Avial

This is a dish from Kerala and the motivation to make this dish came from a situational problem faced by chefs - many times we are left with just one or two vegetable of a kind that is not sufficient to make a poriyal or curry or anything. When you have, let's say, 2 carrots, 1 banana, 1 drumstick, a small bit of pumpkin and 10 beans, what do you do? Bingo... enter Avial!!

AVIAL - (Time Required: 30 minutes) - Serves 2 people

Ingredients (Veggies marked as * are mandatory. Rest are for additional look and feel)

Carrots* - 3

Beans - 200 grams

Raw Banana* - 1

Drumstick* - 1

Pumpkin - 200 gms

Coconut - 1 cup

Jeera - 2 tsps

Salt - To taste

Coconut oil - 2 tsps

Sour curd - 1 small cup

Bay Leaf (Pattai) - 2 small pieces

Saunf (Sombu) - 1 tsp

Modus Operandi:

Grind the coconut and jeera with 1 cup water into a fine paste and keep it aside. Cut all the vegetables into long pieces of 2 inch length. Add 3 cups of water to the vegetables, salt to taste and boil them in a pressure cooker for about 15-20 mins. Once the vegetables are cooked, heat oil in a broad pan and add the bay leaf and saunf to it. After the saunf stops bubbling, add the vegetables and coconut paste and stir well without mashing the vegetables.

Cook for 5 minutes and then add 2 tsps of coconut oil and sour curd to the vegetables. Stir and cook for 2 more minutes and then switch off gas.

Goes well with: Rice and dal/sambhar/rasam/curd.