Avial is a mixed vegetable side dish made with a variety of seasonal vegetables, coconut and yogurt. It is a simple recipe that is typically part of a Sadhya (feast) during the harvest festival “Onam” in Kerala, India. Like sambar represents Tamil Nadu cuisine, Avial is the star of every special menu in Kerala. Although the recipe is quite simple, many home chefs struggle with cooking all the vegetables to the right consistency. Given the variety of vegetables, usually either some of them end up undercooked while the others get overcooked making the dish lose its texture. At other times, when chefs add the yogurt/curd, the gravy curdles up. When you understand the layering technique and the right method of adding yogurt, making Avial will be a breeze even to a novice chef. Let’s dive in…

WHAT YOU WILL NEED for AVIAL

Ingredients

Note: 1 cup = 235 ml

1. 2 cups water
2. 2 cups green beans or cluster beans (Kothavarangai) or green peas
3. 2 cups carrots
4. 2 cups raw bananas (Vazhakkai) or potatoes
5. 1 cup drumsticks (Murungakkai)
6. 2 cups elephant foot yam (Chenaikizhangu)
7. 2 cups malabar/madras cucumbers (Vellarikkai) or ash gourd/winter melon (Pusinikkai)
8. Salt to taste (1 Tbsp. salt)
9. 2 cups greek/regular yogurt

Cutting all vegetables into bâtonnets aka little sticks of 1 ½ in length wise pieces ensures that all vegetables cook in the same time

You can substitute a cup of mangoes along with other vegetables if you do not like yogurt and add water at the end to get to the desired consistency

For grinding to paste

1. 2 cups coconut, shredded
2. 2 large serrano chilis or 6 regular green chilis
3. ½ Tbsp. cumin seeds (jeera)
4. ½ cup water

For seasoning

1. 4-5 sprigs curry leaves
2. 2-3 Tbsp. coconut oil

Kitchen tools

1. Small blender jar and blender
2. 6 Qt. Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker / Large Stock Pot
3. 1 flat ladle
4. 1 tempering pan

PREPARATION – AVIAL (with step-by-step photos)

Step 1  –  In a small blender jar, grind 2 cups shredded coconuts, 2 large serrano green chilis, ½ Tbsp. cumin seeds and ½ cup water to a coarse paste and set aside

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Step 2  –  Pour 2 cups of water into the inner bowl of the Instant pot. If using a pressure cooker or any large pot, add water directly to the pot

Step 3  –  Layer the vegetables in the following order – beans, carrots, potatoes, drumsticks, elephant foot yam, and finally malabar cucumbers. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. salt over the vegetables

Based on the vegetables that you plan to make Avial, layer them in the order of their nature and cooking time. Vegetables like beans and cluster beans need longer time to cook while carrots, potatoes, yam and the pumpkin varieties will cook with steam

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Step 4  –  Add the ground coconut paste on the top, close the lid and steam cook for 20 minutes with the valve in the venting position. Remember to keep a separate timer for 20 minutes as Instant Pot will not keep time when the valve is in venting position. If using a regular pressure cooker cook upto 1 whistle, turn off the heat, and allow pressure to release normally. If using a stock pot, place a lid and cook on medium heat for up to 20 minutes or until the vegetables are well done

Step 5  –  After 20 minutes open the Instant Pot lid and check if the top layer of vegetables is cooked. The vegetables should be cooked to a crisp tender stage that they give in when you stick a fork into them, but not mushy. Each vegetable should hold the little stick shape that it was cut in and soft enough to eat. Give a couple of minutes if needed. If using a regular pressure cooker open the lid when the pressure releases normally and check if the vegetables are well cooked. You can set it back on heat for a couple of minutes if the vegetables need more cooking, but make sure it does not get mushy

Step 6  –  Turn off the heat and gently mix so the coconut paste coats all the vegetables. Add 2 cups of Greek or regular yogurt and gently mix everything together. The process of mixing should not break or crush the vegetables

Add the yogurt 1 cup at a time so that you can stop at your desired consistency. My family likes it a little loose, so I add 2 cups. you can increase or decrease this to your liking

Step 7  –  Separate the curry leaves from the sprig and add to the Avial

Step 8  –  Heat 3 Tbsp. coconut oil in a tempering pan and when the oil is hot, toss it on the curry leaves over the Avial

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Step 9  –  Give everything a final mix, close with a lid and allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Move it to a serving container only after resting the Avial for at least 10 minutes. This is an important step that many people forget to do. The aroma of the curry leaves that have been sizzled with hot coconut oil have to get infused into the dish to bring out the best flavors

Step 10  –  Enjoy your sublime Avial in an Onam Sadhya or whenever you feel like it, with hot phulkas, adais or steamed rice 😋

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Apart from relishing this flavorful delicacy every time my mom or mother-in-law made it, I never paid attention to the art of making it until the last decade. Sometimes it is the simple recipes that are hard to crack. It was not until I learnt to make Undhiyu, a mixed vegetable delicacy from Gujarat, India where the stuffed vegetables are stacked in a specific order to make sure each layer of vegetables is cooked for the right amount of time. I applied that same technique to Avial, by placing the hard to cook vegetables at the bottom of the pan so they cook using water. Vegetables that need the least water to cook and can just be steam cooked with a little moisture from the bottom of the pot, go to the top. This tip has yielded the best results every time I made this recipe, which you have to try for yourself!

There is a legend behind how the Avial recipe originated which was fascinating to read for me and echoed the fact that the best in us comes out when we start to think out of the box. I am sharing that bit here with you. Do read on for there is a creative chef inside each one of us.

Pandavas are the protagonists of the great Hindu epic Mahabharata going against their evil cousins, the Kauravas. Bhima, the second Pandava prince, was known for his enthusiasm for food apart from being the strongest of the brothers, supposedly with the strength of 10,000 elephants. During the 13th year of their exile, where the Pandavas were forced to live undercover (after they lost a bet against the Kauravas), they disguised themselves and joined the palace services to the King of Virata. Bhima joined the kitchen crew as a chef. On an occasion when the king ordered a feast to be prepared, Bhima was in a fix as there were not enough vegetables to make a single vegetable dish, so he just mixed a bunch of vegetables that were at hand and came up with this sublime dish known to us as Avial 😍

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