Festivities always imply food. No festival will be complete without something special to feast on. So, this year we will be celebrating Onam with Kerala style avial which is a very easy and a delicious dish made with fresh vegetables and ofcourse coconut.
This Kerala style avial is a delectable side dish to go along with rice mainly. So, for this year onam, I actually planned to make Onam sadya. But, if I do that then I would not be able to take pictures to upload in the blog. So, I thought of skipping the sadya and I prepared a few dishes on the day before Onam and on that day too!
I love avial so much. Especially the ones they serve during all marriages. My mom makes a type of avial but I am damn sure that it is not like this Kerala style avial. The preparation is different as far as I know. I will make sure to include my mom’s avial recipe too in our blog.
I wanted to post avial for this Onam and so, I planned for a very simple meal on the day before the festival. My husband and I wanted to try this ‘Ulli Theeyal’ recipe mainly for its name alone. Ulli theeyal was such a classic recipe that we fell in love with it so much and I really felt bad that I did not plan and shoot this one.
I had to try the recipe before I uploaded it on the blog. So, I did not want to rush posting ulli theeyal too and so I stuck with avial alone this time. But I will surely upload ulli theeyal also very soon because I guess we will be repeating this recipe very often from now on.
So, I planned to serve this Kerala style avial along with ulli theeyal and plain rice. Now, that would have been an amazing and lip-smacking combination. But then, I was not able to make it that day because I did not have enough vegetables to make avial.
Then I decided to do it on the morning and serve it along with adai. So, how many of you are familiar with adai? It is a very famous south Indian dish and it goes really very well with avial. This ada-avial combo is quite famous in all the restaurants and I personally am a big fan of the combo too! So, I finally prepared avial along with adai and we had an awesome breakfast that day!
Avial is very easy to prepare and requires less time. The only time consuming job while making avial is cutting the vegetables. Especially we need to make sure that all the vegetables are of same size to ensure even cooking. Honestly speaking, cutting these vegetables alone took me kind of half an hour to an hour.
Once this is done, the rest is like a cake walk really. You just need to cook the vegetables until done and mix the ground coconut paste and beaten curd with it. Then a simple tadka on top will finish this flavorful dish in no time.
About the ground coconut paste, something to note is that we do not add any water while making the paste. Now, when I told you earlier that my mom’s avial is quite different, this is one notable difference. And, this paste, my god, it has an absolutely appetizing aroma and taste.
To add on to the deliciousness of all these, the tadka is prepared. The overall taste of coconut oil along with the vegetables and everything is just mind-blowing. I mean, you might wonder why I am this excited for such a simple dish. But seriously, the taste is something out of the world. You will also know it once you try it.
Enjoy having this avial for this onam with your family. May this Onam festival bring lots of joy and happiness to you and your family. “Onam Ashamsakal!” Stay safe; stay healthy! Happy cooking and eating!
While you are here, do checkout my other south Indian recipes which has a combination of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes to get the flavor burst of the south Indian cuisine.
Has meal planning been a little bit difficult during this lockdown? Look through my No Veggies, 21-Day Lockdown Series for ideas on what to cook during this lockdown.
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Kerala Style Avial
Ingredients
- 800 grams mixed vegetables (ash gourd, pumpkin, cucumber, yam, potato, raw banana, carrot, beans, drumstick, brinjal, etc) cut into batons 2-3 inches in length
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 cup water
- salt, as per taste
- 1/2 cup beaten curd
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
To grind
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 5-6 green chilies
- 4-5 shallots
- a few curry leaves
- 1 tsp coconut oil
To temper
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- a few curry leaves
- a pinch of hing
Instructions
- Cut all the vegetables into batons of equal length and width.
- Add all the ingredients mentioned under 'To grind' in a blender and blend them without adding any water.
- Keep the coconut paste aside until further use.
- In a kadai add the vegetables that take a long time to cook first along with 1 cup water, turmeric powder and salt and cook with the lid on.
- When the vegetables are half cooked add the rest of the vegetables and cook them until almost done.
- If there is any excess water, then cook without the lid until water is evaporated and then add the coconut paste to the cooked vegetables and mix them without breaking the vegetables.
- Whisk 1/2 cup curd separately.
- Switch off the stove and add the beaten curd to the vegetables and mix it well. Add 2 tbsp raw coconut oil and mix well.
- In a tadka pan on heat, add the ingredients mentioned under 'To temper'.
- Add the tempering on the avial and mix well.
- Serve hot with white rice.
Notes
- Cut all the vegetables uniformly to ensure that they are evenly cooked.
- Use any vegetables of your choice. I have used yam, pumpkin, carrot, drumstick, beans and cucumber.
- Cook vegetables like yam, pumpkin, carrot and drumstick first and the add the rest later because these vegetables take a lot of time to cook compared to the rest.
- Add more turmeric powder if you want a more brighter color.
- You can also add raw mangoes for the sourness and skip the curd.
- While adding curd, add more if you want a gravy and the specified amount if you want the avial to be thick.
- After cooking the vegetables, if there is any excess water, then cook without the lid on a high flame to evaporate all the water.
- Tempering the avial is completely optional.
this was really great.We tried this out yesterday and everyone in the home loved it.this goes well with rice and papad and i had this with idlies too. I generally dont take a lot of veggies it was the first time where i ate a lot of veggies and it was energy packed.I have told my mom to do it atleast weekly thrice and readers never miss this awesome recipe and try it at home and have a great time.
Thank you! Glad that you enjoyed having it!