Avial, Mixed Vegetables In Coconut Gravy

          Avial, again another favorite, usually served in restaurants along with adai. But whenever I made Avial at home, I usually liked to eat it with rice along with some pappads. But then later, I started liking this other combination too, lemon rice and Avial. This is a simple dish, cooked vegetables in a coconut and yogurt based gravy and seasoned with coconut oil. Here, I have used drumsticks, raw banana along with carrots, brinjal and broad beans ( avarakkai ). But there are days, when I had cooked Avial with only carrots, beans and potatoes alone and still it was delicious..

Need To Have

• Raw Plantain - 1 medium, peeled and diced
• Potato - 1 medium, peeled and diced
• Diced Carrots - 1/2 cup
• Broad Beans/Avarakkai - 1 cup
• Small Brinjals/Eggplant - 3, diced
• Drumsticks - 2 medium sized, cut into 2" pieces
• Curd/Yogurt - 1 cup
• Curry Leaves - 15
• Coconut Oil for seasoning

To Grind

• Grated Coconut - 1 cup
• Green Chillies - 4
• Cumin Seeds/Jeera - 1 teaspoon

Method

          Grind together all the ingredients given under ' to grind ', add the curd, blend it along with the ground ingredients, remove and keep.

          Take all the vegetables, add some water and cover and cook till done. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the coconut and curd mixture, simmer it for 3 to 4 minutes and remove.

          Heat some coconut oil, add the curry leaves, then add it to the cooked vegetables. Remove and serve it warm.

Note
Some drumsticks might take a little longer to cook than the other vegetables, in that case, cook it first, then halfway through, add all the other vegetableas and cook.
You can also add beans, elephant yam, chayote ( chow- chow ), colocasia, white pumpkin.
Also don't grind the coconut into a fine paste, it should be ground into a coarse paste.
If you don't like coconut oil, you can use regular oil, but coconut oil gives a unique flavor.
The final consistency should not be watery, you can use a little sour cream, to make it a little richer, also can add even another 1/2 cup of coconut too, but I like to keep it to about 1 cup.