Few meals celebrate abundance quite like an Onam sadhya.
The elaborate vegetarian feast is one of the culinary highlights of Onam, Kerala's annual harvest festival. Served on a banana leaf and traditionally eaten by hand, it can bring together dozens of dishes in a single sitting, from crunchy banana chips and fiery pickles to vegetable ensembles, coconut-rich curries, rice, lentils and sweet payasam.
When is Onam 2026?
Onam is Kerala's most important festival and takes place during Chingam, the first month of the Malayalam calendar. Although rooted in Hindu tradition, it has grown into a cultural celebration observed across religious communities in Kerala and among Malayalis around the world.
This year's celebrations began yesterday and culminate with Thiruvonam, the most important day of the festival, on August 26.
What is an Onam sadhya?
Sadhya is traditionally at its grandest on Thiruvonam, although the feast is also associated with weddings and other major celebrations. Outside Kerala, including in the UAE, restaurants often serve it across several days during the Onam period rather than on the final day only.
Sadhya means “feast” in Malayalam, and there is no definitive number of dishes. A relatively simple version may contain fewer than 10, while elaborate celebrations can feature 30 or more.
But the scale is only part of its appeal. A sadhya is built around balance, bringing sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter and savoury flavours together with contrasting textures on a single banana leaf.
So what actually goes on it?
Sandeep Ali, the brand executive at Punjab Grill UAE, which is serving a 30-plus-item sadhya for Onam this year, helped The National break down the ingredients, flavours and roles of many of the dishes that make up the feast.
“The idea is not to reinvent the feast, but to understand what makes it special – the balance of flavours, the order in which the meal unfolds and, most importantly, the sense of abundance and togetherness that defines Onam,” he says.
His menu combines traditional sadhya staples with a handful of restaurant-specific additions. Here are some of them.
The crunchy beginnings
Pappadam
The familiar thin, crisp wafer is made from black gram flour. Rather than necessarily being eaten separately, it can be crushed over rice, parippu and ghee to add crunch.
Nendran chips or kaya varuthathu
Raw Nendran plantains are thinly sliced and fried in coconut oil. Banana chips are among Kerala's most recognisable snacks and provide a salty crunch against the softer dishes on the leaf.
Sharkara upperi
Another banana preparation, but a very different one. Chunkier pieces are fried and coated in jaggery flavoured with dry ginger and cardamom, producing something simultaneously crunchy, sweet and gently spiced.
Pickles and palate sharpeners
Kadu manga
This raw mango pickle brings acidity and heat from green mango, chilli, mustard seeds and gingelly, or sesame, oil. Its sharpness helps cut through richer coconut-based dishes.
Naranga achar
A lemon pickle made with spices, chilli and oil. Like mango pickle, only a small amount is needed to add a sharp, salty and spicy kick.
Inji puli or inji curry
One of the most complex condiments on the leaf, bringing together ginger, tamarind and jaggery. The result is simultaneously sweet, sour, hot and pungent, making it particularly useful for refreshing the palate between other dishes.
Cooling and tangy dishes
Pachadi
Pachadi generally combines vegetables or fruit with yoghurt and coconut. Ali's version uses beetroot, producing a vivid magenta dish tempered with mustard seeds and curry leaves.
Pineapple pulissery
Pineapple is cooked in a coconut and yoghurt gravy, resulting in an unusual combination of sweetness, acidity and gentle spice. It offers a contrast to earthier and hotter dishes such as sambar.
The vegetable heart of the feast
Avial
Perhaps one of the dishes most closely associated with sadhya. A mixture of vegetables such as yam, drumstick, pumpkin and raw plantain is cooked with coconut and cumin, then finished with coconut oil and curry leaves. The many vegetables brought together in one preparation have also made avial a symbol of abundance and unity.
Thoran
A dry vegetable medley typically made with grated coconut. Ingredients vary considerably; Ali's menu uses amaranth leaves, while cabbage, beans and other vegetables are also common.
Olan
One of the gentlest dishes on the leaf. Ash gourd and cowpeas are simmered in coconut milk with minimal spice, providing a mild, creamy counterpoint to the pickles and stronger curries.
Kalan
Yam and raw plantain are cooked in a thick yoghurt and coconut gravy seasoned with black pepper. Its consistency is noticeably thicker than many of the curries served alongside it.
Erissery
Pumpkin and cowpeas are cooked with coconut and topped with toasted coconut, giving the otherwise mild dish a nuttier flavour and texture.
Kootu curry
A substantial, relatively dry preparation usually combining vegetables or plantain with legumes and coconut. Ali's version uses black chickpeas and raw jackfruit – or chakka, Kerala's official fruit – in a roasted coconut gravy.
Theeyal
The name refers to the deeply roasted coconut that gives the curry its distinctive dark colour and intense flavour. It is commonly made with vegetables and tamarind; Ali combines drumstick pods with shallots for a sweet, smoky and tangy preparation.
Matta rice
At the centre of the leaf is choru, or rice. Kerala matta rice is distinctive for its plump reddish grains and nutty flavour. Its importance is particularly fitting for a festival rooted in celebrating the harvest.
The rice then becomes the foundation for several different courses.
Parippu
A mild moong dal preparation made with coconut and cumin. It is traditionally among the first curries eaten with rice and is accompanied by a drizzle of neyyi, or ghee.
Sambar
One of the heavier and more assertive curries, combining lentils, tamarind, vegetables and spices. It follows parippu and is mixed generously with rice.
Rasam
Thinner and sharper than sambar, rasam is a tamarind-based broth flavoured with ingredients including black pepper, cumin, garlic and tomato.
Moru
Spiced buttermilk, typically seasoned with turmeric, chilli, ginger and curry leaves, provides a cooling final accompaniment to rice towards the end of the savoury meal.
And finally, payasam
A feast this extensive does not end with only one dessert.
Ada pradhaman is among the classics. Rice-flour ada is cooked with jaggery and coconut milk, with cashews and pieces of coconut adding texture. Unlike milk-based payasam, pradhaman traditionally derives its richness from coconut milk and jaggery.
Other forms of payasam, Kerala's family of sweet puddings, may use milk, rice, vermicelli, lentils or fruit depending on the recipe.
Punjab Grill's spread, for example, moves into more contemporary territory with tender coconut payasam, pal payasam ice cream and a jackfruit and tender coconut pudding – examples of how restaurants can build on the traditional feast rather than adhere to one fixed menu.
A ripe Nendran banana may also accompany dessert. It can be eaten separately, although some diners mash it into payasam for an especially rich finish.
How do you eat an Onam sadhya?
Sadhya is traditionally eaten with the right hand, with diners mixing small quantities of the various preparations with rice as they progress through the meal.
The dishes are arranged on a banana leaf, with smaller accompaniments such as pickles and chips occupying their own places and rice forming the centre of the meal.
Rather than trying each preparation individually, much of the pleasure comes from combining them. Rice is traditionally eaten first with parippu and ghee, followed by sambar and then rasam. The vegetable preparations, pickles and other accompaniments allow each mouthful to be adjusted between creamy, sour, spicy, sweet and crunchy.
Moru, or spiced buttermilk, helps cool the palate towards the end before payasam signals the arrival of dessert.
And if 30 dishes seem intimidating, there is no need to finish everything individually. Sadhya is less a procession of separate courses than a meal built around mixing, contrasting and balancing flavours on a single leaf.
