Onam food: what is eaten and why

Photo: Jiteshgt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What is eaten for Onam

Onam is the harvest festival of Kerala and welcomes home the good king Mahabali. The date shown is Thiruvonam, the main day, and the meal is the Onam sadya. It is a vegetarian feast served on a banana leaf and eaten with the hand. A full sadya has well over twenty items, each with its place on the leaf: banana chips, pickles, thoran, avial, olan, kaalan, rice with parippu and ghee, then sambar and rasam. It ends with two or three kinds of payasam. Kerala people of every faith keep it.

The dishes

SadyaThe banana leaf feast itself.

AvialMixed vegetables in coconut and curd.

SambarLentil and vegetable stew poured over rice.

KheerPayasam, the sweet pudding, in two or three kinds to finish.

Banana chipPlain and jaggery-coated, first on the leaf.

Also part of it, and being written: Olan (Ash gourd and cowpeas in coconut milk.), Thoran (Dry vegetable stir-fry with grated coconut.).

More dishes made for Onam

ErisseryVegetarianഎരിശ്ശേരി 🇮🇳 IndiaKerala curry of vegetables and coconut, a staple at festival feasts Stew or curry, Lunch, Dinner

Unni appamVegetarianഉണ്ണിയപ്പം 🇮🇳 IndiaSweet fried rice cakes with banana and jaggery from Kerala Sweet or dessert, Snacks

About this page

Written by the Thali desk with AI assistance. Background: "Onam" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Sambar: Jayashree Govindarajan, CC BY 2.0, source

Kheer: stu spivack, CC BY-SA 2.0, source

Sadya: Augustus Binu / facebook, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Avial: Sivahari, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Banana chip: Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Unni appam: Riyaz Ahamed at Malayalam Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5, source

Erissery: Varghesepunnamada, CC BY-SA 4.0, source