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Nellai Recipes

Tirunelveli- A fast-developing urban centre boasting the most aromatic cuisine that's passed down through generations. Nellai food boasts a distinguishable aroma and flavour attained by blending various spices and seasonings.

Lip-Smacking Recipes of Nellai

Nellai Cuisine: Simple, Delectable, Comforting & Wholesome

Tirunelveli cuisine is a perfect example of the typical South Indian cuisine. It honours the produce of the hard-working farmers by heroing the fresh vegetables, lentils, and rice. Every dish has a distinct aroma and flavour that's unique to Nellai cuisine. The appetising taste is achieved by blending spices and seasonings, including ginger, peppercorns, cumin, coriander seeds, green chillies, coconut, and curry leaves.
A typical Tirunelveli lunch is nothing short of a feast. Piping hot rice takes centre stage, accompanied by sambar, vatha kozhambu, rasam, appalam, kootu, poriyal, and aviyal. Buttermilk, curd, and payasam help you finish off your meal with utter satisfaction. Our breakfast and dinner dishes comprise soft idlis, crispy dosais, puffy pooris, sweet Kesari, and decadent Pongal. Not to forget the various vadais, adais, semiya upma and Kesari, uthappam, idiyappam, kichadi, and so on. Above all, our Tirunelveli Halwa is the shining jewel on our culinary crown.
Exclusive Kitchen Tips
  • Wrap chappathi in aluminium foil to keep it hot and soft.
  • Add half a teaspoon of fresh curd to enhance the taste of roasted potatoes.
  • Put a slice of coconut in the curd to prevent it from over-fermenting.
  • Add a little salt to your stored wheat flour to keep the beetles at bay.
  • Add a teaspoon of soaked fenugreek while grinding your idli batter to get soft idlis.
  • Add a few drops of lime juice while cooking rice to avoid the discolouration of your cooker.
  • Add a little ghee to prevent basmati rice from sticking to each other while cooking.
  • Use hot water for kneading chapati dough, and you will get super-soft chapatis.
  • Place a betel leaf upside down to prevent the idli batter from fermenting quickly.
Divine Food Combos
  • Puli illa Kuzhambu - Toasted Pappad
  • Whole Urad Dosa - Dried Chilli Thuvayal
  • Sodhi Kuzhambu - Ginger Pachadi
  • Kootanchoru - Curd Pachadi
  • Urad Dal Rice - Til Thuvayal
  • Idiyappam - Sodhi
  • Idli - Brinjal Kichadi
  • Idi Sambar - Aviyal
  • Pulithanni - Roasted gram thuvayal
  • Broken Rice Uppuma - Moar Kulambu
  • Appam - Coconut Milk
  • Adai Dosai - Aviyal

Updated Posts

Our updated recipe posts include a mix of newly published and existing recipes. We have a treasure trove of recipes for your favourite Tirunelveli desserts, appetisers, main dish recipes, and more. Discover our range of signature spice blends that carry tales of history and heritage unique to Nellai. Use our step-by-step guide to create these dishes and share the experience with your family and friends!

Nellai's Exclusive Recipes

Ulundhu Kali
Made with Black Urad Dhal, unadulterated palm jaggery, and raw rice, Ulundhu Kali is an age-old, simple dish packed with nutritious goodness. In short, it is manna from heaven for the people of Tirunelveli.
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Aviyal
The aromatic Aviyal is a wholesome vegetarian side dish loaded with half a dozen varieties of vegetables. The dish exudes the earthiness of cumin and coconut, making it a perfect accompaniment for rice, dosai, or chappati.
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Kootanchoru
Kootanchoru is Nellai's lunch dish that offers everything in perfect balance- rice, lentils, vegetables, spices, and seasonings. This dish sports a mild, tangy tamarind flavour and is garnished with a generous helping of freshly grated coconut.
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Tirunelveli Sodhi Kuzhambu
Tirunelveli's famous Sothi Kuzhambu is a delectable vegetarian gravy that holds prominence in many wedding menus. Sothi has a variety of vegetables cooked in a concoction of coconut milk, lentils, and pounded garlic and is seasoned to perfection.
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Famous Dishes in Tirunelveli

Nellai Food- A Feast to the Senses

Nellai cuisine is a wholesome package. It is well-balanced in terms of flavour, texture, taste, and nutrition. Many of our delicacies are fondly named after the village or town from where they originated, thereby etching the names in the memory of generations that follow. Yes, we follow centuries-old recipes with our own added twist. The great Thamirabarani, the life-giving water source for the lakhs of people who thrive here, also lends its distinct flavour to each dish. The cuisine is infused with a regional aroma and taste derived from locally available spices, herbs, and seasonings. In a nutshell, Nellai cuisine is tradition on a platter.
TIRUNELVELI WEATHER
Helpline Numbers
  • Collectorate Board: 0462-2501035
  • Police Control Room: 100
  • Traffic Police: 103
  • Medical Help Line : 104
  • Fire and Rescue : 101
  • Ambulance Help Line : 108
  • Ambulance (National Highways) : 1073
  • Child Help line : 1098
  • Sexual Harashment : 1091
  • Railway Help Line : 1512
Location Map
Important Links
Helpline Numbers
  • Collectorate Board: 0462-2501035
  • Police Control Room: 100
  • Traffic Police: 103
  • Medical Help Line : 104
  • Fire and Rescue : 101
  • Ambulance Help Line : 108
  • Ambulance (National Highways) : 1073
  • Child Help line : 1098
  • Sexual Harashment : 1091
  • Railway Help Line : 1512
Tirunelveli's Culinary Traditions & Treasures
Nellai people love food. This town is a foodies delight where you can find a culmination of traditional and fancy dishes. Nellai's traditional food habits have been passed on for generations. Recipes curated by great-grandmothers are followed to the word even today. Dictated by major historical and social events since the time of the kings, this cuisine is extremely diverse and interesting. Each town in this district boasts its own cooking style and recipe, reflecting its ardent love of food. Above all, the recipes prioritise taste and health, and some of them cannot be found in any restaurant menu. Nellai cuisine is a traditional marvel that honours Mother Earth.
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