Onam 2025 dishes: Top 3 delicious recipes you can try for Onam feast, golden payasam tartlets to moru curry

Onam 2025: Celebrate the festival wholeheartedly by including interesting recipes in your Onam Sadya. Check them out here.

Onam is celebrated with great pomp and fervour in Kerala. Family and friends gather together to celebrate this festival and indulge in feasts. If you, too, are holding a feast, then channel your inner chef to make some recipes that add a unique twist while also keeping the authenticity intact for your Onam feasts.

This Onam, make delicious recipes to share with friends and family.(Freepik)

HT Lifestyle has curated three recipes that would make a great addition to your Onam Sadya menu. Here are the delicacies:

1. Golden payasam tartlets

Recipe by: Chef Vikas Swadesh Seth, BLVD Club by Embassy

Golden payasam tartlet is a gourmet twist to your regular payasam.(PC: BLVD Club by Embassy)

Ingredients

For Tart Shells

• Refined flour- 150 g
• Butter (cold, cubed) – 75 g
• Powdered sugar – 75 g
• Cold milk – 15 ml
• Pinch of salt

For Moong Dal Payasam Filling

• Split yellow moong dal – 100 g
• Jaggery – 200 g (melted in ½ cup water & strained)
• Thin coconut milk – 400 ml
• Thick coconut milk – 200 ml
• Ghee – 2 tbsp
• Cashew nuts – 15–20
• Raisins – 15–20
• Grated coconut – 2 tbsp (desiccated, lightly roasted)
• Cardamom powder – ½ tsp

For Caramelised Banana Topping

• Banana – 2 large, sliced
• Jaggery – 3 tbsp
• Ghee – 1 tbsp

For Finishing and garnishing

• Whipped cream – 300 g
• Crushed roasted cashew nuts – 2 tbsp
• Berry Dust – 2tbsp(optional)
• Berry Tuile (optional)
• Micro greens (optional)

Method

Make the tart shells (25 minutes)

• Rub butter into flour, sugar, and salt until crumbly.
• Add cold milk just until the dough binds.
• Wrap and chill for 20 minutes.
• Roll out, cut circles, line tart molds, prick with fork. (mini tartlet mold used size - 4.5cm diameter and 1.5cm height)
• Bake blind at 180°C for 12–15 minutes until golden. Cool completely.

Prepare the moong dal payasam (30 minutes)

• Dry roast moong dal on low flame till fragrant & lightly golden (4–5 mins).
• Simmer in a pot with 1 ½ cups of water until soft and mushy (15 minutes).
• Mash lightly and add thin coconut milk, cook 5 minutes.
• Add melted jaggery syrup, simmer 10 minutes until slightly thick.
• Stir in thick coconut milk, cook on low for 2 minutes.
• Heat ghee, fry cashews, raisins, and grated coconut till golden, stir into payasam.
• Finish with cardamom powder. Cool until spoonable.

3. Prepare caramelised banana (5 minutes)

• Heat ghee in a pan, add banana slices.
• Sprinkle jaggery.
• Cook 2–3 minutes until golden, caramelised, and glossy.

Assemble tartlets (10 minutes)

• Spoon moong dal payasam into tart shells just before serving. Top it up with caramelised banana slices.
• Finish with whipped cream quenelle, crushed roasted cashew nuts.
• Garnish with an option of berry dust, berry tuile and micro green
• Serve at room temperature.

2. Moru Curry

Recipe by: Shilpa Kumar, In-house Chef, Akshayakalpa Organic

Moru curry is a refreshing dish with coconut.(PC: Akshayakalpa Organic)

Ingredients

• Set curd- 500gms
• Baby potatoes-200gms
• Fresh ginger-1/2 inch, garlic-4-5 cloves
• Curry leaves, coriander leaves- for seasoning.
• Moringa leaves- few leaves( optional)
• Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
• Cumin seeds-1/2 tsp
• Ajwain-1/4 tsp
• Fresh coconut, grated-2 tbsp, 1 tbsp finely chopped coconut pieces
• Fried gram dal-2tbsp, 1tsp fenugreek seeds( roasted)
• Coconut oil 1tbsp, 1 tsp turmeric powder
• Green chillies -2 or 3, salt as per taste

Method

• Boil the whole potatoes with a little salt
• Grind: fried gram, garlic, ginger, chillies, cumin, grated coconut, 2 strands of coriander leaves with stem, and curry leaves, only 2-3, fenugreek seeds and turmeric powder to a fine paste.
• In a clay pot, heat the coconut oil, fry the coconut pieces and keep aside. In the same tawa and oil, sputter mustard seeds, cumin, ajwain, curry leaves, moringa leaves, and fry the ground paste for a minute, stirring constantly. Add the whole boiled baby potatoes and cook for 2 minutes.
• Remove from the fire and cool.
• Whisk the curd to a smooth consistency and mix with the cooled masala and garnish with coconut pieces and fresh chopped coriander leaves, and serve.

3.Hot sambar

Hot sambar is a flavourful dish to enjoy.(PC: Pinterest)

Recipe: Chef Vishnu V Nair, Manager – Speciality Chef, Eastern Bu

Ingredients

• Pigeon dal (sambar dal) - 100 gm
• Curry cucumber -100 gm
• Snake gourd-100 gm
• Brinjal-100 gm
• Pumpkin-100 gm
• Potatoes-50 gm
• Drumstick-40 gm
• Shallots (madras onion) -80 gm
• Turmeric-15 gm
• Salt -As required
• Tamarind-30 gm
• Coconut oil-100 gm
• Mustard seeds-15 gm
• Whole red chillies-4 nos
• Curry leaves -two sprigs
• Ladysfinger -4 nos (diced)
• Tomatoes -50 gm (diced)
• Corriander powder -40 gm
• Asafoetida powder -5 gm
• Fenugreek powder-5 gm
• Cumin powder-5 gm
• Corriander leaves -20 gm

Method

• Cook the dal. Wash toor dal well. Pressure cook with 2 cups of water, turmeric, and a drop of oil until soft and mushy. Mash well.
• Cook the vegetables in a pot, add vegetables first (like drumsticks, potatoes, shallots). Add turmeric, a little salt, and just enough water to cook. Add softer veggies (brinjal, pumpkin, cucumber) later so they don’t turn mushy.
• Mix the dal with tamarind. Once veggies are almost cooked, add the tamarind extract. Boil for 5–7 minutes till the raw smell goes away. Add the cooked, mashed dal. Mix well.
• Spice it up. In a pan, heat oil, add coriander powder, asafoetida, fenugreek powder, cumin powder, and curry leaves. Add this to the boiling sambar.
• Sauté lady's fingers and tomatoes in coconut oil and mix in.
• Add water if needed to get proper consistency (not too thick, not watery). Let it boil gently for 8–10 minutes so flavours combine.
• Heat the coconut oil in a pan. Splutter mustard seeds, then add dry red chillies and curry leaves.
• Pour this hot seasoning over the sambar. Mix well. Rest and serve. Let the sambar rest for at least 30 minutes before serving for the flavours to deepen (in Sadya, it’s usually made earlier and served later).