Avial

Ingredients
Any mixed vegetables except lady’s finger, onions – cut long and thin(peel skin as needed) (as in the pic) 4 cups
Coconut 1 half grated
Green chillies 4 or 5
Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Yogurt (slightly sour) 1 cup
Coconut oil
Curry leaves with stem 1
Rice 1/4 tsp (optional)

Suggestions for vegetables
All types of beans (string, flat etc..,)
Drumstick
Chou chou
Brinjal
Raw banana
Carrots
White/ yellow pumpkin
Potatoes
Cucumber
Yam
Squash
Raw mango (reduce amount of yogurt if this is added)
Snake gourd
Peas
Groundnuts
Eddos (steam, peel before adding)

Get Cooking!
1. Grind the grated coconut, cumin seeds, green chillies and rice to a paste and keep aside.
2. In a large saucepan, boil the vegetables by adding them according to decreasing cooking points (say carrots, beans first, then potatoes followed by pumpkins). Add the next set of vegetables when the previous set is almost half boiled. This way all the veggies will maintain shape and not become one big mass of squished veggies. Takes time but worth the effort.
3. Once the veggies are cooked, add the ground paste and salt.
4. Then add the curd. Let boil once and remove.
5. Add the curry leaves with stem.
6. Pour the coconut oil. mix well.

Tips
If you don’t like the raw coconut oil smell, you may slightly heat up the oil with the curry leaves in it and then pour it in. If you don’t have enough curds, you may add some tamarind water while the veggies are cooking.