Kerala is famous for its culture, traditions, spices, dance forms, beaches, festivals, temples and obviously last but not the least 'Kerala Cuisine'. Kerala is called as 'Spice Garden of India'. Number of rich spices and herbs that grow in this state have a clear influence on food habits of native people of Kerala. Food of Kerala is one big factor which attracts numerous tourists from all across the world to visit this place

Vegetarian Cuisines

Many vegetarian dishes are part of Kerala's festival celebrations and a full course of vegetarian meal during the festival season of Onam which is popularly called 'Onam Sadhya' contains more than twenty five dishes which are served on a plantain leaf in small quantities. The dishes include curries, rice, banana, desserts, pickles, banana chips and pappad. However, these vegetarian dishes are prepared in every household and they are made using coconut and coconut oil.

Some of the popular Vegetarian dishes

For Breakfast

• Idly with chutney
• The Malabar cuisine
• Dosa with Sambar
• Puttu with Kadala kari
• Upma
• Vada with chutney
• Appam with vegetable stew
• Kappa or Boiled Tapioca

For Lunch and Dinner

The staple food of people in Kerala is boiled rice or Kuthari as popularly called. The following vegetarian curries are available with rice. A full course vegetarian meal in any restaurant includes the following curries which are very popular:

• Sambar
• Rasam
• Aviyal
• Thoran
• Kalan
• Theeyal
• Velarikka Pachadi
• Pazham pulissery
• Olan
• Kootu Curry
• Erissery

Desserts

• Ada pradhaman
• Paal Payasam
• Chakka Pradhaman
• Palada
• Parippu Pradhaman

Sadhya or Feast

Sadhya or Feast contains all traditional dishes which are served on a plantain leaf. There is a systematic pattern of serving these dishes. The first course of meal is rice which is had with Pirappu, a curry made with gram and served with Ghee. The second course of meal is had with Sambar along with other curries. The Third course is had with Rasam which is a curry made with tamarind water, pepper, cumin seeds curry leaves and other condiments. Pickles made of mango and limes are also part of this meal. Mouth watering banana chips and pappadams add to the flavor. Desserts which are popularly called as Payasam are served before the last course of meal. There is usually more than one type of dessert served one after the other. Pazham or golden yellow banana is also part of Sadhya.

It would be a wonderful experience to taste this traditional, tasty Kerala vegetarian Sadhya at least. Dishes served at Sadhya are very tasty while they are not at all spicy. This food does not upset your stomach and you can thoroughly relish tasty and mouth watering desserts. All major restaurants in various tourist destinations of Kerala provide you with traditional Kerala vegetarian cuisine in a traditional way on plantain leaf. So do not miss an opportunity when you get a chance to taste this wonderful cuisine.