Bhubaneswar: Odia people love their cuisine, and ‘Pakhala’ is one of the best summer dish that helps ‘beat the heat.’ To promote the cuisine in modern era, ‘Pakhala Divas’ is celebrated on March 20 every year. The initiative started on 2015 by Odias to celebrate their traditional food worldwide.
Pakhala is the Odia term for an Indian dish consisting of cooked rice that is lightly fermented in water. The water of the dish is called ‘Torani’. In order to make the traditional Odia dish more delicious curd,cucumber,cumin seeds, fried onions and curry leaves are also added to the fermented rice.
Mostly, people prefer to eat it with side dishes such as fried potato (aloo bhaja), fried brinjal (baigana bhaja), fried and crushed badi (badi churaa), sauted greens (saga bhajaa), fish fry (maaccha bhaja) or fried pumpkin flowers (kakharu phula bhaja).
There are many classifications of this dish such as Jeera Pakhala, Dahi Pakhala, Garama Pakhala and Basi Pakhala.
Pakhala is not only popular in Odisha but neighbouring states such as West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam, Chhattisgarh, and Tamil Nadu have also added it in their cuisine. However, they all have different names for it. Where in West Bengal it is called ‘Panta bhat,’ people in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh call it ‘Paani Bhat.’ Similarly, in Assam it is known as ‘Poita Bhat’ and in Tamil Nadu it is called ‘Pazhaya Sadam.’
Internationally acclaimed sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has once again created a sand sculpture on Puri beach to mark the occasion.
Take a look:
#ପଖାଳଦିବସ ର ଅନେକ ଶୁଭେଚ୍ଛା ।
Greetings on #PakhalaDibasa. A day dedicated to the most liked Odia delicacy, Pakhala is indeed a great feeling. Here is my sandart at Puri beach. pic.twitter.com/bSgbcYxB0q— Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) March 20, 2022
Today we are celebrating #PakhalaDibasa Odisha’s most favourite wholesome meal. My sandart at Puri beach . pic.twitter.com/iBddujMF3v
— Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) March 20, 2022
Other than helping in keeping the body cool in the energy draining summers, Pakhala has so many other benefits to the body. Ayurveda claims this rice soaked in water dish is very much beneficial for health. Science too has proved that every 100 grams of rice contains 3.4 milligram of iron, however, the amount of iron increases upto 73.91 milligram in the same amount of Pakhala. Apart from that, it also consist of around 303 milligram of Sodium, 839 milligram of Potassium and 21 milligram of Calcium. In addition, Pakhala also helps in weight loss as it carries 60 percent less calories in comparison to plain cooked rice. This also improves sleep and strengthen the gut.
Read here to know what doctors have to say: Pakhala can boosts immunity : AIIMS study
Ms Kalinga