South Indian brunch ideas - Brunch Menu 1

South Indian brunch ideas with Uthappam, vada, podi idli, paniyarams, payasam and chutneys. This post is a part of my Breakfast menu series.

Podi idli, plain utappam, sweet and savory kuzhi paniyaram, keera vadai, arisi paruppu payasam, sambar, coconut chutney and red chutney.

You can also check out my Sunday Brunch idea. Want some lunch inspiration? Do check my Indian lunch menu ideas page

Jump to:

• Inspiration
• South Indian brunch ideas
• Preparation
• Cooking
• Serving
• Recipe card

I remembered something when I made this brunch. My mom had a brass plate - "otrai idli thattu" , in other words, single idli plate. It is tiffin plate size, slightly shallow as well as have holes in it.

So we have to use a cloth to line it and pour batter to it, steam like a regular idli. Obviously, I have had many times excitingly. Most of the time I would not finish though.

Now I can eat 2 such idlis easily, wish I had that idli plate. It is something similar to the thatte idli, except this one is not flat, but shallow and just a bigger variation of our regular idli.

So basically this is just to say, how many variations we can make with this single idli dosa batter. For example, good old regular idli, podi idli, cocktail idli, thalippu idli, kaima idli, chutney idli, idli upma and many more.

In addition, plain dosa, masala dosas, beetroot dosa, onion uttapam, plain uttapam made in kadai as you see in this post, kuzhi paniyaram  and the list goes on with your creativity.

Inspiration

This post made after I got tempted by a photo, specifically, I saw in zomato under a restaurant review. The first thing I got tempted was the plain uttapam, then it is the keerai vadai.

Otherwise I changed the menu according to my convenience. I made this spread this Friday, so it is with vadai payasam special for Aadi Friday.

In brief, this post is just an idea for making an elaborate brunch, if you want to make it for some special occasion.

Otherwise, you can take this as an idea and reduce the items according to your convenience. If you want to make this exact menu, note down the things that you can prepare and keep it ready in before hand to reduce your work.

South Indian brunch ideas

This post is just an idea on how I prepared this menu. For detailed individual recipes, please check the links below.

Recipe links:

1. Idli recipe
2. Idli podi  
3. Paniyaram
4. Tiffin sambar  
5. Coconut chutney
6. Red chutney recipe
7. Arisi paruppu payasam recipe
8. Keerai vadai recipe

Check out other chutney recipes

Also you may like kesari, paal kesari, fruit kesari, semiya kesari, aval kesari

Check out medhu vadai, masala vadai

Preparation

1. Idli dosa batter can be prepared a day or two days ahead and kept in fridge. With this batter, we can make idli, plain uttapam and kuzhi paniyaram savory with the same batter. I had idli dosa batter with me.
2. Same with sweet paniyaram batter, you can prepare a day ahead and keep refrigerated. I prepared the paniyaram batter the before day itself.
3. Prepare keerai vadai by soaking urad dal just for an hour and grinding it coarsely without water. So soak it before you start all the other process for this brunch.
   This can be done the day before and keep refrigerated.

Cooking

1. Roast and pressure cook rice, dal for payasam in one container of the pressure cooker and dal for sambar in another container. (I keep tamarind also inside a small bowl in middle of dal for easy extraction of tamarind juice).
2. Clean keerai and chop it (can be made ahead before day), scrap coconut (I had it frozen),
3. Cut onion for red chutney, sambar, tomato and vegetables for sambar. Keep the other ingredients like coriander leaves, green chilli ready.
4. Grind coconut, extract little milk for payasam and prepare coconut and red chutneys. Keep aside.
5. Extract tamarind juice for sambar. Powder jaggery, cardamom for payasam and finish payasam.
6. Now to stove work for tempering. In ghee, roast some cashews for payasam and garnish it.
7. Temper chutneys and then sambar. Finish making sambar.
8. Prepare keera vadai.
9. Lastly make idli, kuzhi paniyarams and plain uttapam hot. Just one each and couple of paniyarams will do, as it will be filling.
10. Coat the idli with sesame oil and idli podi mix and serve it. Arrange idli, keerai vadai, paniyarams, payasam and the side dishes. Finally keep hot uttapams and serve.

Serving

I made this keerai vadai, slightly different from the one I posted. This one is inspired from Chef Venkatesh Bhat's keerai vadai. That is I just soaked for an hour, ground really coarsely and added keerai, pepper, asafoetida and salt.

Made thinly over a ziploc cover and fried in oil.

I made savory paniyaram with the idli dosa batter simply with mustard, urad dal, curry leaves and a dash of asafoetida. You can check my masala paniyaram or Oats khara paniyaram if interested.

Sweet paniyaram is karuppatti paniyaram, which I will post coming Wednesday. Check out my paal paniyaram recipe, which can also be a nice substitution in this platter.

I made my plain uttapams in my new iron kadai, which turned out super crispy, golden and tasty!

Check out my Youtube channel for quick recipe videos.

Recipe card