Recipe for Avial

Continuing our journey on food, let me start off with one of my favorites. Avial - a wholesome healthy dish made of various veggies and unique to Kerala and Tamil Nadu cuisines. It can be had with hot rice or with Adai (a type of dosa made with mixed daals). This is a very simple to make dish with low level of complexities.

Ingredients

1 potato, 2 carrots, 100 gms each of runner beans, broad beans, colacasia or yam, raw banana, 1/4 kg of white pumpkin, 1 drumstick, 3-4 green chillies, 1/2 shell grated coconut, coconut oil, curry leaves, 1/2 cup of thick curd

Steps

1. Chop all the veggies (potatoes, carrots, beans, colacasia, banana, pumpkin) into small cube shapes (not too small nor too big and lumpy). Cut the drumstick in the usual manner i.e. lengthwise.

2. Add all the veggies+drumstick along with salt into a pressure cook and boil them. Take it off after one whistle and let it cool.

3. Once it can be removed, transfer the entire mixture into a vessel, add a bit of water and start heating them on a simmering flame.

4. Take 1/2 shell grated coconut along with finely chopped 3-4 green chillies and put them in a mixie to grind them together. Just add sufficient water to build a thick paste which will form the base for your Avial. The paste should be thick and not runny.

5. Once the paste is done, transfer it to the vessel where the pressure cooked veggies are boiling already. Let the mixture cook till the veggies are all soft to eat. Switch off the flame and let it stand.

6. Take 1/2 cup of thick curd and add it to the vessel containing the veggies mixture. Mix it properly.

7. Take a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil and curry leaves and fry them together to prepare the tadka.

8. Finally add the tadka to the mixture in the vessel and let it stand. Your Avial is ready to be eaten now.

As in with most dishes, consistency is the key and taste is of utmost importance. The picture below would give an idea of how the finished product should look like. Go ahead, enjoy the dish which has always thrilled me since when I was a child. And do let me know if it worked as well for you as it has done so far for me...