In my childhood, one of my wish is to visit Rayar mutt on all dwadashis and important thithi’s to have shaka vrata food during every chathurmasya. Trust me it is so delicious and unique!

I admire our ancient traditional system. When we look at the scientific reason behind this vrata, We are speechless. What a wonderful way of healthy living, our traditions has shown us!

During Dakshinayana punyakaala  the heat from the sun will be reduced when compared to Uttarayana punyakaala( the moon will have more power)    

As the power of Sun is getting reduced and Moon’s power is getting  increased, the heat some restrictions in our food.  This vratha is called as “Shaka vratha”. 

Shaka means vegetables.   The vegetables, tamarind, green chilies, pickles, fruits  would have high heat, and the way in which Vegetables are grown with high heat is not good for health.  As such, during this period vegetables are not allowed as per ayurveda too.  The energy which we require for functioning our body can be easily received through the permitted items in this shaka vrata

From Ashada Shudda Ekadashi to Shravana Shudda Dashami

Permitted Food items: 

Toor dal, Moong dal, Urad dal, Whole green moong, Sesame seeds, Black pepper, cumin seeds, Jaggery, Rava, wheat flour, Rice flour, Amchur powder, Milk, Yougurt(Curd), butter, Sugar, Mango fruit, Ghee .

Not Permitted:

All vegetables, all leaves(Curry leaves, coriander leaves, spinach), Mustard, Tamarind, Chana dal, Besan, Ginger, Green chillies, lemon, coconut, Red chillies. Oil, chilly powder, Turmeric powder

I have listed few of the recipes which would benefit our visitors.  When it comes to spice level, Green or red chillies are not allowed, replace it with pepper. when it comes to tempering, mustard seeds are not allowed , replace it with cumin seeds. And there is no Tamarind. You can use Amla powder or Amchur powder

Kosambari

• Soak Moong dal in water. Drain the water and add salt to the Dal.
• Temper with Cumin seeds(Jeera)

Palya

Toor dal palya:

• Soak required Toor dal in water.
• Grind it with Pepper and salt coarsely
• In a pan, Add some oil. Temper with Cumin seeds, Urad dal and Add the grinded mixture and saute till it becomes separate

Whole Green moong gram palya:

• soak green moong gram for 3 to 4 hours. Then Steam it in cooker
• add some salt and temper with Cumin seeds
• If you need some spicy flavor, add some pepper powder

Chithranna

• Temper Jeera and Urad dhal in Ghee and Add Some Urad dhal powder and salt as required with the cooked rice

Instead of Urad dhal powder, You can also add Til/Sesame seeds powder

Powder/Pudi varieties

Dal pudi:

• Dry roast 1 cup of toor dal
• slightly roast 1 tbl spoon pepper and add required salt
• Grind it nicely

Urad dhal pudi:

• Dry roast 1 cup of Urad dal
• slightly roast 1 tbl spoon pepper
• Grind it nicely

You can use this powder for preparing kootu, chithranna, palidya or as a side dish to Idli/Dosa

Sesame powder:

• Dry roast 1 cup of Urad dal separately
• Dry roast 1/2 cup of sesame seeds/til separately
• Dry roast 1 ladle of pepper separately
• Mix together and grind it

You can use this powder for preparing  chithranna, or as a side dish to Idli/Dosa

Fried items

ambode

• soak toor dal for 1 to 2 hours
• grind it with pepper and salt
• make the mixture into even round patties. Fry it in deep oil

Urad dhal vada:

• soak Urad dal for 1 to 2 hours
• grind it with pepper and salt
• mould mixture into even shaped round vadas by applying some oil in banana leaf/or on a ziplock cover . Fry it in deep oil

Dahi vada

• Add tempered jeera seeds and required salt to the thick curd.
• Now add the fried urad dhal vada listed above in this curd mixture

pepper vada:

• soak Urad dal for just 15 mins
• grind it with pepper and salt
• add hot oil to the grinded mixture and add little bit of baking soda(Optional – Just for getting crispy vadas)
• mould mixture into even shaped round vadas by applying some oil in banana leaf/or on a ziplock cover . Fry it in deep oil

Maida bonda:

• for 3 portions of Maida, Take one portion of rice flour.
• add pepper powder, salt
• Use thick sour curd to bind this mixture
• fry it in deep hot oil

Payasa

Milk kheer:

• Take required cups of Milk and start boiling it
• Add some ghee roasted and coarsely grinded rice to this boiling milk
• cook the rice in Milk itself
• Add sugar as per the taste level

approximately for 1 cup of rice, minimum 4 to 5 cups of milk is required and same or double the amount of sugar to rice is recommended

appala karada payasa

• Add little bit of water and ghee to rava and mix it into a nice mixture and leave it for an hour
• Make into round circles like what we normally do for poori
• Use Ghee for perfect taste to fry the appala(You can also use oil)
• After frying it, break it into small small pieces and cook it with milk
• add sugar (For rava, add one and half cup of sugar to that)
• Boil for some time and if need add more milk

Saaru

• Roast pepper and Cumin seeds in little bit of ghee
• Cook Toor dal in cooker
• mash the dal with required water for saaru consistency
• add the grinded powder to this and add salt
• Temper with cumin seeds
• You can add some amla powder(Already available in market) for getting some sour taste

Kootu

• Soak green moong for sometime and cook it in pressure cooker
• cook toor dal
• add green moong , toor dal and required urad dhal powder and salt
• boil it for sometime
• Temper with cumin seeds
• You can add some amla powder for getting some sour taste

Majjige palidya

1. add amla powder to curd with required salt and temper with cumin seeds
2. Fry some ambode in small small bonda shapes and soak it in required curd with salt and temper with cumin seeds

Sweet/Desserts

• Rava kesari
• Rava ladoo
• moong dal ladoo
• Ashoka halwa
• jangri
• jilebi
• wheatflour halwa
• Maida cake
• dhoodh peda
• palkova
• basandhi

(Just remember for any of these sweets, Nuts are not allowed)

tiffin items

• idli
• dosa
• adai(Instead of red chillies add pepper and Chana dal is not allowed)
• rava upptiu
• rava idli
• chapathi