About

Hi, Welcome to Megala’s Kitchen!

About me & my recipes:

I am a home cook living in Chennai, South India. The recipes posted by me in Megala’s Kitchen are influenced by my parents, relatives and friends. My parents & parents-in-law are natives of Tirunelveli, and we are all vegetarians.  So one could find authentic traditional vegetarian recipes popular in Tirunelveli and other surrounding districts of Tamilnadu in my blog.

Tirunelveli recipes (vegetarian):

Although I enjoy trying my hand at various vegetarian recipes popular in other cuisines across the world, I derive immense satisfaction while cooking traditional foods served to us by my mother & grandmothers. Now I am building this site to keep an archive of our family recipes like Tirunelveli recipes, Tamilnadu recipes, and our favorite recipes so that the younger generation could use this archive for their reference. Hence the recipes I posted here are obviously the ones I would love to serve to my family.

We prepare unique traditional dishes still popular in Tirunelveli district, and some of our favorite family recipes are:

Festival recipes:

We, Hindus, celebrate numerous festivals all through the year, and offer prayers to the Mother Nature, Hindu Gods & Goddesses, and also to the departed family members. We prepare specialty sweets & savories and offer them as naivedyam during all the religious festivals.

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You can also check out our festival recipes, and some of our important festivals are:

We also follow a unique custom of remembering the departed souls on every new moon day (amavasyai). So we prepare special dishes like kummiyanam mainly for Aadi iruthi festival.

Healthy recipes:

Since I believe that the health of a family lies in its kitchen, I feel it is imperative for all the mothers (or home cooks) to have the clear idea of what we cook, how we cook, and why we serve a particular dish to our family. So I have been learning to identify the nutritious ingredients & healthy cooking practices during my culinary journey, and I have included the details of nutrition & health benefits of main ingredients along with my recipes. I refer to the sites of IFCT (Indian Food Composition Databas) & USDA (US Dept. of Agriculture) for the nutrition data of all the ingredients.

You can click on the links to check out the healthy recipes categorized as below:

Traditional Tamilnadu recipes:

My recipes are illustrated with step-by-step photos that can be easily followed by everyone, yet I recommend the visitors to read the recipe for some useful tips. I prefer to quantify all the ingredients including salt, oil and water as they are the key ingredients attributing the taste and consistency of our food. However, you can adjust them according to your preference.

We prepare traditional foods using the native vegetables, fruits, lentils & legumes, traditional rice & millets, and spices grown in Tamilnadu, and serve as thalai vazhai virundhu (a feast served on a banana leaf).

Thalai Vaazhai Virundhu

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Tamil cuisine boasts of numerous vegetarian recipes, and they are briefly categorised in this blog as below:

Fusion recipes:

I also like to prepare the continental dishes using local ingredients. For example, I prefer to use whole wheat flour/ millet flour, cane jaggery/ palm sugar, ghee, cardamom and native fruits and bake eggless cakes/breads. You can find my fusion recipes in the following categories also:

Food Galleries:

People living in other states or countries may not have any idea of what we prepare for our breakfast, lunch, evening tiffin, and dinner , so I have displayed the following galleries displaying some of our family’s food platters.

Breakfast platters

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Lunch platters

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I thank my husband for his support & encouragement and my son, who pursues photography as a hobby, for teaching me photography.

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Also, I thank my mother, an avid-gardener, who produces her own organic vegetables & fruits and inspires me with her vast knowledge in cooking & gardening. I dedicate this whole space to my late father who always encouraged us to take healthy foods by gifting us books on health & nutrition.

Hope you find my blog useful & engaging, you may subscribe to receive my upcoming posts by email and stay connected with Megala’s Kitchen for healthy traditional vegetarian recipes. My recipes are published only in this virtual space and I am not hosting any YouTube channel.

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Thanks for visiting my blog.

Megala

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