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Onam sadya is one of the best meals one can have, but what does one do of the leftover Onam food? Here’s help.
Onam. The very word conjures up images of festivities – flowers, pookalam, women and men in the traditional clothes of Kerala, dances, and most of all, the Onam sadya.
If you or others in your family are the kind of cook that is able to make ‘just enough’ of everything, good for you! But if you’re anything like me, you’ll end up with plenty of leftover Onam food, especially as my estimates go for a toss if I have to make more than the standard 3-4 dishes. And the Onam sadya has a whopping 26 items served on banana leaves.
Slurp! The very thought of it is making my mouth water. And I do plan to try my hand at it. But what do I do about the leftover Onam food that I can already see crowding my refrigerator?
A friend, who’s a Malayali has suggested these 5 ways to reuse leftover Onam food. I’m certainly going to use these tips – I can already see that my dinners for the next few days is set, with some creative adaptation of these ideas.
Leftover sambar? Some Avial? Any kootu or poriyal? Sunda curry is your answer.
My friend makes Sunda curry by mixing leftover sambar with Avial – and your new dish is ready the next day, to eat with some of the leftover rice, steamed again to make it fresh.
Recipe here.
Uperi can be any vegetable lightly sauteed in oil with mustard seeds and curry leaves. This is quite healthy and can be mixed with other vegetables to make a quick salad with an Indian twist. The same can be done with Thoran, which is a similar vegetable dish. Add a soup to the menu or rice with rasam (maybe use the leftover rasam?), and you have a full meal ready!
While you can, of course, use the rice with a fresh sambar or rasam, or with another curry, or the many podis easily available in the market, here are 3 recipes that my friend prefers.
Left over rice vadas
Quick fritters made with the rice from the leftover Onam food, mixed with a few vegetables and spices, dipped in a batter and deep fried, make for a yum afternoon snack, or a side dish in a meal.
Chitrana rice
A kind of lemon rice, with the sharp, piquant taste of lemon and the spice from a good seasoning and chillies, this is a great use of leftover rice that can be eaten at breakfast the next day, or taken to office in a box, with a side of salad.
Pulinji or tamarind rice
Puli is tamarind, and inji is ginger. One can only imagine the mouthwatering flavour of these ingredients taken together, and cooked with jaggery, chilli powder, and other spices including the seasoning. This pulinji sauce can be made in a larger quantity and kept in a tightly closed glass bottle for 1-2 months, and mixed with rice whenever required.
Do let us know if you have any other ideas to reuse the leftover Onam food.
Image source: Rameshng [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
In her role as the Senior Editor & Community Manager at Women's Web, Sandhya
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