Onam, a harvest festival, becomes remarkable with its rich, flavourful feast — Ona Sadhya. The sadhya is a masterpiece blend of traditional vegetarian dishes, which are carefully curated to keep the gut healthy, even after the sumptuous meal. Now let's prepare five dishes to enrich Onam Sadhya.
1. Sharkkara varatti
Ingredients
- Fully grown raw bananas – 6
- Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
- Rice – ¼ cup
- Sugar – 2 tablespoons
- Dry ginger powder – 1 tablespoon
- Pepper powder – ½ teaspoon
- Cardamom seeds – ¼ teaspoon
- Small cumin seeds – ½ teaspoon
- Coconut oil – to fry
- Jaggery – 1¼ cups
- Water – as required
Preparation
Peel the bananas and keep them in water mixed with salt and turmeric powder. Take the bananas and cut them into equal slices of medium thickness and put them back into the water. Keep them aside for 5–10 minutes. Then wash and strain the bananas multiple times until the water becomes clear. Keep the banana slices on tissue paper for a while.
Into a thick-bottomed pan, add the rice and fry it well until golden brown. Then let it cool for a while. Once cooled, transfer it to a mixer and add sugar, cardamom seeds, dry ginger powder, pepper powder and cumin seeds, and mix it into a fine powder.
Heat a thick-bottomed pan and add oil to fry. Slowly add the banana pieces in two batches and fry them on medium flame. Keep twisting them to make sure that all sides get cooked well. Keep the fried bananas aside on tissue paper.
In a thick-bottomed pan, add the jaggery and ¼ cup of water and cook it well. Keep the jaggery syrup aside.
Now heat a wide uruli, add the jaggery syrup and heat it. Once it bubbles up, reduce the flame to low and touch it with two fingers. If it is sticky, slowly add the fried bananas and stir well. Make sure the syrup gets coated evenly on all the slices. Now turn the flame off and slowly add the rice powder in small batches and coat it evenly. Enjoy.
2. Beetroot pachadi
Ingredients
- Beetroot, finely grated – 2 cups
- Grated coconut – ¾ cup
- Green chillies – 3
- Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Ginger – 1 small piece
- Salt – to taste
- Curd – 1 cup
- Water – ¼ cup
- Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Coconut oil – 3 tablespoons
- Dry red chillies – 3
- Curry leaves – 10
Preparation
Into a mixer, add coconut, green chillies, ginger and mustard seeds and grind well.
Now, into a mud pan or thick-bottomed pan, add the beetroot and salt. Mix it all well, cover and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Once the beetroot turns soft and is cooked well, add the coconut mixture. Mix it all well and cook again for 2–3 minutes. Once the water evaporates, turn off the flame. Add curd to this mixture and blend it all.
Into a pan, add coconut oil. Once hot, add mustard seeds and let them splatter. Then add red chillies and curry leaves. Pour this tempering into the beetroot mix. The pachadi is ready.
3. Aviyal
Ingredients
- Elephant yam – ¼ cup
- Potato – ¼ cup
- Raw banana – ¼ cup
- Snake gourd – ¼ cup
- Carrot – ¼ cup
- Snake bean – ¼ cup
- Cucumber – ¼ cup
- Drumstick – 1
- Curry leaves – 2 stems
- All vegetables are to be chopped into thin, long pieces.
- Turmeric powder – ½ tablespoon
- Salt – to taste
- Grated coconut – 1 cup
- Shallots – 5
- Green chillies – 4
- Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Curd – ¼ cup
- Coconut oil – 2 tablespoons
Preparation
Into a mixer jar, add coconut, cumin seeds, shallots and green chillies and mix it all well into a thick paste.
Into a thick-bottomed mud pan, add the vegetables along with curry leaves, the required amount of salt, turmeric and ¼ cup of water. Mix it all well, cover and cook until the vegetables turn soft. Then add the coconut mixture and mix it all together. Once the coconut gets cooked, turn off the heat and add fresh curd. Mix it all well. Now add coconut oil and close the lid for 5 minutes. Enjoy the aviyal.
4. Inji Tairu
Ingredients
- Curd (not too sour) – 1 cup
- Grated coconut – 1 cup
- Green chilli – 1
- Ginger – 2 finger-sized pieces
- Salt – to taste
- Coconut oil – 2 tablespoons
- Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Dried red chillies – 2
- Curry leaves – 1 stem
Preparation
Into a mixer jar, add coconut, green chilli, ginger, one tablespoon of curd and salt, and grind it all well. Pour this mixture into the rest of the curd and mix well.
For the tempering, add coconut oil to a thick-bottomed pan. Once heated, add the mustard seeds. Once they splatter, add red chillies and curry leaves. Pour the tempering into the curd. Inji Tairu is ready.
5. Masala curry
Ingredients
- Potato, cut into cubes – 3
- Grated coconut – 4 tablespoons
- Green peas – ½ cup
- Coconut oil – 4 tablespoons
- Onion – ½ cup
- Tomato – ½ cup
- Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
- Coriander powder – 1 tablespoon
- Chilli powder – 1 tablespoon
- Cumin powder – ½ tablespoon
- Curry masala powder – 1 tablespoon
- Pepper powder – 1 tablespoon
- Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Shallots, sliced – 3
- Curry leaves – 1 stem
Preparation
Into a thick-bottomed pan, add the grated coconut and fry until light brown. Remove the coconut and, into the same pan, add 3 tablespoons of coconut oil. Add potatoes and green peas and fry for 5 minutes. Keep aside.
Into the same pan, add onions and a bit of salt and sauté until the onions are light brown. Then add tomatoes, cover and cook. Once the tomatoes are soft, remove the lid and sauté it all again. Add all the masala powders, sauté for 1 minute on low flame and add the potatoes and green peas back. Mix it all well. Add ½ cup of hot water and allow the potatoes and peas to cook well. Once it is all cooked well, turn off the flame.
Into a pan, add the rest of the coconut oil. Once heated, add mustard seeds and let them splatter. Add shallots and curry leaves. Now pour this tempering into the curry. The Sadhya-style masala curry is ready.
