Onam 2025: Ultimate guide to key Sadhya ingredients for this Kerala festival
Kerala's Onam festival, like any other harvest festival of India, such as Pongal, Makar Sankranti, Lohri, Baisakhi, and Magh Bihu, celebrates agricultural abundance and prosperity. This 10-day festivity also marks the homecoming of King Mahabali. One of the crucial elements of the festival is Onam Sadhya. If you want to celebrate Onam at home, read here to find out about the important Onam Sadhya ingredients here.
New Delhi: Kerala’s Onam festival, like any other harvest festival of India, such as Pongal, Makar Sankranti, Lohri, Baisakhi, and Magh Bihu, celebrates agricultural abundance and prosperity. This 10-day festivity, celebrated with great fervour and enthusiasm, also marks the homecoming of King Mahabali. This year, Onam begins on August 26 and ends on September 5. One of the crucial elements of the festival is Onam Sadhya. It’s a grand feast, including at least 26 items, and is served on a banana leaf.
This multi-course vegetarian meal features six tastes such as sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent and has dishes such as avial, sambar, rasam, kootu curry, pachadi and payasam. If you are planning to make the grand platter of Onam Sadya at home, having the right ingredients will retain the authenticity of the meal. So, we have prepared a list to help you buy everything you require for the ethnic Onam Sadhya.
Onam Sadhya ingredients
1. Fresh vegetables
Fresh vegetables, the most important ingredient for Onam Sadhya, are used to prepare signature dishes like Avial, Thoran, Olan, Kalan, Pachadi and Koottu Curry.
- Raw bananas – Important for preparing Kalan and Avial.
- Elephant Foot Yam – Used for Kootu Curry and Avial.
- Cucumber – Used in Pachadi and Olan.
- Pumpkin – Added for sweetness and texture to dishes like Erissery.
- Ash Gourd – A staple in Olan and Pulissery.
- Drumsticks – Used in Sambar and Avial.
- Snake Gourd – Crucial in dishes like Avial and Thoran.
- Bitter Gourd – Add a bit of bitterness to their Sadya, Pavakka is used in Pachadi or Fry.
- Carrots – It is a part of Avial and Thoran.
- Okra – Used for sambar.
- French Beans – Add crunch to Avial and Sambar.
- Cabbage – Essential for Thoran.
- Long Beans – Favourite for Avial and Thoran.
- Tomato – Adds tanginess to Sambar and Rasam.
- Raw Mango – Add sourness to Pachadi or Pulissery.
- Red Onion and Shallots – Add sweetness to Sambar, Pachadi and other dishes.
- Chickpeas – Used in Kootu Curry or Payasam.
- Red Cowpeas – Used in Olan and Kootu Curry.
- Pineapple – Used in Madhurakkari and sometimes in Pachadi.
- Grapes – Adds sweetness to Madhurakkari.
- Njali Poovan or Palayankodan Pazham – Must for Payasam and side servings.
2. Inji Curry and Inji Thairu ingredients
Two crucial side dishes in Onam Sadhya, Inji Curry or ginger curry and Inji Thairu or ginger-yoghurt, require:
- Fresh Ginger
- Curd
3. Spices and ingredients for flavours
- Turmeric powder
- Red chilli powder
- Coriander powder
- Fenugreek seeds
- Asafoetida or hing
- Cumin seeds
- Mustard seeds
- Dry red chillies
- Green chillies
- Curry leaves
- Grated coconut
- Coconut oil
- Tamarind
- Jaggery
- Salt
- Ginger and garlic
- Dried ginger powder
- Black pepper
- Rice flour
4. Ingredients to add crunch
- Pappadam
- Banana chips
- Sarkara varatti chips
5. Extra items
- Use rice flour, jaggery, and coconut milk as the base for preparing Ada Pradhaman, Parippu Payasam, or Palada Payasam.
- Banana leaves to serve Onam Sadhya.
Now you are all set to buy all the essential Onam Sadhya ingredients for a grand feast at home!