Aviyal, a mixed vegetable stew is a traditional dish in Tamil Nadu. It is rich in vegetables and coconut, a great way to consume more vegetable as part of our regular diet. Aviyal is one of the key dish served in south Indian festival lunch menu. Aviyal is a great accompaniment to the lunch and also for Adai, a lentil based thick crepe and also for Coconut rice. We can use any available of your choice / left over vegetables in our fridge to make vegetable to Aviyal. For Aviyal we generally use curd for the light tangy flavor but in Kerala and Souther Tamilnadu, tamarind is also used instead of curd. They call it as Puli Aviyal and the recipe is already published.

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Tips for making Aviyal Recipe | Avial Recipe:

Stiff veggies like drumstick, chow chow needs more time to cook than cucumber or pumpkin. So first cook all the stiff vegetable till they are 90% cooked.
Once the stiff vegetables are cooked completely, then add the other veggies which gets cooked quickly. Those soft veggies are rich in water content, and gets cooked easily. If we add those veggies with stiff vegetables, they become mushy and loose their shape.
Add generous amount of coconut while grinding as we need rich flavor of coconut.
There is no tempering for Aviyal. We just need to season with coconut oil and curry leaves.

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Recipe Card for Aviyal Recipe | Avial Recipe:

INSTRUCTIONS WITH STEP BY STEP PICTURES:

GRINDING PROCESS

Take coconut, green chili, salt in a mixer jar.

Grind it to a smooth paste by adding 2 tablespoon of water. Set this aside.

COOKING VEGETABLES

Take the drumstick, potato, raw banana, chow chow, carrot in a heavy bottomed pan. Add turmeric powder and 1 cup of water. Cover and cook the vegetables till they are almost cooked.

Once the veggies are 90% cooked, add the rest of the vegetables like cucumber, white pumpkin, yellow pumpkin and brinjal. These vegetables are rich in water content and they cook faster. So we need to add it after the stiff vegetables are almost cooked.