Avial

Dassana Amit’s Avial is a Kerala-style mixture of vegetables in a coarse coconut-and-curd coating. Her account places it within Sadya meals while recognizing separately made Tamil Nadu and Karnataka versions.

This selection uses ash gourd, pumpkin, moringa pods, elephant-foot yam, Mangalore cucumber, raw plantain and French beans. Her photo-guide starts the yam, pods and beans first, then adds the other four vegetables.

Turmeric and salt season the vegetables as they cook. Coconut, cumin and green chili are ground with their own water into a coarse paste that coats the vegetables, which should remain tender and hold their shape.

Beaten curd joins on low heat. After the heat is turned off, coconut oil and curry leaves finish the same mixture, which is covered briefly to take on their flavour.

The author serves Avial hot or warm, with ready steamed rice selected here. Her shortened recipe card names carrot in the first cooking stage where the illustrated method names elephant-foot yam; this account follows the illustrated seven-vegetable preparation without treating that discrepancy as a different complete recipe.