture from its varied ingredients, with a savoury, spiced taste and a mild heat, along with a hint of curry leaf flavour running through it.

How to use

• Ready to eat directly from the pack as a snack, on its own or with tea.

Pack size: 200g. Store in a cool, dry place and reseal the pack after opening to keep it crisp.

Haldiram's Methi Sev is fine gram flour sev seasoned with dried fenugreek leaves, giving it a gently bitter, herby note behind the salt. That methi edge is what separates it from plain or aloo sev — savoury, a little grassy, and good on its own without anything else.

Best with

• Chai and coffee breaks
• Scattering over dal, khichdi or curd rice
• Building bhel and chaat at home

Pack and storage

200 g pack. Keep sealed in a cool, dry place.

Beyond Chips Salt & Pepper is the peppered chip in the Beyond range — salted as usual, then given a coarse hit of black pepper that builds slowly rather than burning. 100g.

Salt and pepper is the seasoning that suits people who find chilli flavours too loud: warm and savoury, with the pepper coming through on the back of the bite. It goes well with a cold drink, and it is the better of the two with a creamy dip, which softens the pepper.

Tip them into a bowl and reseal the pack. Store cool and dry, and finish within a couple of days of opening so they stay crisp.

Haldiram's Bombay Mixture is the western Indian style of namkeen — thin sev, fried split peas and lentils, peanuts and curry leaves tossed in a tangy, chilli-warm masala. It is sharper and more citrusy than a Punjabi mix, with the curry leaf coming through clearly.

Best with

• Chai in the evening
• Snacking with cold drinks
• Mixing into bhel or sprinkling over chaat

Pack and storage

200 g pack. Store in a cool, dry place and keep sealed after opening.