Avial

Avial Recipe - Mixed Vegetables in creamy coconut gravy.

Avial is an integral dish of Tamil cuisine. No festivities are complete without it. Hardly an spices involved, yet its simplicity makes it stand out.
Can you believe, that I was completely unaware of this dish until I got married into a tamilian family!?
Its very easy to put together and I usually do make it for casual dinners too.
This is my MILs recipe. I add a bit of ginger to it. You may choose to skip it. Either ways it tastes great.

Avial Recipe - Mixed Vegetables in creamy coconut gravy.

Serves 4

2 Cups Mixed vegetables cut thick. Potatoes, french beans, carrots, drumsticks, pumpkin, yam are the preferred ones
4-5 cups water
1.5 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 cup thick yoghurt
salt as per taste
5-6 curry leaves

to be ground into fine paste

1/2 cup shredded coconut, fresh or thawed
1 green chilli
1 tsp rice
1 tsp jeera

1. Boil the vegetables in water with salt until just done. The vegetables should have a bite to them and should not turn mushy. It took me 10-15 mins on high flame. Note that softer vegetables like pumpkin might need lesser time. So you might want to boil them separately. Drain excess water save 1 cup of stock for later.

2. Grind the ingredients mentioned in ´to be ground into fine paste´ with as much little water as possible.

3. Mix the boiled vegetables with coconut oil, ground paste, turmeric, 1 cup of the stock, salt and curry leaves and cook on medium heat and bring to boil. Do not over boil else the coconut separates out leaving the gravy watery instead of creamy.

4. Remove from heat and add the yoghurt and blend. Serve hot with plain rice.

5. It stays fresh in the fridge for up to a day.