{
  "id": 3430709,
  "title": "What's in an Onam sadhya? From avial to payasam, all the dishes explained",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/26/whats-in-an-onam-sadhya-from-avial-to-payasam-all-the-dishes-explained-3430709",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-26T04:32:30.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The National Business",
    "slug": "the-national-business",
    "url": "https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/2026/08/26/whats-in-an-onam-sadhya-from-avial-to-payasam-all-the-dishes-explained/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Onam sadhya is an elaborate vegetarian feast that celebrates abundance, typically served on a banana leaf during Kerala's annual harvest festival. The traditional meal can consist of anywhere from 10 to 30 dishes, all brought together on a single leaf. The sadhya is a harmonious balance of flavors, textures, and colors, designed to provide a complete dining experience.\n\nThe culinary journey begins with crunchy pappadam, made from black gram flour, which can be used to crush over rice or other dishes to add texture. Moving on to the appetizers, Nendran chips or kaya varuthathu are thinly sliced raw plantains fried in coconut oil, providing a salty crunch. Sharkara upperi, a fried banana coated in jaggery-flavored dry ginger and cardamom, offers a sweet and spiced contrast.\n\nThe meal is built around pickles and palate sharpeners, with kadu manga, a raw mango pickle, and naranga achar, a lemon pickle, adding acidity and heat. Inji puli, a complex condiment made with ginger, tamarind, and jaggery, refreshes the palate between dishes. Cooling and tangy dishes like pachadi, a mixture of vegetables or fruit with yogurt and coconut, and pineapple pulissery, a pineapple-coconut-yogurt curry, provide refreshing sweetness and acidity.\n\nThe vegetable heart of the feast includes a variety of dishes such as avial, a mixture of vegetables cooked with coconut, and thoran, a dry vegetable medley. Olan, a mild ash gourd and cowpeas curry, offers a creamy counterpoint to the spicier dishes, while kalan, a thick yam and raw plantain curry, provides a nutty flavor. Erissery, a pumpkin and cowpeas curry, is topped with toasted coconut for added texture and flavor.\n\nKootu curry, a substantial, relatively dry preparation, and theeyal, a deeply roasted coconut curry with vegetables and tamarind, round out the meal. At the center of the leaf lies matta rice, a distinctive plump reddish grain with a nutty flavor that serves as the foundation for the varied courses. Parippu, a mild moong dal curry, and sambar, a heavier and more assertive lentil-based curry, are traditionally eaten with the rice and accompanied by ghee.",
  "summary": "Few meals celebrate abundance quite like an Onam sadhya. The elaborate vegetarian feast is one of the culinary highlights of Onam , Kerala's annual harvest festival. Served on a banana leaf and traditionally eaten by hand, it can bring together dozens of dishes in a single sitting, from crunchy banana chips and fiery pickles to vegetable ensembles, coconut-rich curries, rice, lentils and sweet…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The National UAE",
        "title": "What's in an Onam sadhya? From avial to payasam, all the dishes explained",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/26/whats-in-an-onam-sadhya-from-avial-to-payasam-all-the-dishes-explained",
        "published": "2026-08-26T04:32:30.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}