Easy snack made with fox nuts, cashews, peanuts and spices! This Makhana Namkeen is made in the air fryer and goes well with chai.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 7 minutes
  • Total time: 17 minutes
  • Yield: 3 cups
  • Category: Snack
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 2 cups makhana (foxnuts)
  • 1/4 cup peanuts (raw peanuts)
  • 1/2 cup whole cashews
  • 1/2 cup coconut slices
  • 20 curry leaves
  • 3/4-1 tablespoon oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon chaat masala
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)

Method

  1. Pre-heat air fryer for 2 minutes at 380 F degrees. Add makhana and air fry at 380 F degrees for 7 to 8 minutes. When done, makhana should be crisp and break easily. Remove makhana into a bowl. You might hear noise as they makhana circulates in the air fryer (they are super light so this happens), that is normal and okay.
  2. Now set air fryer to 340 F degrees. Take a small pan which fits into your air fryer (I used a 7 inch springform pan which fits well in my 8 qt Instant Pot) and add peanuts and cashew to it. You don't need to use a pan here, the design of my grill pan is such that nuts could fall below the grill pan and so I used a small pan to keep everything in one place. From this point, be very careful. Every air fryer is different and you don't want to burn the nuts and everything else. So air fry the peanuts and cashews for 5 minutes. Open the air fryer at 4 minutes mark and add coconut slices to it. Now air fry remaining 1 minute.
  3. Open and add curry leaves, continue to air fry at 340 F for 1 more minute. So I air fried in total for 6 minutes after adding the nuts. This worked perfect for me, depending on model of the air fryer, this might take less time so keep an eye.
  4. Carefully, lift the pan out of the air fryer using a pair of tongs. Disconnect the air fryer, carefully remove all the curry leaves. They would have gone down the grill pan while air frying, so carefully remove the grill pan (use a glove) and remove all the curry leaves. They will be super crispy.
  5. Transfer the nuts, coconut slices, curry leaves to the same bowl as the roasted makhana. Using your hands, mix everything together while crushing the crisp curry leaves.
  6. Now in a small pan heat 3/4 to 1 tablespoon oil on medium heat. Once hot, add chaat masala, black pepper, Kashmiri red chili powder and salt. Stir and remove pan from heat. Pour the tadka into the bowl.
  7. Mix until the makhana, nuts are well coated with the spices. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy makhana namkeen with chai!

Stove-top Instructions

  1. You can make this on stove-top if you want. Add 1/2 tablespoon oil (or ghee) in a pan on medium heat. Roast the makhana on medium heat until they crisp up, around 6-7 minutes. Remove the makhana from the pan. To the same pan, now add 1 tablespoon oil (or ghee), roast the nuts until browned. Then remove and roast the coconut and curry leaves now until crisp. Add everything to a bowl and then add the spices, salt and mix. Since we roasted in oil, everything already has some moisture on it so spices stick easily at this point.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.