Traditional South Indian New Year Recipe -Ugadi Pachadi
What is Ugadi?
Before knowing about UgAdi Pachadi, you need to know what Ugadi is and the importance of ugadi pachadi, a dish associated with it.
Just like we celebrate the New Year's Day on January 1st of each year, the Indians have their own days of celebrating this event according to their local traditional calendars and customs. So, the Telugu people of Andhra Pradesh celebrate their new year day as 'Ugadi' which falls on the first day of the Telugu Calendar Year that starts on Chaitra suddha padyami (first day of Chaitra masa or month) which generally falls in the second fortnight of March or during first week of April each year. The people of Maharashtra celebrate this day as "Gudi Padwa" and Karnataka people as "Yugadi". So all the three states celebrate their New Year on this day.
On this day, people get up early in the morning and take oil bath and wear new clothes. Then they keep ready the Ugadi pachadi and sit for puja. They worship their God with great devotion. They decorate the house and the puja room with garlands and mango leaves. They offer flowers during worship and after worship is over, this ugadi pachadi is offered to the God and seek his blessings for happiness in their life and for prosperity to their children. They may offer other sweets and puddings also as offerings along with ugadi pachadi. Then, after worship is complete, they eat the ugadi pachadi first before eating anything. The whole day will be spent happily with their children, in-laws, and friends in a festive mood. They may go to temples also during daytime or evening hours to listen to the panchanga shravanam (the priest in temple recites the astrological calendar of Hindus known as panchanga). Panchangam contains five attributes of tithi (day), vaara (weekday), Nakshatra (star), yoga (place of Rashi and grahas) and karana (happenings and causes). It predicts the happenings of the entire year based on people's fate and also based on the positioning of the planets.
Enjoy New Year with Tasty Ugadi Pachadi
"Ugadi Pachadi"- A Tasty Salad-Like Recipe
As already mentioned above, "UgAdi Pachadi" is a kind of salad recipe resembling a salad with a mixture of all the six tastes of food representing the six moods of life. It is a mixture of tamarind juice, ripe bananas, mango, salt, green pepper chilies, neem flowers, jaggery or brown sugar. A very tasty and healthy food for your body and mind on some special day. It can be served in small bowls, cups or tiny plates and can be eaten with spoons conveniently. As it is generally prepared on Ugadi (New Year) festival day only, it is known as "ugadi pachadi".
Images of Neem and Mango Used in Ugadi Pachadi
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Importance of Ugadi Pachadi
This ' Ugadi pachadi ' is a must dish on each Telugu New Year's Day. It is a mixture of all the most important six tastes of our life and rich in taste. It is very healthy recipe also. Each item mixed in it represents a certain mood of the human being indicating that life is full of different tastes and varying moods. If you are able to bear all these tastes in a pleasant mood, then it implies that you can bear any type of problem with a cool mind. This dish is first offered to God in the morning during puja time. It is a customary and traditional belief that before eating anything else, you must first eat this recipe and then only consume anything else on this day. By doing so your life will be well balanced in all your moods and you will be able to face all circumstances and any kind of problems with equal confidence and willpower.
Ingredients Required for Ugadi Pachadi Salad-Like Recipe
- 50 grams tamarind, for extracting juice
- 100 grams jaggery, known as dark, coarse brown sugar
- 2 no. ripe bananas, large sized
- 3 to 4 twigs neem flowers, only flowers to be plucked and separated from the twigs for mixing in recipe
- medium size 1 no. raw mango
- half teaspoon salt
- long type 1 no. green chili
Ingredients for Ugadi Pachadi
Different Tastes of Ugadi Pachadi and Corresponding Moods
Item
| Taste
| Mood
|
|---|---|---|
Jaggery & Banana
| sweet
| happiness
|
neem flowers
| bitter
| sadness
|
mango
| tangness
| surprise
|
green chillies
| hotness
| anger
|
salt
| saltiness
| fear
|
tamarind
| sourness
| disgust mood
|
Benefits of Ugadi Pachadi
This special recipe is very good for health as it contains neem flowers which act as antivirus and protect your body from infections. Tamarind is also good for constipation and gas problems.
Instructions for Preparing Ugadi Pachadi
- First of all, you must soak the tamarind for preparing the juice in a bowl with a cup of water.
- Cut the mango into small tiny pieces after removing the green skin.
- Remove the leaves of banana and cut into thin round pieces.
- Pluck the flowers avoiding the buds (which may be too bitter to swallow) from the twigs of neem.
- Shave the jaggery into very thin sheets so that it can mix in the tamarind juice easily.
- Cut the green chilli also into tiny pieces.
- Now, make juice out of the soaked tamarind by mixing it in the water with your fingers. Remove the waste from the juice by filtering it with your hands or using a filter as above.
- Add the shaved jaggery and salt into the tamarind juice and mix perfectly with a big spoon or hand so that the jaggery mixes in it completely.
- Now add the pieces of bananas and mango and the flowers and buds of neem in it and mix all the items with a spoon.
- Your Ugadi Pachadi is ready now as shown in the below images.
Ugadi Pachadi Preparation Images
Please Rate my Ugadi Pachadi Preparation Skill
Ugadi Pachadi Preparation With Its Importance Video
Some Points Clarified About Ugadi Pachadi Video
In the above video, they have included excessive water and made it very dilute. It should not be diluted like that to retain its traditional taste. The recipe should be like a thick soup so that it can be eaten by spoon till the last drop of it. Further, they have included coconut which is perhaps the tradition of Keralites. Add fruits like banana, orange, grapes, etc to make it more appealing.
Enjoy Ugadi Pachadi and New Year's Day
Now you can offer this freshly prepared special dish of ugadi pachadi to God (it depends on your beliefs) and after puja is over, serve it to all in small bowls, cups or tiny deep plates along with a spoon to eat and enjoy eating this special variety recipe with your family members and friends. You will enjoy and appreciate the taste of it definitely. If you don't like mango pieces interfering with your teeth in chewing, it will best for you to shred or scrape the mango using scraping tools. Then the recipe will be more smooth and perfect for your mouth.
Comments
AUTHORGlad to know that you tasted it at your friend's home. It is a kind of some peculiar dish not to be found at other places except in our states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. But, I am sure all people will enjoy it once they taste it.
Thanks for the nice comment.
Nice recipe and well presented!
I have eaten it at one of my friends place but didn't know how to prepare it.
Thanks for the detailed instructions and pictures. I would definitely prepare it now.
Thanks for sharing!
- AUTHOR
No. I never told that. I have only mentioned that it is a must for most of us on that special Ugadi Day, whoever may believe in our traditions and faiths. We can prepare it on any day that we may like to have it. It is so healthy and tasty with all tastes of life.
This has to be consumed yearly once on ugadi day?
- AUTHOR
Hi, don't be afraid. It won't cause anything like that. Be sure of it. I guarantee you. Simply you will get change of tastes. And I hope you will definitely like some of them more than yours.
I wonder how hard it would be for a person like me, from a western culture, to become acclimated to your food? Would I have any digestive problems at first? I suspect I would. Anyway, thank you for another cultural lesson.
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