Kerala Style Aviyal

I have so many memories associated with this dish. Aviyal is a South Indian dish with a lot of vegetables cooked together and finished with ground coconut and cumin seeds. No Sadya (feast served on a banana leaf for marriages or other festive occasions) is complete without Aviyal. My mom cooks this dish so well that she always gets requests from the relatives to make Aviyal whenever they visit us. There are many versions of Aviyal – Some people make it dry and some others make it more like a semi fluid. In Kerala you see the dry version more often whereas in Tamilnadu the semi fluid version is more popular and served as an accompaniment to Ada Dosai ( mixed lentil dosa). In this dish, you can either use tamarind paste or curd to give the desired sourness. Since I am cooking a dairy free version, I am using tamarind but the end result is equally yummy as the one made with sour curd. You can even use sour mango if you have it handy.

Ingredients:

Method of preparation:

1. Cut the vegetables lengthwise. Soak the tamarind ball in water.

2. In a big Kadai or deep pan, add some water and let it boil. When the water starts boiling, add the yam and few drops of coconut oil on top. Cover the pan and cook till the yam is half done. Some varieties take a long time to cook.

3. When the yam is half done, add the other vegetables. Add turmeric powder and red chilli powder. Mix and cook on low to medium flame until all the vegetables are almost cooked. You can add water as necessary. Usually, the vegetables also bring out water. Add 1 sprig of curry leaves now.

4. In the meantime, grind the coconut with cumin seeds and green chillies. My mother adds some raw uncooked rice also along with this as it gives richness to the dish.

5. Check the vegetables and when they are almost done, add the thick tamarind water and let it cook for another 5-7 minutes.

6. After the raw smell of tamarind goes away, add the ground coconut, mix well and simmer for 2 -3 minutes. Drizzle the remaining coconut oil on top.

7. Garnish with curry leaves.

8. Serve hot with Rice and Pappadom.

Hope you all liked the recipe. I will be back with another flavourful recipe soon..Thank you for visiting my space and please don’t forget to leave your comments..