Here is a festive thali spread with delicious South-Indian delicacies I prepared recently for the Ugadi Festival. I have shared how we make the festive spread back home, and I have replicated all the recipes here. No wonder it is close to my heart.
I love cooking elaborate, full-course South Indian meals. I have shared quite a few on my blog; you can find them all under my “Indian Thali” category. Like every other festive spread, this is also a no-onion, no-garlic spread. Before getting into the individual recipe details, let me quickly share about the ugadi festival.
Ugadi
Ugadi or Yugadi is the New Year’s Day for Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana, and Maharashtra. Maharashtrians celebrate the same as Gudi Padwa. Yugadi means Yuga (age) + adi (beginning). It is the beginning of the new age/year. We celebrate Ugadi on the first day of the lunisolar calendar.
The Feast
We (parents and grandparents) are Kannadigas born and raised in Tamil Nadu. So, our food is an amalgamation of both Kannada and Tamil cuisine.
One thing we don’t skip on Yugadi is the Bevu Bella Pachadi; I have explained its significance in this post. In the US, we don’t get off for Ugadi. If the festival falls on weekdays, I typically ensure the Ugadi spread has bevu bella, panagam, neer mor, kheer/payasam, and kosambari. Then I either make sambar rice or bisibelebath and raita so that we can pack the same for lunch. If it falls during the weekend, I make elaborate meals with sambar, rasam, palys/poriyal, vadai, and obbattu like below.
Prepping for the Ugadi spread
As always, chop the required vegetables the day before or before cooking. If I plan to make vadai, I start by soaking the lentils for vadai and kosambari and then pressure cook the toor dal for sambar and rasam. Along with toor dal, I pressure cook the required vegetables.
Parallely, I roast ingredients for sambar and rasam. While it is cooling, I make other recipes like panagam, neer mor, kosambari, and pachadi.
Then I do sambar, rasam, payasam and vadai. I always keep poli towards the end.
My Ugadi thali
I did not include fryums in this spread as we don’t fry store-bought papad or fryums on Amavasya day. But you can add that as well. Here are the delicacies and their details. You can find the recipe links below.
- As always I have Anna (rice), Tovve (Cooked toor dal), Thuppa (ghee)
- Obbattu – A sweet flatbread with channa dal – jaggery stuffing. Recipe in my Essential South Indian Cookbook. I will post a different version here soon. Those small laddoos are the leftover stuffing.
Happy Ugadi to all.
I hope you can all draw inspiration from this no-onion no-garlic Ugadi spread. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I will share the daily updates on my Instagram and my FB group. So stay connected!
Happy Cooking!
Vidhya
Update notes: Earlier posted in 2018, now updated the list with WPRM recipe roundup items.
Lovely spread vidhya! Everything looks tempting, I have my eyes on that obbattu!
Thanks much. :-)
Thats an excellent spread you have made Srividhya…real feast to the eye and heart!
Thanks much
That thali is delight to look at and I am sure it must have been a delight to savor. It was nice to read about all the cultural influences that have an impact on the food you cook.
Thank you, Jayashree. :-)
Aww vidhya, what a spread girl!!! Looks spectacular!! love everything in there! perfect thali for the festival! Rich, divine, classic and cultural everything together!
Thank you so much, Priya.
Love your habbada holige oota. :) Evreything there is inviting me.
Thank you, Suma.
Omg the Karnataka special thali looks divine.I have had tasted few dishes from this thali at a kannad friend’s house but never tried that raw banana curry. Will try making few of the recipes soon.
Thanks, Sapana.
Omg you ugadi thali is making me super hungry and carving for some yummy spread now.. Good to know you were bought up in tamil nadu , me too.. We get to adapt with tamil cuisine so well . Obbattu has come out so good , love the way you rolled them up . The whole spread looks so scrumptious and wonderfully presented. It is a tough task to present a thali and click a picture with everything on focus , you have nailed it.
Thanks a lot, Manjula. I was so worried about the pictures. Glad you liked them.
I am
Awestruck ! The thali looks beautiful and what a wonderful spread . They are so well made and presented . Every time I see such a lavish spread I am tempted to cook , kudos once again .
Thanks a lot, Vaishali. Glad you liked them all.
Yummy yum ?
Thanks pa… :-)
That is an amazing spread! So you finally made obbattu by yourself! They have come out really well.
yup :-) Thanks, Usha.
That is one mouthwatering thali Srividhya. I also made thavala vada (may not be totally traditional, though) for the Ugadi platter.
Oh yeah… Mine is a mix of Tamil cuisine as well. As you can see, Mambazha pachadi is not a must. But I made it.
Wow Srividhya, what an amazing thali you have got there!..all the dishes look so inviting..
Thanks, Valli. :-)