Sev is the Indian snack made from thin fried noodles of chickpea flour.
To make sev, cooks prepare a dough from chickpea flour, seasonings, and liquid, then press it through a perforated tool directly into hot oil. The resulting strands are fried until crisp and can range from extremely fine to relatively thick. Common seasonings include salt, turmeric, chili, and ajwain.
Sev is eaten on its own as a snack and is also used as a topping in chaats, bhel puri, poha, and other savory foods. Different regions and recipes produce variations with distinct thicknesses, colors, and spice levels.
Sev is sometimes confused with murukku, another Indian fried snack. Murukku is generally made from rice flour and urad dal flour and is formed into coils or spirals, while sev is defined by its thin, noodle-like strands and chickpea-flour base. The word is also used in names such as nylon sev, referring to especially fine strands.