Adai and Avial

Tamil Nadu and Kerala, being neighbours, share quite a few recipes. Avial being one of them. Though it tastes excellent with rice, I find Adai-Avial combination, quite enticing.

Avial (Mixed Vegetable Stew)

Avial essentially means ‘to be cooked’. Colloquially, it also refers to a mixture of anything and everything. And that is the idea. Any seasonal vegetable other than okra, bitter gourd and colocasia (arbi) can be used. Drumsticks are a favourite candidate due to their aroma. This can be had with rice/sambar/thogayal or adai. Though avial tastes better when fresh, it keeps well for 2 days in the refrigerator, without yogurt. Add yogurt only to the portion that is to be served. This celebration of vegetables is my entry to Vegetarian Awareness Month, hosted by Margot of Coffee and Vanilla.

Left to right, Top: Plantains, Green beans, White pumpkin
Bottom: Green chillies, Curry leaves, Carrot, Peas, Potato

Ingredients

Any vegetables cut into thick matchsticks – 3 cups
Grated coconut – ½ cup
Green chillies – 3
Curry leaves - few
Yogurt – ½ cup
Salt
Coconut oil – a tbsp

Method

Cook all vegetables until done. This can be done using microwave oven or over stove top. They should not be mushy, but slightly crisp on the inside. Grind coconut and green chillies to a fine paste and add to the cooked vegetables along with salt and curry leaves. Gently heat vegetables along with the ground paste until green chillies do not smell raw, about 3 minutes. Take care not to mush the vegetables while mixing. Just before serving, combine yogurt and a tbsp of warm coconut oil to avial and serve.

Adai (Lentil Pancake)

Avial goes very well with paruppu usili. But the eternal combination is Adai-Avial, which can be seen served even today in many of the South-Indian restaurants. Hearty lentils combined with sweet vegetables and cool yogurt compliment each other.

Ingredients

Par boiled rice – 2 cups
At least 2 types of dal(toor dal, chana dal, urad dal) – 1 cup, combined
Red chillies – 6 or 8
Asafoetida – ½ tsp
Salt
Curry leaves - few
Red onions – 1, medium, chopped finely
Oil

Method

Soak rice and dal mixture separately for at least 2 hours. Grind rice along with red chillies, salt and asafoetida to a coarse meal. Then pulse the dal mixture, barely grinding them. Mix them both along with curry leaves. The batter will be quite thick.

Heat a tawa or griddle. Place some batter in the tawa and spread them to form a circle. Make a dent in the center. Top the batter with chopped onions. Drizzle oil around the adai and in the center. Cook this over medium heat. Flip to cook the other side. Serve with avial, idli podi, butter and jaggery.

Few things to be considered are

1. You can use raw rice instead of par boiled rice
2. For a crisper adai, do not grind dal to a fine paste. The bigger the better. You can even add a handful of soaked chana dal to the final batter for extra crispiness.
3. Onions can be topped or mixed into the batter. Cabbage, drumstick leaves are the other usual toppings.
4. As another variation, omit onion/cabbage and mix a handful of grated coconut to the batter. The adai will be softer.