South Indian Foods Recipes

The staple food of south India is rice, which forms a strong basis in the preparation of different delicacies.  The south Indian people love to eat rice with a combination of sambhar or curry. Rice is combined with orid dhal to make wonderful dosas, idlies, vadas and uttapams. These items are delicious and digestible. Their rice preparations are also very tasty and comes in different hues like biriyani, pudhina rice, pulav rice, coconut rice, lemon rice, fried rice etc. Indian chutneys are famous as side dishes and are made of tamarind, coconut, peanuts, dhal, tomato, onion, and fried bengal gram. The most popular chutney is made from coconut and tomato. South Indian dhal and curries are soupier than North Indian dhal and curries.

Tamil Nadu is one of the important states of south India. Besides its rich cultural past it reminds us about the unique taste of recipes such as Idlis, Dosas, Uttappam, Rasam, Sambar, chutney, kuzhambu, and Vada etc, which are not only popular locally but also throughout the world as well. South Indian Dosa is famous for its both soft and crunchy texture and the  varieties of dosas available are so many that they will cater to the palates of different customers.

South India's all the four states has rice as a staple diet and people of these states use masalas and spices, dried red chilies and fresh green chilies, coconut and native fruits and vegetables like tamarind, plantain, bitter gourd, brinjal, garlic, ginger, etc. in preparing different food items like avial, curry, thuvayal etc.

The recipe for the south Indian food is incomplete without coconut and coconut milk is also used sometimes to give a different taste. This website is loaded with a good collection of recipes which is easy to cook but is delicious to taste.

pongal festival

Pongal is celebrated by the South Indians. It is a Hindu festival . It is also known as "Thanksgiving festival" or as “Harvest festival”. Ahead of this festival, people will clean their houses and throught pongal days, women decorate their houses with colourful Rangoli.

day-1 :Bhogi celebrated on Jan 14

Bhogi pongal is celebrated to thank the god of rains. On this day people wake up before sunrise and burn the unwanted things. Children enjoy singing and dancing around the bonfire. 

The recipes prepared on this day are

1.Poli (Ubbattu)
2. Ven Pongal
3.Morkuzhambu
4. Pakoda
5. Eggplant Gotsu or Katharikkai gotsu
6. Pal Payasam (Kheer)

Day- 2 :Sankranthi(pongal) celebrated on Jan 15

The second day is the most important day of the entire festival. On this day, the sun god is worshipped with great devotion. Members of the family gather outside their house and cook pongal in new clay pots with newly harvested rice and fresh milk. When the rice boils and overflows, everybody shout 'pongal o pongal" and pray to the sun. It is believed that the overflow of rice symbolizes a prosperous farming season.

The recipes prepared on this day are

1. Sakkarai Pongal (or)sweet pongal (or) chakkarai pongal
2.Ven Pongal or Melagu pongal or kara pongal
3. Medhu Vadai
4. Idli
5. Coconut Chutney
6. Aviyal

Day - 3 : Mattu Pongal celebrated on jan 16

The third day is celebrated as Mattu pongal. Cow, which gives milk and bull which draws the plough in the fields are considered very sacred. So the farmers honour them by celebratng the day as a day of thanks-giving to them. They clean their cattle; paint their horns and decorate them according to their taste.

Vegetarian recipes prepared on this day

1. Kadhambam Rice
2. Lemon Rice or lime rice (elumitcham sadam)
3. Tamarind Rice (puliyodharai)
4. Coconut Rice
5. Rava Pongal
6. Chips
7. Akkaravadisal

Non-vegetarian recipes prepared on this day

Day - 4 : Kaanum Pongal celebrated on jan 17

Kaanum pongal is celebrated by sisters for the welfare of their brothers. It is also similar to Raksha Bandhan.On this day people meet their friends and relatives and greet each other. They go out on sight seeing and enjoy the day together. It is a picnic day. In villages girls will enjoy dancing kolaatam.