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    Home » Recipes » Lunch

    South Indian meals, Thala vazhai ilai sappadu

    August 31, 2013 by Raks Anand 35 Comments / Jump to Recipe

    South Indian meals, a typical full meals as we call it thala vazhai ilai sappadu (South Indian banana leaf meals). Learn how to plan, prepare, serve a meal in banana leaf in this blog post.

    South Indian meals, thalavazhai-ilai-sapadu
    South Indian full meals

    South Indian meals with paruppu, sambar, rasam, curry, poriyal, kootu, vadai, payasam, appalam, mor, pickle, banana. Guide to prepare the meals.

    This is just a guide, please check the individual recipes for detailed procedure of each dish. Part of my Lunch menu series I have been posting.

    Jump to:
    • About
    • Side dishes
    • Main course
    • Eating way
    • After meal
    • My notes
    • Instructions
    • Recipe card

    I wanted to make this post sometime in this lunch menu series. When I posted the North Indian meals itself, I was so much tempted to do this post.

    As I wanted to find thala vazhai ilai (Banana leaf) and I very rarely go to Little India to get vazhai ilai, I was wondering when I am going to do.

    I went to Mustafa last week. I bought this thala vazhai ilai. Two in one pack! I was so carefully bringing back without tearing it off!

    I opened eagerly to see it was bit old and starting to turn yellow. But still was good enough to serve the food!

    And Vj was so busy with his office work for about a month and working day and night without good food or sleep.

    Thank God, now he is back to a routine working time as usual. So I thought its the right time to cook, as well as make post for this series.

    In our family, my mom, MIL makes such spread if someone comes home for eating lunch (especially if they are coming for first time) and also they make a simpler version when its festival time.

    About

    There are certain things when it comes to serving this meals. That I have never noticed or knew the correct way of how to serve a proper Tamil full meals in Thalavazhai ilai.

    After coming here to Singapore, I rarely attend weddings also to know how its served.

    Now after two marriages happened in our family and serving lots of food too, with lots of 'seniors'  to help me around, I never learnt it.

    I think, next time I should learn it. Its high time I learn this.

    I have a cookbook mom . It has a rough explanation about serving food in banana leaf.

    Though I didn't understood it fully, I could get an idea about it.

    If you are wondering what is there to learn serving food in vazhai ilai, yes, traditionally there is a way.

    That is which dish goes where in which part of the leaf. Though I have not exactly placed the dishes, I have atleast given a rough idea what goes where.

    Ah, I should have done this post when I was there at Chennai in June, for my BIL wedding. It would have been easier😉

    Side dishes

    Firstly, we serve the meals in Thalai vazhai ilai which means the top part of a banana leaf.

    In a clean banana leaf, first in the top a thayir pachadi (curd + vegetable) , a varuval (deep fried vegetable), a kootu, a poriyal (mild vegetable with coconut, dry), a curry (spicy vegetable), vadai, a pickle and salt as shown in the pictures.

    south Indian meals
    Kootu, kari, poriyal, varuval, pachadi

    In the top left hand side part sits a tumbler with water. These all are in the above part of the banana leaf.

    And one more important thing is, make sure the broad side of the banana leaf is to the right hand side of person who is eating.

    javvarisi payasam, rasam, sambar, vadai, thakkali thokku
    South Indian meals

    Main course

    In the below part of the leaf, towards the left hand side you can keep a fruit. You can serve it at the end of the meals as you eat post meals.

    And in the middle, or towards the right hand side, serve hot steamed rice.

    Over which in a side, serve getti paruppu (thick dal) to start with the meals. Top it with ghee (not in forzen state, it should be clear).  

    We have a habit or mannerism of separating a small part of rice every time when they serve rice and then mix to eat. Not mix in in the same portion of rice in a side or have it without mixing.

    Rice, paruppu+ghee, appalam and banana
    Paruppu, rice

    Eating way

    As they eat the paruppu sadam, serve sambar on the other part of the rice along with the sambar veggies.

    After paruppu sadam, again enough rice if needed and more sambar topping for it. Ofcourse a drizzle of ghee goes for sambar rice as well.

    After sambar, if any kuzhambu and then rasam. Each time ask if they need appalam.

    After rasam and let them wipe all the rasam to a side of the leaf and then serve payasam. Offer more vadai if they need.

    Lastly serve rice and mor (buttermilk). Finally finish it with fruit.

    After meal

    Our elders needs vetrilai paaku after meals and we keep that as well ready in a plate - vetrilai, paaku and sunnambu (betel leaves, betel nut and edible lime).

    That's the way to end a complete south Indian Thamizh style meals. Do you know this aids easy digestion as well as there are nutrients like vitamins, calcium. So you can follow this too.

    Above all, serve everything with a smile in your face, which is very important. It will compensate even if your cooking is not good 😉  so SMILE and serve!

    My notes

    And depending on the occasion you can increase or decrease the menu. For festival times when we cook for our own family, we do not elaborate the meals.

    We keep it simple with a poriyal or curry, kootu, sambar, rasam and vadai, payasam, appalam. That's it.

    And for offering God, we serve only paruppu and avoid sambar as we include onion in it and only a poriyal without onion.

    Others are only for people at home 😉 And I am sorry for the long post, as the meal is elaborate, even I wrote so much 😉

    Instructions

    So coming to today's lunch menu, it needed more than 2 hours for cooking the whole spread.

    Here is how I prepared, cooked the lunch, just to get an idea.

    Vegetables I cooked - plantain/ vazhakkai - poriyal and varuval, seppankezhangu/ arbi - curry, cabbage - kootu, vendakkai/ ladies finger - sambar.

    Soaking

    1. Soak urad dal for vadai firstly 2-3 hours prior to grinding. Also sago for payasam, I prefer soaking for easy cooking.
    2. So I soaked dal and sago for payasam when I prepared breakfast itself and ground for vadai after I finished all works and chores and entered the kitchen for preparing lunch.
    3. I made vadais with only ½ cup of urad dal, so ground in mixie itself. Its easier when you have lots of works to do. And kept inside the fridge.
    4. Also soak tamarind for sambar and rasam in hot water.

    Pressure cooking

    1. Pressure cook dal as well as arbi in a big pressure cooker, kept separately in two containers.
    2. In another small cooker, I cooked mung dal with finely chopped cabbage for cabbage kootu.

    Chopping

    1. As these two gets cooked, I did the other cutting works. Plantain for poriyal and keep immersed in water, ladies finger for sambar, 1 onion and tomato for sambar and 1 tomato for rasam, 1 onion for curry, 1 onion for vadai.
    2. Kept ready other things like curry leaves, green chillies and red chillies as needed for cooking.

    Prep work

    1. Extract tamarind juice and kept ready for rasam and sambar. Grate coconut.
    2. Grind for thayir pachadi - I made nellikkai thayir pachadi, this time with dried gooesberry powder that my mom gave it to me.
    3. We call it nelli mulli powder. Just we have to grind it along with coconut, green chilli and asafoetida and mix with beaten curd for thayir pachadi. And then grind coconut and things needed for kootu.

    Stove work

    1. Now stove work starts. First temper for thayir pachadi, paruppu, kootu. You can temper and keep it in the respective vessels even if the dish is not ready and mix later once ready.
    2. Then keep rasam in the kadai itself and then fry the ladies finger for sambar and set aside, then temper for sambar and prepare sambar. Rasam over and sambar half done!
    3. As the sambar is kept for boiling, by now the other cookers will be ready to open. Prepare koou in other stove.
    4. Peel seppan kizhangu for curry and keep ready. Reserve some dal for paruppu and mix turmeric  and salt with it and mix with tempered and paruppu ready!
    5. In the kadai prepare poriyal and then lastly curry. As the curry is kept for browning, sambar would have been done. You can keep rice in cooker now.
    6. Now lastly prepare payasam and mix every thing needed for vadai and make vadai when everything is over. In the same oil, fry appalam and more milagai (if needed).
    south Indian meals
    South Indian banana leaf meal, Traditional

    We are done with preparing the meals!  Here is what I had in my meals I prepared and the recipes:

    1. Nellikkai thairpachadi recipe
    2. Getti Paruppu (Dal)
    3. Vazhakkai varuval 
    4. Vazhakkai Poriyal recipe
    5. Seppankizhangu curry (Arbi curry)
    6. Cabbage kootu recipe
    7. Vendakkai sambar 
    8. Rasam
    9. Medhu vadai recipe
    10. Sago javvarisi payasam recipe
    11. Thakkali thokku recipe

    With rice, appalam, banana also in the leaf as seen. The seppankizhangi recipe is similar to my potato curry recipe. So  you can refer that!

    You can change the menu according to the availability of veggies, just browse through the recipe index!

    These are only my understandings upon the south Indian Thamizh thalai vazhai ilai saapadu.

    Happy tummy! Have a great weekend!

    Recipe card

    south Indian meals in banana leaf
    Print Pin
    5 from 2 votes

    South Indian full meals

    South Indian meals, a typical full meals as we call it thala vazhai ilai sappadu (South Indian banana leaf meals). Learn how to plan, prepare, serve a meal in banana leaf in this blog post.
    Course Main Course
    Cuisine Indian, South Indian
    Prep Time 30 minutes
    Cook Time 2 minutes
    Soaking time 2 hours
    Total Time 2 hours 32 minutes
    Servings 4

    Equipments (Amazon Affiliate links)

    • Banana leaf
    Cup measurements

    Ingredients

    • Nellikkai thairpachadi recipe
    • Getti Paruppu
    • Vazhakkai varuval
    • Vazhakkai Poriyal recipe
    • Seppankizhangu curry (Arbi curry)
    • Cabbage kootu recipe
    • Vendakkai sambar
    • Rasam
    • Medhu vadai recipe
    • Sago/ javvarisi payasam recipe
    • Thakkali thokku recipe
    • Buttermilk
    • Homemade curd
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • Please check individual recipes for instructions
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    InstagramMention @rakskitchen or tag #rakskitchen if you have tried this recipe.

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    • How to make schezwan fried rice in three steps

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. S.Menaga

      August 31, 2013 at 7:01 am

      wowwwww lovely spread!!

      Reply
    2. Rajee Thangaraja

      August 31, 2013 at 7:45 am

      Inspiring post... i want to try the full set during this week end.

      Reply
    3. AparnaRajeshkumar

      August 31, 2013 at 7:50 am

      lovely it shows your complete interest about your food and blogging 🙂 proud to be your junior 😀 and follower 🙂

      Reply
    4. Pooja Pai

      August 31, 2013 at 8:24 am

      yummy....ur recipies
      remind me of my mother....

      Reply
    5. Prabha

      August 31, 2013 at 8:52 am

      how dedicated
      its delicious lunch

      Reply
    6. anusha praveen

      August 31, 2013 at 9:48 am

      very nicely presented Raji although our serving style differs totally. I m looking forward to that varuval.

      Reply
    7. Sangeetha M

      August 31, 2013 at 11:35 am

      Wow...am inviting myself to your place 😉 such a delicious and inviting spread. Perfect Thalavazhai ilai saapadu, we do follow the same serving procedure 🙂 appreciate your effort n love towards food n blogging..great work n well explained post!

      Reply
    8. Finla

      August 31, 2013 at 12:32 pm

      One day I am going to come to your home to have this lunch. Looks so so good. I am always impressed by how much veriety of Indian food you cook at home. Lucky family.

      Reply
    9. Maha Gadde

      August 31, 2013 at 1:51 pm

      so yummy luking recipes vth neat cliks.love this..

      Reply
    10. Shanthi

      August 31, 2013 at 2:20 pm

      awesome..amazing pictures...no words to express...

      Reply
    11. Happys Cook

      August 31, 2013 at 5:19 pm

      Wow lovely post.... really appreciate ur effort.... well done

      Reply
    12. Unknown

      August 31, 2013 at 11:18 pm

      what a lot of hard work has gone into this post... just hows your passion to cook and blog about it!! keep it up!! Looking forward to more such lovely posts...:)

      Reply
    13. Devi Vj

      September 01, 2013 at 12:42 am

      U simply amaze me by ur love towards food n blogging... Lovely n tempting spread 🙂

      Reply
    14. Krithi Karthi

      September 01, 2013 at 2:00 am

      Awesome!

      Reply
    15. Rajee Thangaraja

      September 01, 2013 at 6:45 am

      Hi.. i tried the full course lunch today...
      beans poriyal, kootu , urulai kilangu varuval, kathirikai kara curry , vadai, sambar,rasam,parupu,vellarikai pachadi, appalam, Rava payasam

      Reply
    16. Raks anand

      September 01, 2013 at 8:56 am

      Wow, sounds great! 🙂

      Reply
    17. Chitz

      September 01, 2013 at 10:30 am

      Sounds so very tempting.. Very detailed & well written post.. Am in awe !!

      Reply
    18. jeyashri suresh

      September 01, 2013 at 10:43 am

      Fantastic spread. Wish i could make this one day. It has been a very long time since i made this elaborate meal

      Reply
    19. Sathya Moorthy

      September 01, 2013 at 11:19 am

      தலை வாழை இலை சாப்பாட்டில் தமிழ் மணம் வீசுகிறது
      மிக்க நன்றி

      Reply
    20. Veena Theagarajan

      September 01, 2013 at 2:27 pm

      super yummy spread.. it is in my to do list for a while let's see 🙂

      Reply
    21. Anonymous

      September 01, 2013 at 5:33 pm

      LOVELY ARRAY OF BEAUTIFUL DISHES...VERY VERY COMFORTING 🙂

      Reply
    22. Gayathri Ramanan

      September 02, 2013 at 2:29 am

      Awesome post with lovely and tempting dishes...

      Reply
    23. SHARMILEE J

      September 10, 2013 at 3:24 pm

      Lovely spread and explanation!

      Reply
    24. Rakı'n' Fish

      September 10, 2013 at 8:13 pm

      I love Indian food, especially chickens. So nice sharing. but banana in this meal is unnecessary. There shouldnt be banana there;)

      Reply
    25. rahul sharma

      September 11, 2013 at 6:16 am

      India has one of the finest and richest culinary histories. Contrary to popular belief, Indian cuisines are not complex or too confusing to cook.

      Reply
    26. Dhaarini

      September 11, 2013 at 11:15 am

      Hi Raji,
      Superb meal spread! 🙂 Well done! Why dont you post the"Onam Sadhya" sometime!

      Reply
    27. mush sher

      October 23, 2013 at 5:58 am

      awww mouth watering ... i love south indian meals <3 especially vege varieties

      Reply
    28. GeEk WoNdEr's

      November 28, 2013 at 12:06 am

      very interesting..........found complete south indain food guide....i think i tried everything but still want to try once again

      Reply
    29. Vk Raman

      January 27, 2014 at 7:27 am

      Very Interesting. My memories of living in gramam was revived. Keep up the good thinking

      Reply
    30. Rita

      January 31, 2014 at 12:54 pm

      So much passion goes into your cooking and posts, that I just love to browse them all the time.
      You can also add this note: You need to add ghee to the plaintain leaf first and then rice was served on top of it in olden days. But nowadays we pour ghee on top of the rice.The reason being the plaintain leaf itself has a quality which is absorbed by the ghee and goes into digestive system. Also the Indian system is very thorough. You eat vadai first, because it hard to digest. Similarly you eat the harder digestible food first, and the most digestible is eaten at the end.

      Another reason for betel leaf is that it does not create a enimity towards the giver of the food. And also fully cleanses your stomach.

      Reply
    31. Suja Raj

      May 26, 2014 at 11:56 am

      An excellent and comprehensive write-up! I grew up eating lunch meals on banana leaf almost every weekend when I was younger but little did I realise what made the full meal on my illai 🙂 Loved the write-up and the well-captured photos.

      Reply
    32. Raks anand

      May 26, 2014 at 12:27 pm

      Thank you all 🙂

      Reply
    33. Vijay kumar

      February 04, 2015 at 6:36 am

      Satisfied meals

      Reply
    34. Thilak saravanan

      April 13, 2015 at 10:28 am

      Eppo hotel aarampikka poringa ?...evallo patoence : O ..such a bful display..pasi illathavangalukkum pasi vanthidum. 🙂

      Reply
    35. Anne F

      August 28, 2015 at 1:57 am

      The banana leaves we substitute as plates for east indian weddings, easy clean up. The food is different, even our curries have a different taste.

      Reply

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    Raks anand

    Hi, I'm Rajeswari Vijayanand! I am the person behind Rakskitchen, sharing recipes with pictures & videos.

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