Vishu 2025: Traditional Malayali Recipes To Celebrate Kerala’s Harvest Festival
Vishu Recipes: Vishu 2025, the Malayali New Year, is on April 14. Traditional dishes like Vishu Kanji, Vishu Katta, Thoran, and Alleppey Fish Curry are prepared for the Sadhya feast.
Vishu Recipes: Vishu marks the beginning of the Malayali New Year. This vibrant Hindu celebration is widely observed in Kerala, Tulu Nadu, and Mahe in India. Traditionally, it falls on the first day of Medam, the solar month in the Malayali calendar followed predominantly in the Malabar region of Kerala.
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As a festival that signifies the solar new year, Vishu is celebrated with a range of meaningful rituals. People dress in new and fresh attire (Kodi), prepare a lavish spread of traditional dishes for the grand feast known as Sadhya, and offer prayers to the divine, seeking blessings for a prosperous harvest season ahead. This year, the festival of Vishu will be celebrated on April 14.
One of the most cherished traditions of the day is the arrangement of Vishukkani. It includes symbolic items such as coins or silver ornaments, new clothes (pattu), a mirror, rice, coconut, cucumber, fruits, and other harvest produce, all artistically arranged to invoke prosperity and positivity for the year to come.
ALSO READ: Vishu 2025: Date, Time, Rituals, History, Significance And Celebration Of Malayalam New Year
But are you wondering about which traditional Malayali dishes to cook in Vishu this year? Check out the list below
Vishu 2025: Traditional Malayali Recipes
Vishu Kanji
The Sadhya (feast) is a major part of all Kerala festivals, and Vishu Kanji is one of the most delectable items savoured on that day. The sweet Kanji is prepared with rice, coconut milk, and spices.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup raw rice
- 2 cups coconut milk
- 1/2 cup unakkalari rice
- 1/4 cup mochai
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut for garnishing
- 3 cups water and salt to taste.
Step-by-step guide to prepare Vishu Kanji
- At first, the mochai (hyacinth beans) should be roasted till golden, and soaked in hot water for an hour.
- Then, it should be cooked in pressure cook for 3-4 whistles until soft and set aside.
- Afterwards, grind the raw rice coarsely, and mash it together with a ladle.
- Then add coconut milk and cook for 2 minutes, followed by cooked mochai is added and cooked for 2 minutes until the consistency gets thick later.
- Finally, garnish with grated coconut and served hot.
The wholesome meal can also be savoured after adding spicy gravy, pickle, or chutney to add richness to the flavour.
Vishu Katta
It is another delicacy hugely loved during Vishy Sadhya. It is prepared from freshly harvested rice powder and coconut milk and served with jaggery for an additional flavour.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unakkalari rice
- 1 and 1/2 cups first coconut milk
- 1/2 cup second coconut milk
- 1/4 teaspoon jeera
- 1 teaspoon ghee
- 1/2 cup jaggery
- 1/4 cup water and salt to taste.
Step-by-step guide to prepare Vishu Katta
- First, the jaggery should be soaked in warm water to make it soft for crushing it well.
- Then, a thick paste of the same is made out of it.
- On the other hand, you should grate coconut and extract a bit of coconut milk from it.
- Then, heat the coconut milk in a pan, and add properly washed and rinsed rice into it.
- Let the rice cook until it becomes soft, then gradually add salt as per taste, followed by the coconut milk.
- Meanwhile, grease a pan with ghee and spread the rice mixture on the pan.
- Let it cool for some time, then cut into your desired shapes, and serve them with jaggery syrup.
Thoran
It is a side dish, mainly made up of cabbage. However, the same dish can also be prepared from beet, carrot and many other vegetables.
Ingredients
- Finely chopped 1 and 1/2 cups of cabbage
- 7 small onion sliced
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder and salt to taste
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil, 3/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- Curry leaves and 2 red chillies.
Step-by-step guide to prepare Thoran
- First mix the shredded cabbage and onion slices with the turmeric powder and set aside the bowl.
- Afterwards, heat 2 teaspoon coconut oil in a pan and the spices mentioned for tempering to splutter.
- In the same pan, then add the cabbage and onion mixture, and saute for 5-7 minutes until cooked.
- Then add salt to taste and 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder, and cook until ready.
That’s it, the dish is ready to serve.
Mambazha Pulissery
This Malayali dish is generally a ripe mango soup for offering sour flavours on the day.
Ingredients
- For making Mango Pulissery, take an ample amount of ripe mangoes alongside freshly prepared coconut paste (made by grinding fresh coconut with green chillies and cumin seeds)
- Curd which should be thick and not sour
- Coconut oil
- For tempering, you need mustard seeds, urad dal, fenugreek seeds, chopped shallot, dry red chillies, and a few curry leaves.
Steps To Prepare Mambazha Pulissery
- First, boil the peeled ripe mangoes alongside water in a pot, turmeric powder, salt and sugar.
- When cooked, lower the flame, add the coconut paste to the mango gravy and mix gently.
- Then gradually add curd into the curry, and blend it to get a smooth texture.
- Afterwards, let it cool for 5 minutes and temper it with the spices.
That’s it, you can now serve the mango pulissery with hot rice.
Alleppey Fish Curry
If you want to savour some non-veg items on Vishu, you can check out the spicy Kerala-style fish curry. This not only explores the spicy flavours but also has a slightly tangy taste due to the use of raw mangoes or tamarind.
Ingredients
- Coconut oil
- Raw mangoes
- Any kind of fish, green chillies, curry leaves, onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, turmeric powder and Kashmiri red chilli powder.
- For tempering, you need brown mustard seeds, salt, and coconut milk.
Steps To Prepare Alleppey Fish Curry
- At first, you need to heat 5 tablespoons of coconut oil in a pan over medium-high heat.
- Then add 1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds, 3-4 green chillies (chopped into half), and a few curry leaves and let them cook for a few seconds.
- Following this, add 1 and ½ cups of finely chopped onions, ginger, and garlic to it.
- Let them cook till onions turn brown, and then add 1 cup of finely chopped tomatoes and cook for a minute.
- Finally, add raw mangoes with 1 tablespoon of tamarind paste, followed by other spices to the pan.
- Let the curry get prepared and add 1 pound (500 g) fish slices, 1 cup water, and 1 cup coconut milk to it.
- Cook for 5-6 minutes and that’s it.
Serve the dish with rice or appam.
The combination of all kinds of flavours, including sweet, salty, sour, bitter and astringent, is savoured on the Malayali New Year’s Day, symbolising that a person will be going through all sorts of experiences in the coming new year.
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