Kosambari

We celebrate a plethora of festivals between August & November every year. Every festival is celebrated distinctively in various regions across India. It is quite astonishing to find how the cuisine, culture, and customs vary from one region to other within our country. Kosambari is a traditional lentil salad popular in South India (particularly in Andhra, Karnataka and some parts of Tamilnadu) with little variations. This salad is offered to deities in this festive season and also served to guests at the wedding banquets or festive gatherings.

Karamani Sundal

Navarathri is a festival of worshiping the goddesses Parvathi (for creative power), Saraswathi (for wisdom) & Lakshmi (for wealth). Navarathri celebrations in Tamilnadu is incomplete without making sundal (legume salad). Generally, we offer sundal as naivedyam to deities during Navarathri. We typically prepare sundal using chickpeas or other legumes. So I have prepared sundal using karamani (black eyed beans) for the soft skin & creamy texture. Now I have used karamani of different colors viz., mahogany, peach & white colors and prepared 4 types of sundal.

Poomparuppu Sundal

Lord Ganesha is regarded in the same manner as God Janus in Greek mythology. It is interesting to find the striking similarities between the two, as they both hold the honor of being the first god worshiped in every ritual. I like to start my day by listening to the soul-stirring hymn, Vinayagar Agaval, written in Tamil (the oldest language) and sung by the late legendary singer M.S.Subbulakshmi.

Sweet corn soup

Actually, I am not a soup enthusiast as I remember taking soups when I fell sick during my childhood days. Besides, it is a hot & humid climate almost 75% of the days here, so I would like to take hot vegetable soup only during winter or monsoon. Nevertheless, I like the idea of serving simple yet wholesome soup & salad for dinner as it makes us feel absolutely satiated. Sweet corn soup with sprouted moong salad is one such hearty and healthy meal that can be prepared with little efforts.

Melon ball fruit salad

Generally, we prepare refreshing musk melon juice or milkshake by adding milk & sugar (or condensed milk). Ever since I realized the weight loss properties of musk melons I started including them in my diet as much as possible during the entire summer. Needless to say that calorie conscious people would prefer to take fresh musk melon salad than creamy milkshakes during this summer to enjoy its health benefits completely. So lets make melon ball fruit salad that will satiate our hunger as well.

Drumstick pods soup

Nowadays drumstick (moringa) pods are grown abundantly in my mother’s garden, and she used to keep sending me a batch of these pods every now & then. But it has been boring to see these drumsticks (murungakkai) in our sambar, kuzhambu, kootu & poriyal on our plates every day. Nevertheless I don’t have the heart to waste these amazing fruits of a “miracle” tree considering their nutritive values and health benefits. So I find the drumstick pods soup as a distinctive alternate recipe to use the large quantity of drumsticks in one go.

Panchamirtham, the Sacred Fruit Salad

Panchamirtham is the sacred fruit salad offered as naivedyam to deities at home, and also used for abishegam (bathing deities) in Hindu temples across Tamilnadu. The most renowned Palani panchamirtham is prepared using unique bananas that are exclusively grown near Palani hills. It is offered to the Lord Murugan in Palani temple and also to devotees as prasadam. You can check out this video to see how panchamirtham abishegam is performed to the deity in a temple.

Fresh Fruit Salad

I like to take a bowl of fresh fruit salad for my lunch whenever I don’t feel like cooking an elaborate meal. I also don’t feel like missing my meal because of mint leaves & chaat masala, the star ingredients used in here. So anyone who wants to reduce the in-take of carbs can try this salad as it satiates one’s hunger. Besides we can serve this delicious fruit salad to children who refuse to take fruits, as they like the flavor of chaat masala.

Thayir Pachadi

Thayir pachadi (raitha) is the most common yogurt-based vegetable salad prepared in almost every part of India. We prepare thayir pachadi using cooked vegatables or raw vegetables and spice it up with black pepper, chopped green chillies or red chilli powder. Generally, we serve raitha as a side for flatbreads like chapathi, stuffed paratha, etc., and also for spicy rice dishes like biryani, tomato rice, etc.