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.

Vegetables for Avial
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.

Avial

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.

Adai and Avial

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.

46 comments:

amna said...

hmmm.. i think these are your first couple of could-be-better pics :) no offense please..

aviyal is one of the first recipes i posted on my blog.. absolutely love it!

Sia said...

avial with adai... now why i never thought of that combo!!! :) thanks sug...

Anonymous said...

suganya, save some for me, quick... i'm flying to Japan:)

Raks said...

Looks perfect suganyaa

FH said...

I love both Adai and Avial, my favorite dishes to eat. I made Adai last week, will post sometime later. Excellent combo, looks great together!:))

Swaruchy said...

wow....Suganya...what a delicious combo.....The pics are awesome...they look very tempting dear :-))

Rajitha said...

avial...one of my favs..i make it in excess so that i can hog it for days...yumm

Laavanya said...

I love this combination besides eating adai with a butter+sugar combination.

Cynthia said...

Thanks for the education. That first dish is turly a celebration of veggies.

Anonymous said...

your adai looks delicious,but i have never had adai & avial combo before,must try it one day!
paati

bee said...

i've also seen avial with venn pongal in amy restaurants.

sunita said...

Love the look of avial...have never had it...might as well give it a try.

Bharathy said...

keralites do make avial but avoid western veggies as far as possible and stick on to Nadan or nattu kay- karis(yam snakegourd cucumber jackfruit seeds etc with extra amts of thengai)...in T.N, avial is a real mix of all the veggies!!
Adai-avial is a unique combo of T.N...malayalees prefer this with rice and sambhar!:)..me too!!!

Unknown said...

as always ur pics look amazing. i like ur recipes its so healthy and delicious. will try adai soon.

Manasi said...

YUM!! I had no idea one combined avial and adai! I would so love to make avial, but the hubby has a psychological allergy to coconut :(

arundati said...

oh!! adai and avial is K's favourite combination...he loves crisp adai fresh off the tava with fridge cold avial!!

musical said...

You know what, add another tag to the post "LOVELY MEALS" :). This indeed is one heavenly combination, dear! Aviyal-adai rock together :-D.

Anonymous said...

Avial is looking so good

remya said...

wow!!! my fav aviyal...yesterday i made it .lovely combo..unique TN style..being from kerala,i love too have aviyal with sambar n paruppu.

Rina said...

I love adai. Looks gr8. I eat it with onion chutney. But this is twist.

Coffee and Vanilla said...

Hey,
Thank you for your entry!
Please check back soon for the round-up, Margot

Shobana senthilkumar said...

Hi,
hmmm avial and adai gr8 combination...my all time fave .Ur adai looks good.Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

wow
thats one colorful healthy dish
luv the light in ur shots
whats the secret?

Anonymous said...

i clicked enter too soon.....so
beautiful dish as usual and colorful

Bong Mom said...

haven't had either of them but the avial looks so fresh, crisp and has a feel good air about it. I always thought the veggies were in a gravy.

Suganya said...

Thank you all, for your comments. They are duly noted and appreciated :).

Nabeela said...

oh wow.....you made a curry like avial look so appetising. It's so difficult to photograph curries but you did an excellent job!

Anonymous said...

paravaillaye, nalla thattiruke :D - its looking crisp.

avial is a fantastic entry for vegetarian awareness month.

i cheat - make the batter a wee bit flowy and spread with the help of a ladle.

amma makes butter at home with fresh cream she gets from milk (even toned milk here has a lot of fresh cream). more than the adai i like that home made butter on the side ;) - yummy.

ushaprashanth said...

Hi suganya!
Ramya was talking about avial recently.. and you have posted it! thank you! variations for adai are useful!

Finla said...

Never had with adai always with rice. Your avial looks so great.

Raks said...

thanx suganya,for trying out one of my recipes and giving feedback...its very encouraging..!!

Ramya's Mane Adige said...

hey, lovely combo... I make both of them separately, but never thought of having them together.. thanx :)

Kribha said...

That's indeed a classic combination. I make it the same way too except that the avial has more gravy. Looks so good.

Anonymous said...

errr...my avial has more gravy! Have I confused it with ishtew?! Memories from past lives can be rather fuzzy ;-) I can be forgiven the slip-up...

Grihini said...

Avial looks great, colorful i must say. My friends mom used to make this.. n it was yum. I gotta try this now, with ur recipe. thanks Suganya for sharing. :)

Namratha said...

I Like Avial and Adai, each on their own, never thought of trying them together...good combo!

KayKat said...

Oooo ... 2 of my favorites! Suganya, you rock! And so do your photos :)

Viji said...

Our great tiffen Suganya. Beautiful pictures indeed. Viji

Latha Narasimhan said...

All pictures are looking yummy! Adai avial is a great combo!:) You have given nice tips not to over cook and mash the vegetables! This is very important to retain the taste and the looks! Presentation is very important to induce interest in the dish when it is served!:)

Apple said...

Both the dishes looks great Suganya...'ld love to try them

Lissie said...

avial and adai...a unique conbination! sounds great :))

Raaga said...

I love avial... never had the courage to make it. :)

Seena said...

Nice combination, lovely pictures..

Rachna said...

holy.... avial....this is sooo droolworthy...gosh.... when can i come over for grub.... will def try the adai...

Dr.Venkitakrishnan said...

Are Wah! What a combination.You should use some fenugreaks also in the batter.

Dr.Venkitakrishnan,
Trivandrum

Anand said...

thnx a lot... finally! i learned how to make it.. this adai is totally different from its mallu version... we dont use dal..

i wud rate tastypalettes' adai avial above annapoorna's .... way to go

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