From Kerala: Avial
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.
Servings Prep Time
4people 30 minutes
Cook Time
15minutes
Servings Prep Time
4people 30 minutes
Cook Time
15minutes
Ingredients
  • 2cups vegetablesUse mild tasting vegetables like plantains, chayote squash, carrots, green beans, you get the idea
  • 1/2 – 3/4cup yoghurt
  • 3-4green chiliesreduce/increase as preferred
  • 1tsp Saltor per taste
  • 1sprig Curry leavesfresh preferred
  • 1tbsp coconut oil
Instructions
  1. 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.
  2. Cook them in 1/2 cup of water, with a little salt. Takes about 8-10 minutes.
  3. In the meantime, blend coconut and green chilies, optionally a few curry leaves thrown in.
  4. 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.
  5. Not too long, or it’ll curdle. Add curry leaves on top.
  6. 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.
  7. 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!