Susla
North Karnataka's puffed rice breakfast, steamed soft with milk poured into the pan at the end rather than left crisp.
Cooked and tested by Kiran · 21 August 2026
- Hands on
- 13 min
- Total
- 16 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- easy
Two things decide whether this works: how briefly the mandakki meets the water, and whether the onion was cooked down before the puffed rice went in. Rush either and no amount of milk afterwards will fix it.
The milk goes in at the end, under a lid, and cooks away.
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Ingredients
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Method
Put the puffed rice in a colander and pass it quickly under running water — a few seconds, turning it with your hand, not a soak. Press out the water gently and leave it to drain.
Look for: The grains go from brittle to springy and roughly double in weight in the hand. They should still hold their shape — if they smear when pressed, they have had too long and the susla will be paste.
1–2 min
Heat the oil in a kadai on medium. Mustard seeds first and let them finish popping, then the chana dal, urad dal and peanuts together — the dals and peanuts need time to colour and the mustard does not, which is why they do not go in at once.
Look for: Popping slowed to the occasional seed, both dals golden, and the peanuts gone from chalky white in the middle to an even tan.
3–5 min · medium heat · kadai
Lower the heat and add the garlic, green chilli and curry leaves. These burn at the temperature that just browned the dal, so the flame comes down before they go in.
Look for: Garlic turns from white to pale gold and stops smelling raw; curry leaves crisp and still green rather than blackened.
1–2 min · low heat · kadai
Raise the heat to medium and add the onion with a pinch of the salt. Cook it down properly — susla is an onion dish as much as a puffed rice one, and onion still crunchy at this stage stays crunchy all the way through.
Look for: Soft and translucent with the edges just beginning to colour. The sharp raw smell should be gone.
5–8 min · medium heat · kadai
Lower the heat and add the turmeric and chilli powder. Give them a few seconds in the oil — ground spice needs fat and a little heat to stop tasting dusty, but it scorches fast at this quantity of oil.
Look for: The oil takes the colour and the spice smells toasted rather than raw. Do not let it darken.
0.5–1 min · low heat · kadai
Add the drained puffed rice and the rest of the salt, and fold it through with a light hand until the colour is even. Fold, do not stir — mandakki this soft breaks if it is worked hard.
Look for: Every grain evenly yellow with no white patches and no dry pockets at the bottom of the pan.
1–2 min · low heat · kadai
Pour the milk around the edge of the pan rather than into the middle, cover, and leave it on low. This is the step that makes it susla rather than a dry chitranna — the milk turns to steam under the lid and the puffed rice drinks it.
Look for: Lift the lid and there should be no loose milk in the pan. The grains should be plump and yield completely when pressed against the side, with no snap left anywhere.
3–5 min · low heat · kadai
Take it off the heat, rest it covered for a minute, then fold through the coconut and coriander and squeeze the lemon over.
Look for: Loose and spoonable, holding together without being wet. Serve straight away.
1–2 min · kadai
About this dish
Susla is what North Karnataka does with mandakki — the same puffed rice that turns up as a dry, crisp churmuri elsewhere, taken in the opposite direction until it is soft enough to eat with a spoon. It is also called oggarane in parts of the region, after the tempering the dish is built on. The milk is the part that surprises people who know the dish only as a dry one. It goes in at the end and cooks off under a lid, so it does not read as milk in the finished bowl — it makes the grains plump and slightly sweet against the chilli, which water alone does not do. Groundnut oil rather than a neutral one, because this is groundnut country and the flavour is part of what the dish tastes like. Garlic goes in for the same reason: North Karnataka cooks with it where the south of the state often would not. Timing: susla does not keep. It is at its best within a few minutes of the lemon going on, and an hour later the puffed rice has drunk everything and gone heavy. The chopping and the tempering can be done ahead; the puffed rice is rinsed at the last minute and not before.