Aadi perukku recipes | Aadi Perukku Lunch menu

Aadi perukku recipes, Aadi 18 lunch menu with full video and step by step instructions to prepare a spread.

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• About Aadi perukku
• How to celebrate Aadi perukku
• Aadi perukku Lunch menu
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• Aadi perukku recipes | Aadi 18 lunch menu

About Aadi perukku

Aadi perukku (pathinettam perukku) is a religious (Hindu) Tamil monsoon festival. Both mom and MIL celebrate this day. As name indicates, adi perukku falls on 18th day in Tamil month Aadi (Tamil calendar). In English calender usually overlaps in July or August.

Read my dad's post about the aadi perukku festival.

The whole Aadi month is always considered sacred, special and throughout the month, Goddess Shakti is worshipped.

Along with other offerings, we soak rice and then stir with jaggery and offer it to the "manjal pillayar" and tie yellow thread in neck on the day of aadi perukku.

How to celebrate Aadi perukku

Here is how my mom, performs her pooja at the motta maadi (Terrace) in our home at Salem, assuming as the holy river bank Cauvery .

She brings manal (river sand) and makes a square out of it and keeps manjal pillayar ( Ganesh made out of turmeric powder).

Keep two vessels full of water with flowers in it, to depict water body.

Offers fruits, rice soaked and mixed with jaggery, a black glass bangle coupled with pink tainted dried palm leaf strip, a new saree with blouse bit, some jewels, mirror, flowers, etc... along with the holy yellow thread above.

Water bodies like river, lake, well, tanks and other sources are worshipped. Amman temples celebrate the month of aadi conduct special poojas and organize festivals.

When is Aadi perukku 2026 date?

Aadi perukku 2026 falls on 3rd August, Monday.

Aadi perukku Lunch menu

Mom makes variety rice for this always as today I have made, while MIL makes full meals with sambar, rasam, poriyal, kootu, vadai, payasam and appalam (probably her family preference). But widely kalanda sadam is the specialty of the day.

I wanted to make mom's way this time. No need to panic by seeing so many dishes in the picture, its actually 5 items + medhu vadai. That's it. Really! It's easier than making the full south Indian spread.

I want to share this time how I prepared this menu (for 3) also, to prove that this is easy! Prepare pulikaichal the before day, to make it easy.

So here is what I made :

1. Sakkarai pongal recipe

Sakkarai pongal or any sweet can be prepared. A payasam with Jaggery, coconut milk based preferably. In the video, I have prepared kalkandu pongal. Here's the recipe for sweet pongal.

2. Medhu vadai recipe

Can any festival menu pass without vadai in the menu? We mostly make medhu vadai/ ulundhu vadai. But paruppu vadai (masal vadai) can also be made. Check out the recipe for medhu vadai below.

3. Coconut rice recipe

Coconut rice is easy and flavor packed kalanda sadam. Can be prepared in a jiffy if you are having grated ones in hand.

4. Puliyodharai recipe

Puli sadam or puliyodharai is a special kalanda sadam and best part in this lunch menu. To make it easy, prepare pulikaichal the previous day and you can just mix it on the day. Alternately, you can prepare lemon sadam in place of it (Another tangy variety)

5. Sesame rice recipe

Ellu sadam is a flavorful and healthy rice with roasted sesame seeds powdered and mixed. Check out the recipe here.

6. Thayir sadam recipe

The perfect way to end the meal is curd rice. Creamy, cooling dish with homemade yogurt with tempering makes it flavor packed soulful dish.

Method

Serves: 3

1. Morning, on wake up, soak urad dal/ ulundhu for vadai and thengai sadam.
2. In a small cooker, (directly) cook 1 cup raw rice with 3 cups water for 4 whistles. This is for Curd rice and sweet-pongal.
3. In another stove, pressure cook raw rice 1 & ½ cups with 2 cups water for 3 whistles (in medium flame after 1st whistle) for the other variety rice. If you have separate containers, keep little moong dal for sakkarai-pongal. Otherwise, do it separately.
4. Grate coconut meanwhile.
5. Once the rice for yogurt rice and pongal, take half for yogurt rice in a vessel and leave the rest of the rice in the cooker itself.
6. Mash both and for curd rice add 120 ml hot water and salt.
7. Make jaggery syrup and prepare pongal.
8. If the rice for the other variety rice is done meanwhile, divide into 3 in three vessels and add 2 teaspoon of sesame oil in each, mix and let it cool down.
9. Now its time to give some work to the kadai. Heat it up and roast for ellu-sadam, thengai-sadam. Keep aside.
10. Now start tempering everything - first pongal, then curd rice, thengai-sadam, ellu-sadam.
11. Grind for ellu-sadam. That's it, mix all the variety rice.
12. Lastly grind for vadai and heat oil in kadai for deep frying side by side.
13. Make vadai and fry appalam and some vadams. Aplam and vadams are not offered to saamis, just for the aasamis.

Video

I have video updated for this menu, with lemon sadam and kalkandu-pongal in place of puliyodharai and sakkarai-pongal respectively 🙂

This will take hardly 1 hour and less work as no cutting works involved. If you want you can make avial - if you are worried about vegetables.

Have a great weekend with homey food 😍.

Aadi perukku recipes

You can also make Payasam on the month of Aadi to mark it's beginning or for every Friday in this month. Check out aadi perukku payasam recipes below:

Please refer individual recipe links for full ingredients list and instructions.

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