Aviyal....Kerala's Mixed Veggie Delight !!

Aviyal is one of those Kerala Veggie items that I was'nt confident enough of making  perfect , as most of the traditional  vegetables  that are used to make them are not available here.......Recently recollected one of the stories behind the origin of this curry which goes like this.....One of the Kings of Kerala (Tranvancore) was bored of eating the dishes served in the daily menu & he challenged the Palace Chief Chef to quickly make him a curry that he had never tasted before...Poor chef went back to kitchen and found only the left over vegetables as he was already done with the day's cooking...So he took all the vegetables that he could find, cut them to thin strips, cooked them in water and added coconut, green chillies and curry leaves to it and named it Aviyal ....The King was completely Happy with the Dish it seems !!

Getting inspired from the so called story behind the origin of Aviyal I too decided to put what ever vegetables I could get here, instead of waiting to find the ones which we used to put, back home...!!  So tried it a few times and have to admit that it is such a complete side dish for rice...And being not too spicy kids too love them !!

Again , Aviyal is one of the indispensable items in Kerala Sadya menu.....And so dont miss out its simple Recipe here !!

Preparation



Cut all the vegetables lengthwise to 2" stripes. 
Cook the vegetables along with a few curry leaves  in a pan, adding 1 cup of water, salt and turmeric. Cover it with a lid and dont over cook the vegetables if you want to keep the shape.
Meanwhile dry grind the ingredients 9-14 in a mixer to a coarse powder. 
Once the vegetables are cooked, add the coconut mixture on top of it and and again keep it closed and cook for another few mins. ( Dont stir now).
Now switch off the heat and stir uniformly. Finally add the coconut oil on the top and keep closed until time to serve.
Enjoy with a Rice !!





My Aviyal goes to be part of the Spotlight Summer Food & Drinks event going on at Appayan by Indrani !!