Avial is one of the trademark Kerala recipes. Mild, stew-like, lush with juicy vegetables, creamy with yogurt, and flavored with fresh coconut and chilies ground to a paste, and tempered in coconut oil with curry leaves. Tastes great on rice, as a side dish for adai and pongal, and puliyodarai, and coconut rice. Requires a bunch of vegetables, but that's it. Real simple to make.
| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Cook Time | 15 minutes |
| Servings |
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Ingredients
- 2 cups vegetables Use mild tasting vegetables like plantains, chayote squash, carrots, green beans, you get the idea
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup yoghurt
- 3-4 green chilies reduce/increase as preferred
- 1 tsp Salt or per taste
- 1 sprig Curry leaves fresh preferred
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
Ingredients
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Instructions
- For the avial I made today, I chose chayote squash, green plantain, desi papdi/avarakai, carrot. Chop them into strips of same thickness (about teh size of french fries), and same length. It's very important that they are evenly sized so that they cook uniformly.
- Cook them in 1/2 cup of water, with a little salt. Takes about 8-10 minutes.
- In the meantime, blend coconut and green chilies, optionally a few curry leaves thrown in.
- When the vegetables are cooked al dente, add the coconut paste, whisk the yogurt (or blend so it's smooth), and salt and let it come to a boil.
- Not too long, or it'll curdle. Add curry leaves on top.
- Heat the coconut oil and pour over the curry leaves. I used hing, but my keralite friend told me there is no hing in avial.
- Done! Enjoy with hot steaming rice, with a side of potato roast or papad. Or both 🙂 We had it with the potato roast. Completely forgot to take pictures!
Recipe Notes
Other Suitable Vegetables:
Mango, ash gourd, potatoes, eggplant, steamed and chopped arbi/taro root, okra, drumstick (murungakai).
Do not attempt this if you don't have coconut, or green chilies, or coconut oil. They are crucial for an authentic avial!
I like it to have a pourable consistency, but I have noticed some keralite friends make really full of vegetables with very little liquid. I guess one is better for mixing with rice, and the thick one as a side dish. It's delicious either way!
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