• Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Raks Kitchen

  • Home
  • Recipe index
    • New recipe index
    • Old recipe index
  • HEALTHY COOKING
    • INDIAN OATS RECIPES
    • MILLET RECIPES
    • SALAD
    • SOUPS
    • SUNDAL RECIPES
  • LUNCH MENUS
    • Indo chinese
    • North Indian menu
    • South Indian menu
    • LUNCH PLANNER
    • Lunch box ideas
  • FESTIVAL RECIPES
    • Tamil New Year recipes
    • PONGAL RECIPES
    • VINAYAGAR CHATURTHI RECIPES
    • DIWALI SNACKS
    • INDIAN DIWALI SWEET RECIPES
    • KARTHIGAI DEEPAM RECIPES
    • Gokulashtami Date, Recipes, Guide
    • Navaratri sundal recipes, Navratri snacks
  • COLLECTIONS
    • Kuzhambu recipes
    • Paneer recipes
    • Baby corn recipes
    • Side dish for chapati
    • Side dish for idli dosa
  • Amazon Store
Home » LUNCH MENUS » South Indian menu » South Indian meals, Thala vazhai ilai sappadu

South Indian meals, Thala vazhai ilai sappadu

August 31, 2013 by Raks Anand 35 Comments /

thalavazhai-ilai-sapadu

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 on how to prepare south Indian meals, please check the individual recipes for detailed procedure of each dish. Part of my Lunch menu series I have been posting.

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 South Indian Meals post. As I wanted to find thalavazhai ilai (Banana leaf) and I very rarely go to Little India to get vazhai ilai, I was wondering when I am going to do. Then last week when I went to Mustafa, picked this thala vazhai ilai, in a pack of two and brought home so carefully as such without getting torn. Though I bought it in the pack, I was worried if it would be fresh and if it would be torn or not. 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 the meals:

There are certain things followed 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.

When I was browsing a cookbook that my mom gave me when I got married, it had a rough explanation about serving food in banana leaf. Though I din’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 are certain things to be followed. 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😉

Serving:

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 preparation

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, leaf has to be laid in such a way that the broad part of the leaf should be to the right hand side of one who is sitting to eat.

javvarisi payasam, rasam, sambar, vadai, thakkali thokku

In the below part of the leaf, towards the left hand side you can keep a fruit, which can be served at the end of the meals as its supposed to be eaten after finishing the meal. And in the middle, or towards the right hand side, hot steamed rice has to be kept. Over which in a side, getti paruppu (thick dal) which is always served to begin the meal with. It should be topped with melted ghee (not in forzen state, it should be clear).  We have a habit or mannerism of separating a small part of rice everytime rice is served and then mix and eat.

Rice, paruppu+ghee, appalam and banana

As they eat the paruppu sadam, sambar has to be served 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. After sambar, if any kuzhambu and then rasam. Each time rice is offered if needed, appalam as well. After rasam is finished and let them swipe all the rasam to a side of the leaf and payasam is served. Vadai can be offered more if they need.

Lastly rice and more(buttermilk) is served. After that which the fruit has to be eaten to finish the meal. Our elders needs vetrilai paaku after meals and we keep that as well ready in a plate – vetrilai, paaku and sunnambu. 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, everything has to be served with a smile in your face, which is very important. It will compensate even if your cooking is not good 😉  so SMILE and serve!

And the menu is increased or decreased depending upon the occasion. 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 😉

South Indian Meals

Indian | Lunch
So coming to today’s lunch menu, it needed a total time of 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.

  1. Urad dal for vadai should be soaked 3 hours prior to grinding.Also sago for payasam I prefer soaking for easy cooking. 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. I made vadais with only 1/2 cup of urad dal, so ground in mixie itself. Its easier when you have lots of works to do. And kept inside the fridge.
  2. Soak tamarind for sambar and rasam in hot water.
  3. Pressure cook dal and arbi in a big pressure cooker, kept separately in two containers. In another small cooker, I cooked mung dal with finely chopped cabbage for cabbage kootu.
  4. 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.
  5. Kept ready other things like curry leaves, green chillies and red chillies as needed for cooking.
  6. Extract tamarind juice and kept ready for rasam and sambar. Grate coconut.
  7. Grind for thayir pachadi – I made nellikkai thayir pachadi, this time with dried gooesberry powder that my mom gave it to me. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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!
  10. As the sambar is kept for boiling, by now the other cookers will be ready to open. Prepare koou in other stove.
  11. 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!
  12. 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.
  13. 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

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!

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: LUNCH, LUNCH MENUS, South Indian menu, Tamil New Year Recipes, TRADITIONAL

Previous Post: « Verum arisi dosa recipe | South Indian dosa recipes
Next Post: Vazhakkai chips recipe, Homemade plantain chips »

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 1, 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 1, 2013 at 2:00 am

    Awesome!

    Reply
  15. Rajee Thangaraja

    September 1, 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 1, 2013 at 8:56 am

    Wow, sounds great! 🙂

    Reply
  17. Chitz

    September 1, 2013 at 10:30 am

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

    Reply
  18. jeyashri suresh

    September 1, 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 1, 2013 at 11:19 am

    தலை வாழை இலை சாப்பாட்டில் தமிழ் மணம் வீசுகிறது
    மிக்க நன்றி

    Reply
  20. Veena Theagarajan

    September 1, 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 1, 2013 at 5:33 pm

    LOVELY ARRAY OF BEAUTIFUL DISHES…VERY VERY COMFORTING 🙂

    Reply
  22. Gayathri Ramanan

    September 2, 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 4, 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

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

About Me

Hi,
I am Rajeswari Vijayanand, cook, author, photographer behind Raks Kitchen.

Instagram

Read More…

Latest posts

  • Avocado crema, avocado dip/ spread
  • Veppam poo thuvaiyal, neem flower recipes
  • Dangar chutney, Dangar side dish for idli dosa
  • Bajra khichdi recipe, pearl millet khichdi
  • No bake oats energy balls, oats peanut butter energy bites

Browse older posts

logo

Browse by category

BY INGREDIENT

  • PANEER RECIPES
  • CARROT RECIPES
  • BEETROOT RECIPES
  • MILLET RECIPES

Top Posts & Pages

  • Dangar chutney, Dangar side dish for idli dosa
  • Eggless doughnut recipe, Basic donut, soft & light
  • Ragi adai with drumstick leaves
  • Recipe index
  • Adai recipe, How to make adai
  • Easy rasam recipe, How to make rasam
  • Indian lunch menu ideas
  • Appam recipe without yeast, How to make appam
  • Medhu vadai, Ulundu vadai recipe - With video
  • Godhumai rava upma recipe, Wheat rava upma

TOP CATEGORIES

  • TIFFIN SAMBAR RECIPES
  • BIRYANI RECIPES
  • PULAO RECIPES
  • DOSA RECIPES

IDIYAPPAM RECIPES

  • Chilli garlic vegetable idiyappam
  • Schezwan style idiyappam recipe
  • Masala tomato idiyappam, winning recipe by Sanjana Yugan
  • Lemon idiyappam recipe
  • Kothu idiyappam recipe | Masala idiyappam
  • Idiyappam varieties | Lemon, Dal, sweet (Breakfast menu–18)
  • Sweet idiyappam recipe (With coconut and Jaggery)
  • Stuffed idiyappam – Breakfast menu 7
  • Milagu jeeraga idiyappam recipe | Breakfast recipes
  • Puli idiyappam recipe | Variety idiyappam recipes
  • Thengai sevai recipe | Coconut sevai
  • Tomato sevai | Thakkali sevai recipe

PIZZA RECIPES

  • Stovetop pizza recipe, Tawa pizza
  • Pizza sandwich recipe | Easy kids lunch box ideas
  • Pizza dosa recipe | Kids snack recipes
  • Veggie thin crust pizza recipe
  • Spicy veggie pizza recipe | Homemade pizza with Zucchini topping
  • Paneer tikka pizza recipe| Indian flavored pizza
  • Bread pizza Bread cup pizza recipe
  • Homemade pizza recipe, how to make pizza

Footer

Connect with Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

I am Raks anand, writer and photographer of this recipe website. My real name is Rajeswari Vijayanand. It has been almost 10+ years of blogging and I thought if you want to know more about me, I should introduce myself to you all… I am also like most of the house wives, who learnt cooking only after marriage... Read More

Copyright © 2007 - 2019 Raks Kitchen, All rights reserved.
Privacy & Cookies