Onam is just a few days away. If you have been a regular follower of my blog, you may have seen my Onam Sadya recipes. Onam is the harvest festival of Kerala (a coastal state in southern India)and part of the celebration is having a vegetarian feast called as Sadya. The key features of this Sadya include making several vegetarian dishes, inviting family and friends and serving it on a banana leaf! I also wrote a blog post a couple years ago giving tips for planning a sadya in America! This post also summarizes all the various sadya dishes I have posted on my blog. You can browse more Sadya recipes by looking at the Sadya recipes category.
Many of the recipes in my latest cookbook AIP Indian Fusion are also inspired by these traditional Kerala recipes! Creating fusion dishes inspired by Indian cuisine has become second nature to me now living in America for more than two decades! So you can imagine how excited I became when a few days ago, the Kerala Association of Connecticut, reached out to me asking if I could create an innovative Onam sadya recipe which would be a modification of a traditional recipe! They wanted to post innovative Onam recipes on their facebook page. “Yes, I am in” I said! Then I started thinking about different possibilities looking up different traditional dishes and wondering if they would lend to any modifications. Then one morning I woke up thinking about this Honeydew Melon Pachadi! Yes I dream about food and recipes 🙂
Well it was no surprise that this recipe came to me since I had created something similar for Autoimmune Wellnesswhere I am a recipe contributor. I had created a honeydew melon avocado soup recently which was absolutely delicious! And so I wanted to make something similar in pachadi form. Pachadi is a dish that is usually ‘no cook’ where some vegetables are either lightly cooked and mixed with a coconut yogurt mixture. In this recipe, I kept it completely dairy free and omitted the yogurt and instead added lemon juice to give it a tang. The avocado gives it the same creaminess and instead of blending up the melon and cucumber, I left them as small chunks to make it look like a traditional pachadi!
Some notes and tips:
- Because of avocado, this pachadi can change color slightly if kept out for a long time. Hence it is recommended that you make this just prior to serving!
- And you can absolutely make an AIP version – just omit the green chili!
My family loved it and gave it a 2 thumbs up! And I am surely going to make this for our sadya this weekend! I hope you can try it too! Do let me know in the comments if you do!
Here’s the video I created for the KACT facebook group. https://youtu.be/CqiU5ye-l3E
- ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves chopped
- ½ of a ripe avocado, chopped up
- 1 green chilli (omit for AIP)
- 1 garlic clove
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (or lime juice)
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (optional)
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup coconut milk (can add a bit more to adjust consistency)
- 2 cups honeydew melon, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 cup cucumber, peeled and finely chopped
- In a blender or food processor, add all the 'for blending' ingredients except coconut milk and blend till you get a fine consistency. Then add the coconut milk and blend again. Keep aside.
- To make the pachadi, add the honey dew melon and the cucumber into a serving bowl. Pour the blended mixture into the bowl and mix well. Serve immediately or within two hours.
