Making Onam Sadya Recipes was my long time dream and I am happy that I could make it atleast this year.Each year I would stare at all the onam sadya pictures posted in FB,blogs but each year I could post only individual onam sadya recipes.This year I was so determined to make the full sadya lunch menu.....I slowly gained confidence after my friend Keerthi motivated me.When I said that I am planning to make the onam sadya this year, she called me and gave me tips which was very useful.

I never ever thought I could manage to cook such a wide spread of Kerala Cuisine all alone.Thanks to blogging which gives me confidence and shows the better side of me in cooking.Now guess who enjoyed this?! Its hubby who enjoyed each and every dish and said make it a habit for making such a spread for every Onam....grrrr. I am not a meals person so just had rice with my most favorites alone and gulped all the payasams :)

I have shared my experience to prepare Onam Sadya here , hope you find it useful :

First make a choice of dishes you are planning for Onam Sadya, then make a tobuy list don't forget to include everything including cashews, raisins and banana leaf.

I didn't want to take any shortcuts so made everything from scratch, only the ada I got readymade *sighhh*.

It took me 3 days in total including planning for the menu, buying groceries,vegetables and cooking the sadya.Though this is not the authentic way , I am giving tips which made my job easier.If you have some help and experience then you can cook the sadya on that day itself :)

• Day 1 - Planning the menu, Shopping for groceries and vegetables required.
• Day 2 - I made upperi,nendran banana chips, pickle and inji puli in the morning.Soaked the pulses early morning.Later evening grated coconut, boiled and kept the vegetables ready.As you can see I boiled the vegetables, cooled it completely then stored in dabbas and named them so that I don't forget the combinations.Except for ashgourd and pumpkin, I cooked all the vegetables including pulses.
• Day 3 - Cooked the sadya menu and clicked :)

Day 3 -

• First take bath, chose to have a simple but filling breakfast which will keep you energised till you finish cooking the sadya.
• The first thing I did was to grind coconut green chillies and cumin together in bulk as most dishes had the same base.
• I started with Parippu Curry,Sambar,Rasam and Moru Curry.Then came to the veggie sidedishes, as most of my veggies were cooked my work got easier.
• While the veggies were cooking, I kept the rice as my friend warned me as matta rice takes longer to cook.By now you would have got an hold and everything will fall in place.Initially it will look like its picking up slow but when you come to the veggies part, it will get over soon.
• Finally came to the payasam part.At the time of serving fried the papads.

And it took me around 30mins to serve the sadya in the banana leaf, cross check whether I have missed out anything then start with the photoshoot :)

I just cooked for 2 which was sufficient for 4 of us to have a complete lunch and also had little leftover which I kept for the next day too.Remember the spread is wide, so plan for a smaller quantity while cooking.