The Complete Guide to Maharashtrian Wedding Food - From Puran Poli to Sol Kadhi
What is served at a Maharashtrian wedding meal: varan bhaat, masale bhaat, mattha, jilebi, shrikhand puri, regional dishes, and menu planning tips.
Vivah Swapn Team
A traditional Maharashtrian wedding meal is a vegetarian pangat: varan bhaat with ghee and lemon to start, masale bhaat, a potato bhaji and aluchi bhaji, koshimbir and chutney on the side, mattha (spiced buttermilk), and a sweet such as jilebi, shrikhand puri or boondi ladu. Regions and communities add their own dishes, from sol kadhi on the Konkan coast to puran poli and katachi amti in many Desh homes. Here is what goes on the plate, in what order, and how families plan the menu today.
The pangat: how the meal is laid out
The traditional wedding meal is a pangat: guests sit in rows and servers walk down the line, each carrying one dish. The plate was a leaf, either a patravali made of stitched dried leaves or a banana leaf in the Konkan, and is now often a steel thali or a buffet plate.
Where things go on the plate is fixed by custom. Salt sits at the top. The side relishes, such as lemon, chutney, koshimbir and pickle, go on the left. The vegetables and usal go on the right. Rice comes in the middle, in front of you. Many families still begin the pangat with the grace "Vadani kaval gheta, naam ghya Shrihariche" before anyone eats.
Varan bhaat: where the meal begins
The first serving is plain rice with varan, a simple toor dal with turmeric and salt, a spoon of ghee and a squeeze of lemon. It is the most ordinary dish on the menu, and at a wedding it is served first, because that is how a Marathi meal starts.
The main dishes
Masale bhaat. Rice cooked with vegetables, cashews or peanuts and goda masala, the dark, slightly sweet Maharashtrian spice blend. It is the centrepiece of most wedding menus, and every caterer has a version they are known for. Often it comes with vegetables like tondli (ivy gourd) or brinjal in it.
Batatyachi bhaji. A dry potato bhaji with mustard seeds, curry leaves and turmeric. It goes with puri and is on almost every wedding plate.
Aluchi bhaji. A thin, tangy-sweet curry of colocasia leaves with peanuts and chana dal, soured with tamarind and sweetened with jaggery. It has long been one of the most typical wedding dishes in Maharashtra.
Mattha. Buttermilk spiced with green chilli, ginger, coriander and cumin. The meal traditionally closes with a last helping of plain rice and mattha.
Bharli vangi. Small brinjals stuffed with a roasted masala of coconut, peanuts and sesame. Popular at many weddings, though not on every menu.
Usal and amti. A sprouted bean usal, usually matki (moth bean) or moong, and an amti, a tangy dal soured with kokum or tamarind, appear on many menus.
Puran poli and katachi amti
Puran poli is a flatbread stuffed with a sweet filling of chana dal and jaggery, rolled thin, roasted on a tawa and served with ghee. It is above all a festival dish, made at Holi and Gudi Padwa, but many families serve it at the wedding meal, at a kelvan or at the meal the day before the wedding. It often comes with katachi amti, a thin, spiced amti made from the water the chana dal was boiled in.
Sweets
- Jilebi. For generations the classic wedding sweet in Maharashtra, often served hot.
- Shrikhand with puri. Strained yogurt sweetened and flavoured with saffron and cardamom, eaten with hot puris. In mango season many families serve amrakhand (mango shrikhand) instead.
- Boondi ladu. Another long-standing wedding sweet.
- Basundi. Milk reduced slowly with sugar, cardamom and nuts.
- Aamras puri. Fresh mango pulp with puri, the highlight of a summer wedding.
- Gulab jamun. Not traditional, but on most buffet menus today.
Side dishes that finish the plate
- Koshimbir. Cucumber or carrot with yogurt or lemon and crushed peanuts.
- Chutney. Often a dry peanut or coconut chutney.
- Lonche. Mango or lemon pickle.
- Papad and kurdai. Roasted or fried, for crunch.
- Thecha. A coarse green chilli and garlic chutney, common in rural and Kolhapur menus.
Regional dishes
Konkan. Sol kadhi, a pink drink of coconut milk and kokum, is a fixture of Konkan wedding meals and turns up at many city receptions as well. Kokum amti and, in fish-eating families, fried surmai or bangda appear at a separate meal.
Kolhapur and western Maharashtra. In families that eat meat, tambda rassa (a fiery red mutton curry) and pandhra rassa (a white mutton curry based on coconut milk) are the famous pair, usually with mutton or chicken sukka. In many such families the meat meal is held separately, for example at a family feast after the wedding or at the reception, while the wedding-day meal itself stays vegetarian.
Mixed families. Vidarbha, Marathwada and Khandesh menus have their own favourites. If the two families come from different regions, put one dish from each side on the menu.
Starters and live counters
Modern weddings in cities often add a starters counter or live stations: batata vada, kothimbir vadi, sabudana vada, kanda bhaji, and even a misal pav counter. These are welcome, but they fill guests up before the main meal, so order a smaller quantity than the caterer first suggests.
Planning the wedding menu
- Decide pangat or buffet early. A seated pangat needs more servers and more time per batch. A buffet needs more counters and space. Many city halls and caterers now default to a buffet, so ask early if you want a pangat.
- Taste before you book. Ask the caterer for a tasting of masale bhaat and the sweet. Those two dishes decide how guests remember the food.
- Plan for the season. Aamras and amrakhand in summer, jilebi and basundi in winter.
- Respect dietary rules. Keep a separate counter or labels for Jain food (no onion or garlic, no root vegetables) and for anyone fasting, if guests will need them.
- Give the caterer a firm headcount. Our wedding planning checklist has the dates for confirming numbers.
Frequently asked questions
What is served in a traditional Marathi wedding meal? Varan bhaat with ghee and lemon, masale bhaat, batatyachi bhaji with puri, aluchi bhaji, koshimbir, chutney, papad, mattha, and a sweet such as jilebi, shrikhand or boondi ladu.
Is puran poli served at Marathi weddings? Often, but not always. It is mainly a festival dish. Many families serve it at the wedding meal or at a kelvan, especially in Desh households.
Is non-vegetarian food served at Maharashtrian weddings? It depends on the community and the family. Many keep the wedding-day meal vegetarian and serve meat at a separate meal or at the reception.
What is sol kadhi? A drink made from coconut milk and kokum, pink in colour, served cold. It comes from the Konkan coast and is taken as a digestive.
A Maharashtrian wedding meal is not about the number of dishes. It is about balance: sweet against sharp, cool mattha against spicy bhaji, simple varan bhaat against rich masale bhaat, and servers who refill the plate before you ask. If you are still at the beginning, looking for the person to share that pangat with, you can start your search on Vivah Swapn's Marathi matrimony pages.