Veppampoo Pachadi

Medicinal recipes, Side dish for rice, Tamil New Year Recipes

Generally, we prefer to welcome every new beginning with sweets, but we follow a unique tradition of preparing an elaborate meal of different flavours (arusuvai virudhu) on the occasion of Chithirai Vishu (New Year) celebrated on the 14th or 15th of April every year. It is actually an Ayurvedic tradition to stimulate all the parts of our palate by taking a nourishing meal of six flavours like sweet, sour, bitter, astringent, salt & pungent. This also encourages us to embrace each season, or every change in our life gracefully. So we never miss to include the bitter ingredient, neem flower that blooms plentifully in this season, into our New Year feast (Vishu sadhya). We prepare the traditional veppampoo pachadi, a confluence of all the six tastes, using neem flowers and many other ingredients.

IMG_4728 Veppampoo Pachadi
Tamil New Year Feast

We also prepare astringent raw jackfruit poriyal, tangy mixed vegetable aviyal, spicy rasam, sweet payasam, etc. of various flavors & textures to welcome our Tamil New Year. You can also check out our specialty recipes prepared for Chithirai Vishu here. 

vp5 Veppampoo Pachadi
Arusuvai Virundhu for Chithirai Vishu

Veppampoo pachadi recipe:

We prepare veppampoo pachadi using conflicting ingredients like bitter neem flowers & tangy mango, sweet jaggery & hot red chilli powder. So it has a unique indistinctive taste that would stimulate almost all the parts of our palate. My grandmother always prepare this pachadi using unripe mangoes along with brinjals as brinjals help to decrease vata dosha aggravated by unripe mango. Now let’s look into the recipe for veppampoo pachadi:

Time taken: 20 min.
Yields: 300 ml

IMG_4691-scaled Veppampoo Pachadi
Veppampoo pachadi

Ingredients:

  1. Unripe mangoes – 2 Nos. (small)
  2. Brinjal (eggplant/ kathrikkai) – 1 No.
  3. Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
  4. Salt – ¼ tsp
  5. Powdered jaggery – ½ cup (100 g)
  6. Ghee – ½ tsp
  7. Dried neem flowers (veppam poo) – 1 tbsp

For tempering:

  1. Ghee – 1 tsp
  2. Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
  3. Curry leaves – 1 sprig
IMG_4644-scaled Veppampoo Pachadi
Veppampoo pachadi ingredients

Cooking Instructions:

  • Peel mangoes, chop them into thin slices as shown below.
  • Chop brinjal into thin slices.
vp1 Veppampoo Pachadi
  • In a cooking bowl add mangoes, brinjal, red chilli powder and water (50 ml).
  • Microwave them for 7 min. (Alternatively you can cook them on stove top until mushy)
  • Meanwhile fry neem flowers in ghee (½ tsp) in medium flame.
  • Powder them using mortar & pestle and leave aside.
vp2 Veppampoo Pachadi
  • Prepare the tempering as shown below and keep aside.
vp4 Veppampoo Pachadi
  • When mango & brinjal are cooked soft, add salt & powdered jaggery.
  • Mix them well and microwave again for 3 min.
  • Now add tempering, powdered neem flowers and water (100 ml or more according to your required consistency) and cook for another 3 min.
  • Now sweet, sour & bitter veppampoo pachadi is ready to serve.
vp3 Veppampoo Pachadi
Veppampoo pachadi recipe

93 comments on “Veppampoo Pachadi”Add yours →

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  7. Lovely spread Megala for the Vishu. This recipe is so new to me, never heard of it. Sounds very delicious. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe !!

  11. I have never tried this or made this, Megala, but have heard about it. Also unaware that brinjal (eggplant) is also used. This is something in lines to the ‘puliinji’ that we Malayalies make for our Vishu ‘Sadhya’

    1. My grandmother never missed to include brinjal, but children do not like to see brinjal seeds in this pachadi. By the way, I just love that delectable puliinji as well.
      Thanks a lot !

  14. Your veppampoo pachadi looks heavenly! We make it with just jaggery, raw mango, a hint of salt, a couple of dried chillies sometimes and dried neem flowers. I’m sorely tempted to try out your version right away! 🙂

  16. Interesting combinations, It’s completely new to me.I like the pictorial presentation, very well done.Thank you for sharing this. Happy New Year to you and your family!

  19. Belated but Happy Vishu . Love that line Embrace all the seasons of change ! …such a distinct dish indeed! And what a way of teaching through tastes in that green leaf spread ?Thank you for your beautiful post of our traditional gem of a recipe .

  21. I loved that recipe. I really want to do it, but I found it a bit complicated. But I’ll try to do it anyway, because it seems to be very delicious.

  25. This Pachadi is totally new to me, never heard about eggplant, mango and neem flower combo…really brilliant share? and well presented Megala✔ Happy New Year to u and your family❤

  26. What an awesome and grand spread, wish you and your family lots of happiness and prosperity this Vishu, Happy New Year.
    Can I ask you which city do you live in?

  29. This recipe is new to me. For New Year we start the day with a little bit of fresh neem flowers mixed with jaggery as a reminder that life is a blend of the bitter with the sweet. Needless to say, it is very bitter and the kids always disappeared when they had to take it!
    Its admirable that your posts reflect our traditional way of life. Keep up the good work.
    Happy New Year!

    1. Our traditional recipes are real treasures, and I have been trying to collect as many authentic recipes as possible. Veppampoo pachadi is one such delicacy which has undergone many changes over the years.
      I’m glad you enjoyed this post as much as I did while presenting this recipe. Thanks so much for appreciating my work here.
      Happy New Year !

  33. I always discover something new on your blog! Neem flowers are another mysterious ingredient to me. I hope I can find and try them one day.

  40. Happy New Year to you and your family members ?
    This Pachadi is new to me and the meal you presented it’s so inviting me and I look forward for palakkai poriyal, avial and pickle if you could share so ?☺️

  45. So beautifully explained and lovely to see such a nice traditional meal on the banana leaf for the New year.Happy Vishu to you and your family!

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