Aviyal

Aviyal is the kind of vegetable mix which is made with coconut based gravy and seasoned with coconut oil. The flavour of coconut and coconut oil makes it different from the other types of kootu varieties. This dish mainly comes from Kerala. In Tamilnadu, aviyal is preferred to be taken as a side dish for Adai. This is also considered to be one of the special recipes to be made on occasions.

Here goes the recipe:

Required:

Vegetable mix - 1 bowl (Beans, carrot, plantain, potato, drumstick, pumpkin)
Salt - according to taste
turmeric powder - a pinch
Curd - 1/4 cup

For seasoning :

Coconut oil - 2 tablespoon
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 stick

For grinding:

Coconut - 1 cup (grated)
green chilly - 2 (change according to taste. Here i added red chillies as i didnt have green chillies in stock and so you can see aviyal in red colour. Preferred is green chillies)
rice - 1 tsp
fried gram - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Wash all the vegetables. Keep a pan in the stove, add the vegetables and some amount of water for the vegetables to cook. Add a pinch of turmeric powder and half amount of salt. (remaining salt needs to be added at the end after the coconut paste is added)

2. Grind all the items (given under grinding section) to a smooth paste and keep it aside.

3. Once all the vegetables are cooked, strain the remaining water and mix the ground paste to it. Make the mix to a 'not so thick' consistency. Add the remaining salt to it and keep it in the stove. Let the paste gets cooked with the veg.

4. Beat the curd to make sure no lumps are found. Pour the curd to the aviyal smoothly and switch off the flame immediately. Mix them gently.

5. In another stove keep the seasoning pan. Add coconut oil to it. Once oil is heated, add the mustard seeds to it. Once they start to splutter, add curry leaves to it.Add seasoning to the cooked aviyal.

Serve hot with rice or adai.