Onam Sadya: The Full Menu, the Leaf Layout and a Two-Day Plan

A sadya is a vegetarian feast served on a banana leaf, and the one served at Onam is the most elaborate version of it. Depending on the household it runs to anywhere from a modest eleven dishes to a genuinely intimidating twenty-six. It is eaten with the hands, seated, in a particular order, and the order is not arbitrary.

What follows is the sadya as I learned it in Kottayam. Other districts and communities do it differently, and those differences are real and worth respecting rather than smoothing over. Where a dish is regional or optional, I have said so.

How the Leaf Is Laid

The leaf is placed with the narrow end pointing left of the person eating, and the darker glossy side facing up. This is consistent almost everywhere and getting it backwards is the first thing anyone will notice.

The geography of the leaf follows a logic: small, intense things at the top, substantial things at the bottom, rice in the middle.

• Top left corner: salt, then the pickles. Usually two: a sharp mango pickle (puli inji is also often here) and a milder lime pickle.
• Along the top edge, left to right: the pickles, then the crisp things — banana chips (upperi), jaggery-coated chips (sharkara varatti), and pappadam, which is often placed on top of the rice instead.
• Top right and along the upper edge: the dry vegetable preparations. Thoran, mezhukkupuratti, kichadi and pachadi.
• Centre and lower half: the rice, served in a mound, with the curries poured over it in stages.
• Bottom right: the payasam, served at the end, sometimes in a small bowl.

The Dishes

Parippu — a plain cooked moong dal with ghee, the first thing poured over the rice. Simple by design; it opens the meal gently.

Sambar — the Kerala version, often with a roasted coconut base. See our sambar guide for the Tamil version and the notes on how the Kerala one differs.

Avial — the signature sadya dish. Mixed vegetables cut into batons, cooked until just tender, bound with a coarse paste of coconut, green chilli and cumin, and finished with raw coconut oil and curry leaves. The coconut oil at the end is not optional; it is what makes avial taste like avial.

Olan — ash gourd and cowpeas in thin coconut milk, barely spiced, finished with coconut oil. Deliberately mild, a rest between stronger dishes.

Kaalan — yam or raw banana in a thick, sour curd-and-coconut gravy, heavily peppered. Keeps for days.

Erissery — pumpkin and beans with coconut, topped with coconut roasted dark in coconut oil.

Thoran — a dry stir-fry of a finely chopped vegetable with grated coconut, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Cabbage, beans or raw banana are common.

Mezhukkupuratti — vegetables sautéed simply in coconut oil with turmeric and pepper. No coconut.

Pachadi and kichadi — curd-based sides. Pachadi is sweeter, often with pineapple or ripe mango; kichadi is savoury and tangy, usually cucumber or beetroot.

Puli inji — a dense, dark ginger-tamarind-jaggery relish, sweet, sour and hot at once. A tiny quantity goes a long way and it is one of the great things on the leaf.

Rasam — served late, over a second, smaller serving of rice. See the rasam guide, and remember the rule about not boiling it.

Pulissery or moru — a gentle curd curry, served near the end to settle the stomach.

Payasam — the closing sweet. Usually two: an ada pradhaman made with jaggery and coconut milk, and a milk-based semiya or palada payasam.

The Serving Order

Dishes are not all put out at once. The sequence is part of the meal:

1. The leaf is laid with pickles, chips, thoran and the other dry sides around the edges.
2. Rice is served in the centre, and parippu with ghee is poured over it. This is eaten first.
3. More rice, then sambar. The main part of the meal.
4. More rice, then rasam. Smaller portion, eaten faster.
5. A final small serving of rice with pulissery or plain curd.
6. Payasam, sometimes eaten from the leaf, sometimes from a bowl. If there are two, they come one after the other.

When you have finished, folding the leaf towards you signals that the meal was good. Folding it away is, in some households, a quiet complaint. It is worth knowing which way round it goes.

A Realistic Two-Day Plan

A sadya looks impossible until you see how much is made ahead. Here is how it actually gets done.

Up to two weeks before: pickles and puli inji. Both keep well and both improve with a few days.

The day before: banana chips and sharkara varatti (or buy them, as most people now do). Grate and freeze the coconut you will need. Cook the payasam — both kinds keep overnight and reheat well, though ada pradhaman thickens, so hold back some coconut milk. Chop the vegetables for avial and thoran and refrigerate in separate boxes. Make kaalan, which genuinely improves overnight.

Morning of: erissery and olan first, as both hold. Then thoran and mezhukkupuratti, which are quick. Then avial, which wants to be fresh. Then sambar. Then, last, rasam and parippu, which take minutes and must be hot.

Thirty minutes before serving: cook the rice. Fry the pappadam. Whisk the curd. Set out the leaves.

The principle is that anything coconut-heavy and dry keeps, anything thin and aromatic does not. Work backwards from rasam, which should be made last.

Common Questions

Beyond Onam

The same structure, with local variation, appears at Vishu, at weddings, and at temple festivals across Kerala. Tamil Nadu's festival meals follow a related logic with a different dish list. For how the everyday and restaurant versions of this idea are put together, see our guide to the South Indian thali.