Sel roti is traditionally made from what flour?

Sel roti is traditionally made from rice flour.

This Nepalese ring-shaped fried bread uses a batter of rice flour, water, sugar, ghee, and sometimes cardamom or clove. The batter is poured by hand into hot oil, forming a large ring that becomes crisp outside while remaining pleasantly chewy inside.

Sel roti is strongly connected with Dashain and Tihar, two major Hindu festivals celebrated in Nepal. It is also prepared for weddings, religious ceremonies, and family gatherings. Nepalese communities in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Sikkim, southern Bhutan, and nearby regions of India also make it.

The dish is sometimes confused with wheat-based doughnuts because of its shape, but rice flour is the defining traditional base. A related Kumaoni food called singhal looks similar but is made with semolina. Some modern recipes incorporate other flours for nutrition or texture, yet those variations do not replace rice flour as the canonical answer.