Traditional South Indian New Year recipe known as Ugadi Pachadi

Before knowing about Ugadi Pachadi, you need to know what is Ugadi and the importance of ugadi pachadi.

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 devotion after decorating the house and the puja room with garlands and mango leaves. They offer flowers during worship and after worship is over, offer the ugadi pachadi 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 positioning of planets.

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 chillies, 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 days only, it is known as "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 with 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.

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.

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.

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.