A Food Lover’s Journey Through Sri Lanka: Seasonal Dishes & Local Flavours
The scent of ripe jackfruit, fragrant mangoes, and sweet & tangy wood apple signals the change of season on this exotic island. Food native to the island or that arrived with colonials and ancient traders creates a palette of flavours that is unique to Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan cuisine is diverse, vibrant, and singular, shapeshifting to the rhythms of nature. As a lush landmass rich in rivers, mountains, hills, rainforests, cloud forests, jungles, and surrounded by the ocean, the island is bountiful in seasonal produce. This guide invites you to discover Sri Lanka’s traditional dishes and local flavours, a delicious adventure that changes with the months and the monsoons.
January to March
The year begins with cooking milk rice to symbolise prosperity and new beginnings. Although the first day of the year isn’t grandly celebrated as the April New Year, almost all homes prepare milk rice, a rice dish cooked in thick coconut milk and salt. It is commonly eaten with lunumiris (a chilli relish), seenisambol (onion fry), jaggery, or curries. The Tamil population on the island celebrates Thai Pongal in January, the Hindu harvest festival. To mark the occasion, sweet pongal is made, a South Indian festive dish consisting of rice, moong lentils, ghee, jaggery or sugar, cardamom, and nuts.
March brings the Woodapple (Divul) season. The hard, rough brown shell is woody, but once you crack it open, you will find a soft, aromatic pulp that’s tangy and sweet. Its flavour is a unique blend of tamarind and dates, with a hint of caramel. It tastes unlike any other tropical fruit. Sri Lankans enjoy it in many forms – eaten fresh with a sprinkle of sugar, blended into thick, creamy juice, or made into jam.
March also sees the start of the Bael Fruit (Beli) season – another woody-shelled fruit. It has a golden orange and sticky pulp that is mellow, honey-like, and subtly citrusy, with earthy undertones. The pulp is used to make smoothies and tea, while the flowers (Beli Mal) of the tree have been used for thousands of years to make a cooling herbal drink.
As unique and endemic fruits, these should feature on your Sri Lankan culinary travel.
April: Fruit-laden trees, harvesting, and traditional treats
April is a colourful month, marking one of Sri Lanka’s most important cultural celebrations – the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, or known colloquially as Avurudu. Jackfruit (kos), rose apples (jambu), cashews (kaju), and local oranges (dodang) are in season.
- Ripe jackfruit is a much-loved delicacy, while mature jackfruit is often cooked or boiled.
- Pink and red rose apples are sweet and tangy. Often eaten fresh or pickled, these also make delicious drinks and salads.
- Local orange varieties, which are green to yellow, have a sour and sweet flavour you will enjoy.
- And, if you love cashews, it is the season to visit Kaju Gama on the Colombo-Kandy Road, a village named after this luxurious nut.
While the centre-piece of the New Year celebrations is milk rice, accompanying sweets make their seasonal appearance. These include traditional sweets such as kavum, mung kavum, athirasa, kokis, aluva, narang kavum, kalu dodol, pani walalu, and aasmi.
Konda Kavum: A traditional sweet with thousands of years of history, made from rice flour, treacle, and a hint of fennel seed, and deep-fried in coconut oil. A crisp skin is formed around a soft centre to give a rich molasses flavour. The dome shape gets thinner at the top, resembling a hair updo, which its name takes after – Konda (hair).
Kokis: A delicate, flower-shaped crisp made by dipping a hot ornate metal mould into rice flour and coconut milk batter coloured yellow with turmeric, then frying until golden. Light, crunchy, and irresistibly festive.
Mung Kavum: A variation of kavum made with mung flour, filled with sweet jaggery paste, and deep-fried. It’s nutty, fragrant, and has a crunchy outer shell.
Athirasa: A chewy, slightly spiced sweet made from rice flour and treacle, with a dense, fudgy texture and a hint of cardamom.
Aasmi: A beautiful, lace-like sweet prepared from rice flour, coconut milk, cinnamon leaf juice batter, deep-fried, and later drizzled with coloured sugar syrup. Light, crispy, and visually stunning.
Aluva (Aluwa): A soft, melt-in-the-mouth sweet made from rice flour, sugar, and ghee, often flavoured with cardamom and garnished with cashews.
Kalu Dodol: Dark, glossy, thick, and sticky pudding-like sweet made from kithul jaggery, thick coconut milk, rice flour, and cashew.
Pani Walalu: Deep-fried honey rings made from urad dhal flour/rice flour and treacle or sugar syrup.
Thala or sweets made with sesame and jaggery also take centre-stage during celebrations. Bananas are available year-round in Sri Lanka, but the sour variety is especially significant during New Year celebrations.
Tamils celebrate the New Year with sweet rice cooked with milk, jaggery, ghee, cardamom, raisins, and nuts. They also make murukku, a crunchy, elongated (often spiralled) snack made from rice flour and urad flour, sometimes coated in sugar. Laddu, made from roasted gram flour, ghee, and sugar, and shaped into golden balls, is also a popular treat at the New Year. April is a fitting month to embark on a food tour in Sri Lanka.
May to July
Mango (Amba) season begins. Sweet, juicy, with just the right sour kick, Sri Lanka produces several varieties of mango. Karuthakolomban (KC), Mee Amba, Kohu Amba, Willard, Gira Amba, Malwana, and other commercial varieties give you the chance to indulge in this beloved exotic fruit. Peak mango season runs from May to August.
Guavas, locally known as Pera, are a familiar sight during this season. Crisp or soft in texture, these fragrant green and yellow fruits have pink or white flesh with tiny, edible seeds. Eat them fresh or make them into smoothies; either way, they are refreshing with a sweet-tart flavour.
Soursop (locally known as Anoda) is a sweet-and-sour fruit with a creamy, white, aromatic pulp. It is eaten fresh or juiced and has a green skin with soft thorns. Although mistaken for Durian, soursop has a much pleasant smell.
The season also welcomes Mangosteen, a sweet, tangy, and fragrant fruit with a thick, deep-purple rind that protects the juicy, snow-white segments inside.
Rambutan, a fruit closely related to lychee, stands out in fruit stalls with its hairy red rind. It has a juicy, translucent white flesh that is sweet, mildly tart, and fragrant. It is one of the most exotic-looking fruits you can find.
It is also the start of the season for the marmite of the fruit world – Durian. Those who can brave the powerful aroma of this tropical fruit will find a rich, custard-like flesh inside.
Peak Avocado (ali gata pera) season begins in July in Sri Lanka. Local varieties offer creamy, subtly sweet textures ideal for salads, toast, and smoothies. Mashed flesh with a sprinkle of sugar is everyone’s favourite way to eat avocados here.
June to October is also the squid season on the island’s East Coast.
August to October
Ceylon Olives or Veralu start their season in September. Eaten fresh, pickled, juiced, or boiled with salt and pepper, these do resemble olives. They have a pasty flesh that is slightly sour and a large, ridged seed in the middle. You can find green or purple veralu. This indigenous fruit deserves a place on your wish list of traditional foods in Sri Lanka.
October brings Pomegranates (Delum in Sinhala), one of the most prized fruits for their medicinal and nutritional qualities. Their jewel-like seeds are juicy and refreshing for eating fresh off the fruit, in salads, or in drinks.
November to December: Festive Flavours
The festive season is a great time to sample the colonial cuisine legacies of Sri Lanka. These include:
Rich Cake (Sri Lankan Christmas Cake)
It is a dense, moist fruitcake infused with dried fruits that have been soaked for weeks (or months) in brandy or rum, mixed with chopped cashews, candied peel, semolina, and aromatic spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Unlike Western fruitcake, the Sri Lankan version is darker, stickier, and richly spiced, often topped with a thin layer of marzipan and icing.
Breudher
A legacy of the Dutch Burgher community, Breudher is a buttery, slightly sweet bread-cake flavoured with nutmeg and sultanas. Traditionally baked in a ring mould, it is served for Christmas breakfast or tea with butter and sometimes a slice of Edam cheese.
Love Cake
Another colonial-era classic, Love Cake is a delicacy of Portuguese origin. Made with semolina, cashew nuts, honey, eggs, and rosewater, it is perfumed with nutmeg and cardamom. The texture is rich and moist at the centre with a lightly crisp top.
Yellow Rice and Festive Curries
While sweets dominate Christmas tables, many families also prepare a lavish lunch with yellow rice (kaha bath, made yellow with turmeric) and festive curries. These often include cashew curry, pineapple curry, black pork curry, and chicken roast curry, accompanied by fried brinjal moju (eggplant pickle) and Malay pickle, a sweet & spicy pickle with dates. Sri Lankan culinary travel is never complete without sampling an indulgent plate of Yellow Rice.
Squid season begins on the West Coast in November, giving you the chance to savour fresh calamari every day at beach shacks and ocean-front restaurants.
Authentic Sri Lanka Culinary Travel with Blue Lanka Tours
Sri Lankan cuisine is a seasonal expression of nature, customs, and traditions. Each season brings new flavours, from exotic fruits to festival dishes. For anyone seeking to sample Sri Lanka’s traditional dishes, learning about what each season brings helps you plan your culinary adventure. Craft your flavourful holiday to Sri Lanka with Blue Lanka Tours for responsible travel made for meaningful experiences. Discover rare and exotic foods unique to the island and the region. Sample authentic cuisine, fusion masterpieces, and gourmet delights from around the country on our travels. Learn more about planning a culinary tour of Sri Lanka by speaking to one of our tour agents today!