Onam marks the solemnizing of Vamana avatara of Vishnu and the arrival of the mythical King Mahabali who Malayalees consider as their King. The festival falls during the Malayalam month of Chingam. It's also known to be a harvest festival. Like every other festival this one too is food centric. There's a huge vegetarian spread laid out which is known as Sadya. In our effort to bring in recipes to make your life easier and also to introduce you to new cuisine here's a three course Sadya menu designed especially for you.
1. Appetizers
For the Sadya lunch, we have divided the meal to include appetizers, gravy and non gravy and side dishes. Chickpea Sundal packs in subtle flavours of green chillies, finely chopped ginger, and freshly grated coconut, while Appam is a combination of rice flour and banana, Aama Vadai is from a variety of lentils and spiced with green chillies, asafoetida, curry leaves and coriander.
2. Main Course
Cabbage Thoran is a simple dish that has fresh flavour from coconut and is considered to be an essential part of Sadya. Also, thoran can be made using a variety of vegetables. We also have Kerala Vendakkai Thoran and Kootu Curry which is traditional north Kerala dish that is made from Yellow Pumpkin cooked along with Desi Channa or Black Eyed Beans and spiced with coconut.
We also have some gravy based dishes that you can choose from. Tomato Rasam is a staple for the Southern part of India, Kuruku Kaalan is a mildly flavoured curry with yogurt and coconut and Pazhutha Manga Pachadi is a ripe mango curry that's sweet and spicy, with a pungent flavour of mustard.
How could we forget the staples? Here's a Sadya Parippu, Sweet and Spicy Raw Mango Chutney and Steamed Rice to help you polish off all that's been made.
3. Desserts
For desserts there is Semiya Payasam which is a sweet dish that is mildly flavored with saffron and cardamom, Paruppu Payasam is made from moong dal and channa dal with subtle flavors from coconut milk and cardamom and jaggery. Lastly, there is Paal payasam thats a sweet made with rice and milk and is staple to Indian cuisine.
