Aval Payasam Recipe (Atukula Payasam)

Aval Payasam is a South Indian pudding made with flattened rice, jaggery, milk, nuts and raisins. It is a sweet dish mostly made on Shri Krishna Jayanthi and is also known as Atukula Payasam in Telugu. Lord Krishna, the 8^th incarnation of the Hindu Supreme God Vishnu is worshipped as the god of love, protection and compassion. Every year Krishna Jayanthi is celebrated by Hindus across the globe to mark the birth of the Lord Krishna. This year it is celebrated on 26th August, 2024.

It is believed that flattened rice was one of his favorites, so various dishes made with it are offered to him during the puja. In this post I share an easy payasam recipe that you can make on the festive day and offer to the Lord.

About Aval Payasam

Aval is the Tamil word for flattened rice, also known as poha, beaten rice or parched rice. Payasam is a traditional South Indian pudding made with various grains, is sweetened with jaggery & flavored with cardamoms. Lots of cashews and raisins are fried in a generous amount of ghee which is lastly poured over the payasam.

This Atukula Payasam is made much the same traditional way except regular rice is replaced with Poha.

Fresh Homemade Butter, Curd, Cream, Milk, Ghee, Poha and jaggery are some of the traditional naivedyams offered on this day. It is believed that Lord Krishna loved all of those foods.

Various other toothsome foods like Ladoo, Butter Murukku, Thattai (Chekkalu), Seedai (Palakayalu) are also offered to the little Krishna.

All those traditional dishes take time so if you are unable to make any of them, Aval Payasam and Aval Ladoo are the quick options.

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Photo Guide

How to Make Aval Payasam (Stepwise photos)

Preparation

1. Skip this and the next step if using sugar. If using jaggery, making a syrup will enhance the taste of the jaggery. However you can also skip this and add jaggery powder towards the end and turn off the stove. But making jaggery syrup is the traditional way of making payasam. Add ½ cup grated/powdered jaggery and pour 3 to 4 tbsps water to a small pan.

2. Dissolve and bring it to a boil. Let it bubble on a low flame. Off the stove when it turns sticky, don’t need to check any syrup consistency. Keep this aside to cool.

3. Heat 1 to 2 tablespoons ghee in a pan. Fry 16 split cashews (8 whole) until slightly golden. Add 8 to 10 sweet raisins and fry until they turn plump. Remove them to a plate.

4. Next ½ cup aval/poha and saute on a low flame for a few minutes until they smell good. This step enhances the flavor of the payasam.

5. Mean while make a fine powder of 8 cashews and 2 tbsp poha or 1.5 tbsps rice flour.

6. The powder has to be fine.

7. Add this and fry well for a minute or two.

Make Aval Payasam

8. Pour 2 cups milk and stir well. Bring it to a boil on a medium high heat. Turn down to medium and cook until thick.

9. When the poha turns soft and the payasam turns thick, add ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder. If your payasam turns thick but poha remains hard, add ¼ more milk & cook.

10. Turn off the stove and filter the cooled jaggery syrup. Make sure the syrup is cooled completely else it will curdle the aval payasam.

11. Mix well and do not cook further. You can also add more ghee if you prefer.

Garnish with fried nuts and raisins. Offer as Naivedyam as per your tradition. We cool down the foods before offering.

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