About

Hi,

Welcome to Megala’s Kitchen!

About me & my recipes:

I am a homemaker living in Chennai, South India. The recipes posted in here are largely influenced by my parents, relatives and friends. My parents & parents-in-law are natives of Tirunelveli, and we are all vegetarians.  So one could find authentic traditional vegetarian recipes popular in Tirunelveli and other surrounding districts of Tamilnadu in my blog.

Tirunelveli recipes (vegetarian):

Although I enjoy trying my hand at various vegetarian recipes popular in other cuisines across the world, I derive immense satisfaction while preparing the traditional dishes served to us by my mother, aunts & grandmothers. So the idea behind building this site is to keep an archive of our family recipes like Tirunelveli recipes, Tamilnadu recipes, and all other our favorite recipes not only for my reference but also for the younger generations. Hence the recipes I posted here are surely the ones that I would love to serve to my family.

We prepare a number of unique traditional dishes, some bring back our childhood days alive, some are still popular in Tirunelveli district, and some are our family’s favorite recipes even today.

Festival recipes:

We, Hindus, celebrate numerous festivals all through the year. We offer prayers to the Mother Nature, Hindu Gods & Goddesses, and also to the departed family members. We prepare specialty sweets & savories and offer them as naivedyam during the religious festivals.

You can also check out our festival recipes, and some of the important festivals are:

We also follow a unique custom of remembering the departed souls on every new moon day (amavasyai), and also on the last date of the month Aadi. We prepare a unique dish, kummiyanam, a black dessert, in this month as an offering to them.

Healthy recipes:

I believe that the health of a family lies in its kitchen. I feel it is imperative for all the mothers (or home cooks) to have the clear idea of what we cook, how we cook, and why we take a particular dish. I have been learning to identify the nutritious ingredients & healthy cooking practices during my culinary journey. So I have included the details of nutrition & health benefits of main ingredients along with my recipes. I refer to the sites of IFCT (Indian Food Composition Database) & USDA (US Dept. of Agriculture) for the nutrition data of the ingredients.

You can click on the links to check out the healthy recipes categorized as below:

Traditional Tamilnadu recipes:

We prepare traditional foods using the native vegetables, fruits, lentils & legumes, traditional rice & millets, and spices grown in Tamilnadu, and serve as thalai vazhai virundhu (a feast served on a banana leaf).

Thalai Vaazhai Virundhu

Tamil cuisine boasts of numerous vegetarian recipes, and they are briefly categorised in this blog as below:

Fusion recipes:

I also like to prepare the continental dishes using local ingredients. For example, I bake cakes/breads using whole wheat flour, millet flour, cane jaggery, palm sugar, ghee, cardamom, native fruits, etc. You can find my fusion recipes in these categories:

All these recipes are illustrated with step-by-step photos that can be easily followed by everyone, yet I recommend to read the recipes for some useful tips. I prefer to quantify all the ingredients including salt, oil and water as they are the key ingredients attributing the taste and consistency of our food. However, you may adjust the quantities according to your preference.

Food Galleries:

People living in other states of India or other countries may not have an idea of what we prepare for our breakfast, lunch, evening tiffin, and dinner , so here is a gallery of our food platters.

Breakfast platters

Lunch platters

I thank my husband for his support & encouragement and my son, who pursues photography as a hobby, for teaching me photography.

img_7784 About

Also, I thank my mother, an avid-gardener, who produces her own organic vegetables & fruits and inspires me with her vast knowledge in cooking & gardening. I dedicate this whole space to my late father who kept encouraging us to take healthy foods by gifting us books on health & nutrition.

Hope you find my blog useful & engaging, you may subscribe to receive my upcoming posts by email and stay connected with Megala’s Kitchen for healthy traditional vegetarian recipes. My recipes are published only in this virtual space and I am not hosting any YouTube channel.

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Thanks for visiting my blog.

Megala

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