Simple sweet potato papad | Genasina happala (video recipe)

Sun dried sweet potato papad or genasina happala or shakkarkhand papad. Easy to make glutenfree dairy-free deep fried snack recipe.

Sweet potato papad are perfectly crispy, crunchy. These papad are totally irresistible which is savory, naturally sweet, and flavorful.

These Sweet potatoes are delicious naturally sweetened nutritious root vegetable also called as sihi genasu or shakkarkhand.

In most of traditional food spread, it is incomplete without accompaniments like pickle, papad, chutney powder.

Usually, different kinds of papads or happala like rice papad, urad dal papad, sabudana fryums, urad dal fryums, potato papad, sweet potato papad are prepared in Indian household.

Different papad masala are used in making papad. These papad masala or spice mix are family taste preferences. Usually, every year my family prepares papad and stores it for next few months.

This is the perfect time of the year to make sun dried food items on roof tops when heat is harsh and helps in quick drying.  

Serve these sweet potato fries with rice or as teatime snacks.

You will never go wrong with this recipe. Its so easy to make.

This is flourless homemade papadums from scratch made from sweet potato. It is more the work however worth the effort!!

You can adjust the spices in whichever way you like it!!

Check a quick video of this sweet potato papad and try this summer recipe in your kitchen. If you have enjoyed the video do subscribe to Dice n Cook Youtube channel for more food videos.

Summer fryums recipes on blog

Dice n Cook is a participant in Amazon Services LLC Associate Program. Hence this site may contain some of these links to Amazon.com. If you make a purchase through one of those links, Dice n Cook will receive a small commission from the purchase at no additional cost of you. Read the privacy policy here.

What to do with lots of sweet potatoes?

When you have lots of sweet potatoes, you can easily store them by making papad and these can be used for almost 3 months. This is a great snack to munch on during winters and rainy season.

Ingredients for sweet potato papad

• Sweet potato or sihi genasu
• Black pepper powder
• Ajwain or carom seeds powder
• Turmeric powder
• Salt as per taste
• Oil 
• Water for cooking

Sweet potato – This is the main ingredient for making papad. Use good quality sweet potato. Use sweet potatoes which doesn’t have any patches on them.

Black pepper powder – I have used homemade freshly ground black pepper powder.

Carom seeds powder – Carom seeds are locally called ajwain or omina kalu in Kannada. I have used finely powdered homemade carom seeds powder. This is easy to make at home.

Turmeric powder – Vibrant turmeric powder is used for flavour and colour to papad.

Salt – Any salt can be used. Sea salt, kosher salt or pink salt will work in this recipe.

Oil – Refined oil is used in this recipe. You can also use coconut oil, however it imparts aroma in the final product.

Water for pressure cooking the sweet potato pieces.

Equipment needed

Mixing bowl

Pressure cooker

Mixer grinder

Kadhai or deep pan for deep frying

Kitchen paper towels

How do you make sweet potato papad?

To make these papad, wash sweet potatoes well to clean any mud on them. Rinse thoroughly before cooking it further.

Cut the sweet potatoes into small pieces. Add enough water to cover the sweet potatoes. Pressure cook the sweet potato pieces until they are soft (may be three whistles).

Throw away the water and cool the cooked sweet potato pieces. Peel the skin of potatoes and keep this aside.

Add the spices to the sweet potato pieces and grind into fine paste.

Spices like black pepper powder, carom seeds powder and turmeric powder is added for flavours.

Add a spoon of oil when grinding the sweet potato pieces. This prevents the dough from stickling to the sides of mixer jar.

Make a fine paste of sweet potato dough mixture. Do not leave any pieces of sweet potato, otherwise this will make pressing dough difficult.

Make small balls of dough with greased hands. I have made small sized papads, if your family likes bigger ones, then prepare big ones.

Keep all the dough balls ready and press these balls into papad.

Take two parchment papers, place a papad dough ball and keep one more parchment paper on top of this and press using small plate.

Press all papad in same way, place these carefully on a cloth or thick plastic sheet.

Place all papad for sun drying on the cloth for 2 to 3 days. Dry sweet potato papad completely before storing them else they spoil due to fungal growth.

After 3 days of sun drying, papad is dried and ready for deep frying.

Heat oil in a deep fry pan. Drop a small piece of papad and check the hotness of oil.

Oil should be hot before frying the papad. Deep fry papad on medium heat and crispy tasty sweet potato papad or sihi genasina happala is ready to be served.

How to store the sweet potato papad?

Papad is usually prepared during summer season and stored for mostly 2 to 3 months.

Store in moisture free airtight container or boxes. Any moisture in the papad or storage container will spoil the papad because of fungal growth.

How to cook sweet potatoes?

Sweet potatoes can be cooked in two ways. First method is by open vessel method and other method is pressure cooker method.

There are different ways of slicing and cooking sweet potato. Below I have given few ways of doing it.

• First method is to pressure cook whole sweet potatoes without chopping. Whole sweet potatoes are pressure cooked until they turn soft. This takes longer time to cook
• Second method is slicing the sweet potatoes without skin. Peel the skin and makes cubes.
• Next method is chopping the sweet potatoes with skin into big cubes and pressure cooking them until soft.
• Sweet potato cubes can be chopped thick or thin. Make sure not to make very thin slices if you are pressure cooking them. If it’s very thin, they will dissolve in water while pressure cooking.
• Sweet potato pieces can be steam cooked as well without adding water.

Any of the above methods can be followed to cook sweet potatoes. I have pressure cooked sweet potatoes with skin.

Tips for sweet potato papad

Choose sweet potatoes which are good quality ones without holes or dark patches. While selecting sweet potatoes, choose ones which are uniform and well developed.

Use fresh spice powder for making the papad. They should not be stale or old. This gives nice aroma and flavours to papad.

Peel the skin of sweet potato properly and grind into fine paste otherwise any lumps will become messy while pressing papad.

While sun drying, do not overlap the papads, it should be dried separately.

When frying, do not crowd the papad instead fry one at a time.

Do not fry for long time, they will darken very soon as this is flourless and vegetable based papad.

Scale your papad recipe ingredients as needed by your family.

There are more delicious sweet potato recipes on blog

Frequently asked questions

Is this recipe glutenfree?

Yes! This recipe is glutenfree however, few spices may be processed in facilities where gluten-based spices are processed. So if you are gluten sensitive, read the labels before you proceed.

Is this papad good for health?

This is a deep-fried snack and any deepfried food cannot be healthy. Since these are homemade and I would recommend over store brought papad. These are tasty condiment in South Indian cuisine eaten in limited quantities and enjoyed.

Can we pressure cook sweet potatoes?

Sweet potatoes can be pressure cooked until they are well cooked and easy to remove skin. They should be cooked in such a way, it can be easily ground into fine paste.

Can we mash the sweet potato?

Yes the cooked sweet potato can be mashed well using a hand potato masher. It should be mashed well, without any lumps in the dough.

Can we grind sweet potato without any oil?

Oil prevents the sweet potato from sticking to walls of mixer jar. So it is advised to add one or two spoon of oil while making the dough. 

Can we cook the sweet potato in open pot?

Yes sweet potatoes can be cooked in open pot. This might take few extra more minutes compared to pressure cooking method.

Can we shade dry the papad?

No they cannot be dried under shade. These sweet potato papad require complete sun light and proper drying. Since these are flourless papad they tend to spoil with fungal growth if not dried properly.

Can we refrigerate the dried papad?

Sweet potato papad need not be refrigerated since these are well sun dried and it remains good for 2 to 3 months.

How long will the sweet potato papad last?

If the papad are dried properly and stored well, they remain fresh for 2 to 3 months. However, I recommend using up these papad early since we are not using any flour to make papad.

How to fry sweet potato papad?

To fry sweet potato papad, oil should be on medium heat. Do not over crowd papad in hot oil, it gets burnt easily.

Do not fry on high heat, these papad turn brown very soon, so keep an eye while frying papad.

Can we bake the sweet potato papad?

Deep frying is the best method for this papad since the baked version makes the papad hard.

Can we roast the papad on flame?

Sweet potato papad can be roasted on flame if the papad is made very thin in thickness.

Flavor Variations

There are many ways of making these sweet potato papad. You have many ways of bringing in the flavour variations.

Black pepper powder – this can be easily replaced with red chili powder, paprika powder or Kashmiri red chili powder.

Ajwain or carom seeds powder – this can be replaced with asafoetida.

Cumin seeds or powder can be added. Roasted cumin powder also gives nice flavour to papad.

Do not miss a recipe, sign up for updates from Dice n Cook

PIN IT FOR LATER