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Indian Vegetable and coconut Stew Recipe
This is such a ridiculously easy recipe with delicious results. Avial or Aviyal is a South Indian stew of vegetables, coconut and curd. The garnish of curry leaves in coconut oil gives it that distinctive and addictive taste. Enjoyed and owned by the cuisines of Kerala, Tamil and Udipi its a popular Indian dish, down South. I was amazed to know that it has its origin in the epic Mahabharata era where this dish was supposedly invented by one of the Pandava brothers - the well built Bhima. Interesting! Growing up, this was not a common dish in our household since my father for health reasons avoided coconut. So my mother never made it. She also never added coconut to any of our dishes and so by force of habit, I continued the same after marriage too. It was only when one day, my husband remarked in passing that he enjoyed one particular dish with coconut that I was like - waitaminute - Why am I NOT adding coconut? From then on coconut and me have lived happily ever after :)
Basic Information
Prep Time: 30 min to 1 hour
Cook Time: Under 15 min
Serves: 2 people
Ingredients
1/2 cup curd/yogurt (*)
3-4 cups of mixed vegetables (**)
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp cumin
1-2 green chillies, or as per taste
1/2 cup grated fresh coconut, tightly packed (frozen works too, though fresh preferable)
1/8 tsp turmeric
Salt to taste
Few curry leaves for garnish
Tips
(*) Sour curd is normally used but here we used fat free Greek yogurt since that's what I always have in hand and it worked equally well.
(**)You can use any vegetables available. For this recipe we used potatoes, taro root,pumpkin,carrots and brinjal. Other vegetables that you can use are beans, cluster beans, plantains or any other variety of potatoes.
Method
1Grind the coconut, chillies and cumin seed together into a paste.
Indian Vegetable and coconut Stew Recipe
2You can grind them together like how we did or grind the coconut and chillies together first and then add the cumin to blend into a paste. Set aside.
Indian Vegetable and coconut Stew Recipe
3Meanwhile in a pan take the chopped vegetables and boil them in water (that is sufficient enough to cover them). If using taro root, you would have to boil it separately, peel, chop into chunks and then add it to this water (after the rest of the vegetables become soft). We had some leftover boiled taro root, hence it was perfect for this recipe. The other vegetables can be added together with a pinch of turmeric and boiled until soft. Once soft, add salt.
Indian Vegetable and coconut Stew Recipe
4Add the coconut paste to this water and bring it to a boil.
Indian Vegetable and coconut Stew Recipe
5While that's coming to a boil, take another small pan. Heat 1 tbsp of coconut oil and saute the curry leaves. Once the aroma starts wafting
Indian Vegetable and coconut Stew Recipe
6drop the leaves to the coconut-vegetable (aviyal) mixture.
Indian Vegetable and coconut Stew Recipe
7Remove from heat. Once it has cooled down to room temperature, add the yogurt
Indian Vegetable and coconut Stew Recipe
8and give it a good mix.
Indian Vegetable and coconut Stew Recipe
Delicious coconut and vegetable stew ready! Its normally enjoyed along with rice - as part of 3-4 course meal.
Recently when I was talking to Divs of Dil Se about our love for whole grains, I realized that though I enjoyed them in many ways, I had for some unknown reason not posted as many main course dishes like I had done in Baking. So I thought I will post few of them which I enjoy often during Breakfast, Lunch etc. I have mentioned so many times that my lunches are mostly lazy man's meal. Something I can just throw together with ease. Something which does not need my constant attention and gives me scope for multi tasking. At the same time I do not like to use packaged or processed foods either. Quite a hard choice isnt it? So I choose the middle ground. Frozen vegetables. Pressure cooker. I dunno what would I have done without these two handy gadgets.
Wild, Brown, Kamut and Spelt Berry Pilaf
I do not believe in cooking any sort of legumes or vegetables for long - the nutrition reduces considerably. The best way to cook grains/legumes is pressure cooker. Not only does it make life so much easier for you, but its a healthy choice than stove top. This pilaf is cooked the same way. I had a wild and brown rice mix which I bought few weeks earlier. Wild, Brown, Kamut and Spelt Berry Pilaf I wanted to use it along with 2 more grains which was lying in my pantry for a long while now - Kamut (more about it here) and Spelt Berries. In many sites, I find that for cooking such berries, the amount of water is a lot and I almost always end up with excess water. For this recipe for 1-1/2 cups of berries/rice, I was advised by one book to use 10 cups of water (!!!!!!!!!!!). And they also ask you to drain the rice from the water and use it for cooking. Seems like waste to me. I used about 4 cups of water to cook the grains to achieve the chewy consistency which I like. Then added few frozen vegetables along with fresh ones with pecans make a nutritious meal. This recipe is by chef Peter Berley which I have adapted according to the availability of ingredients. Wild, Brown, Kamut and Spelt Berry Pilaf
Basic Information
Prep Time: 30 min to 1 hour
Cook Time: Under 30 min
Serves: 4 people
Ingredients
1/2 cup of wild and brown rice blend
1/2 cup KAMUT® berries
1/2 cup spelt berries
1 cup Pecans (or walnuts)
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 onion, chopped
1 large carrot, cubed
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 cup frozen peas
1/4 to 1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen lima beans
2-3 garlic cloves,minced
4 cups of vegetable stock/water
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro for garnish
Method
1Although you don't have to per se soak the grains beforehand, I do for 30 min reducing the cooking time to 10-15 minutes in a pressure cooker.
Wild, Brown, Kamut and Spelt Berry Pilaf
2Cook the grains.
Wild, Brown, Kamut and Spelt Berry Pilaf
3Meanwhile take a skillet and dry toast the pecans. Set aside
Wild, Brown, Kamut and Spelt Berry Pilaf
4In the same pan, add 1/2 tsp of oil and toast the fennel seeds. Once aromatic, saute the onions, garlic, bell pepper, carrot in that order along with salt. Cook them with a closed lid until slightly soft. Add the frozen vegetables and give it a quick toss.
Wild, Brown, Kamut and Spelt Berry Pilaf
5Then add the cooked grains to the vegetables.
Wild, Brown, Kamut and Spelt Berry Pilaf
6Give it a mix and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Wild, Brown, Kamut and Spelt Berry Pilaf
Before serving add the pecans and cilantro. Serve hot.
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