Kerala Avial:

I like the taste of Avial , yummy and healthy with all vegetables and curd. I use to prepare this often which made me to share my recipe in this blog.

Avial is a dish that is common in Kerala as well as Tamil cuisine and Udupi cuisine. It is a thick mixture of vegetables and coconut, seasoned with coconut oil and curry leaves. Avial is considered an essential part of the Sadya, the Keralite vegetarian feast.Vegetables commonly used in avial are elephant yam (senaikkizhangu), plantain, pumpkin, carrots, beans, Brinjal,cucumber, drum sticks, snake gourd and avarai. Carrots, beans etc. Some people prefer to skip curd or substitute it with raw mango or tamarind pulp. This dish can be made into a gravy or be made into a semi-solid side dish. It is generally eaten with rice.

Ingredients:

Drumsticks : 100gm
Carrot : 100gm
Beans : 50gm
Elephant yam / Chena : 100gm
Raw plantain : 100gm / 1
Lobia / payar : 100gm
Pumpkin white and red-100 gms each

Potato-100gms
Grated fresh coconut :1½ cups
Green chillies: 50gm
Curd : 250gm lightly sour
Salt to taste
Curry leaves : a few
Coconut oil 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds-1 tsp.

Shallots-5 nos

Method to prepare:

Cut all the vegetables lengthwise into small pieces of 1/2 inch thickness.
In a flat utensil add these vegetables, salt, 1 glass water,and Pressure cook it (upto 2 whistles). You can also cook it in a pan.

I cooked in pan because sometimes in pressure cooker vegetables gets cooked more.

Mix together the coconut, curry leaves,Cumin seeds, green chillies and divide it into two. Grind together the first half into a fine paste along with shallots.
Add the paste and the other half also to the cooked vegetables.
Finally to this add the curd and warm it (Don’t allow it to boil) and keep stirring.
Take it out, switch off flane, and add the coconut oil and the curry leaves, keep stirring.
Serve it with rice.

Note: Aviyal is a mild dish which can be served with plain cooked rice, also very nutritious . The uniqueness of avial is that this tasty dish is usually made of all the leftover vegetables. You can use any vegetables.