Ugadi Pachadi Recipe (Traditional Festive Drink)

Firstly, Ugadi (also referred to as Yugadi) is the New Year for the people in South Indian states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In Maharashtra, the same New Year’s Day has an alias Gudi Padwa. Usually, both these festivals fall in the ‘Chaitra’ month of the Hindu calendar, which is late March or early April. Ugadi Pachadi, a kind of a beverage, is one of the traditional dishes made during the same time. I have shared an easy recipe here for you to try it at home.

About Ugadi Pachadi

Ugadi Pachadi is a festive beverage which is basically a concoction of six varied tastes, corresponding to the six different emotions that human beings possess. This is what the underlining significance of the festival of Ugadi or Gudi Padwa also is based on.

Other cultures also celebrate this day under different sobriquets like Cheti Chand for Sindhis, Sajibu Nongma Panba for Manipuris and Nyepi for the Hindu community of Bali, Indonesia.

Though, the Ugadi Pachadi is more typical of this festival in South India, others have their own traditional foods to celebrate this day with.

Traditionally, the Ugadi Pachadi is the first dish offered to deities on this special festival, after which it is consumed as a prasad by devotees in order to seek blessings from them.

Apart from the health benefits of this festive drink, Ugadi Pachadi also signifies that one has to accept life with all its facets. That, it is not just sweet or a bed of roses, but sour and with obstacles too.

The Six Ingredients

As I mentioned, since the Ugadi Pachadi is all about the six tastes in it, it has to have six distinct ingredients which bring in these varied tastes and flavors in this specialty dish.

The mélange of these taste profiles results in a unique beverage-like preparation, which is delicious, refreshing as well as wholesome and like a elixir.

The six ingredients with different flavors that are added in the Ugadi Pachadi, further linked to the six human emotions are:  

1. Tamarind – sour taste – unpleasantness
2. Jaggery – sweet taste – joy or happiness
3. Unripe or raw mango – tangy, astringent taste – surprise
4. Neem flowers – bitter taste – sadness
5. Black pepper – spicy, hot taste – anger
6. Salt – salty taste – fear

How Is It Made

It is not really difficult to prepare the Ugadi Pachadi. You just have to assemble the ingredients and follow the recipe to make the perfect beverage for your festivities.

Some ingredients like the neem flowers may be tough to source, but do not worry about that. I have shared more on the substitutes after this section.

For the making of Ugadi Pachadi, you first have to make the tamarind pulp by soaking tamarind in water for some minutes. To the tamarind pulp, the rest of the ingredients are added and mixed.

There are no set proportions in this Ugadi Pachadi recipe and you can always add the 6 ingredients less or more, as per your choice.

This recipe gives you a balanced preparation with all the 6 tastes coming through. Generally, new tamarind and new jaggery is used.

In this post, I have shared a very easy, simple and quick way of making the Ugadi Pachadi. It is completely vegan and gluten-free too.

Substitutes

Sweltering summers in India is the season of blooming of neem flowers and also of mangoes. So, in India during this time, it is easy to get both neem flowers and mangoes that are essential ingredients of this Ugadi Pachadi.

However, if you live outside India, then use bitter ingredients like soaked fenugreek seeds (methi seeds) or dried fenugreek powder (methi powder) instead of neem flowers.

Since this spice is also used to bring in the bitter flavor in food, it is a good alternative to the neem in this recipe.

In place of black pepper powder, you can also add red chili powder or green chilies. I always use black pepper in the naivedyam food that I offer to the deities. So, I have added black pepper powder in the recipe of Ugadi Pachadi too.

Moreover, I think chillies are not native to India. So, the development of any sort of ancient food must have been spiced with black pepper and not chilies. But do choose to add any of these spices, according to the customs and rules followed by your family.

How to make Ugadi Pachadi

1. Soak 1 teaspoon tamarind in ¼ cup water for about 40 minutes to 1 hour.

Then, with clean fingers press and extract the tamarind pulp from the soaked tamarind in the soaking water.

You could also use a tea strainer or a small strainer and using a spoon, press and extract the pulp.

Set aside. Discard the seeds and the stringy fibers. In a bowl, add this tamarind pulp.

2. Next, add ⅓ cup water.

3. Add ¼ cup chopped jaggery.

4. Mix very well with a spoon, so that the jaggery dissolves.

5. Add the finely chopped raw mangoes. You could also add bananas, roasted chana dal, chopped nuts and coconut.

6. Add the neem flowers. If you do not have neem flowers, then you can add some soaked fenugreek seeds or fenugreek powder.

7. Add ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder. You could also add green chilies or red chili powder, instead of black pepper powder.

8. Season with ¼ teaspoon salt or as required. Mix very well.

9. Offer Ugadi Pachadi as naivedyam to your deities. Then, serve it to your family.

Helpful Tips

1. You can reduce or increase the quantity of any of the six ugadi pachadi ingredients, as per your choice and preferences.
2. Bananas, roasted chana dal, dry fruits, nuts and coconut can also be included in this recipe.
3. You can leave the skin on the green mango if it is soft, but if it is tough and chewy, then remove it.
4. If you do not have neem flowers, then add soaked fenugreek seeds or ground fenugreek powder.
5. In place of black pepper powder, you can also add finely chopped green chillies or red chili powder.
6. The Ugadi Pachadi recipe can be doubled or tripled according to your needs.

Ugadi Pachadi recipe from the archives was first published on March 2017.