This is one of those curries that I find a bit challenging not because it's particularly difficult to make, but because it requires so many different ingredients. It takes just a little bit of a lot of different veggies and I find it can be a hassle to get them all and then to figure out what to do with the unused portions after making a curry like this.

However, I recently stubled across frozen bags of "veggie fries" at the grocery store. Sure, they contained a mix of carrots, parsnips, and beetroot and what my recipe called for was carrots, cauliflower, and red pumpkin (among many other things), but I figured I could give it a whirl and hope for the best. Having three veggies in one bag meant three less vegetables I needed to organize for dinner. And being french-fry cut already gave me a head-start on the prep!

Photo goes here.

Aviyal

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. cut-up fresh green beans
• 1 c. cauliflower florets
• 1 c. French-fry cut red pumpkin
• 1 medium carrot, French-fry cut¹
• 1/2 c. frozn green peas
• 1/2 c. cubed frozen purple or yellow yams
• 8-10 pieces frozen "drumsticks"²
• 1 medium russet (or other floury) potato, French-fry cut
• 1 medium sweet potato, French-fry cut
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 Tbsp. yellow split peas (chana dal)
• 20 fresh curry leaves
• 1 c. shredded fresh coconut³
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 4-8 fresh Green Thai, serrano, or finger chilies
• 1 tsp. rock salt⁴, pounded
• 1-2 Tbsp. coconut oil or ghee (optional)

Directions

1. Add the beans, cauliflower, pumpkin, carrot, peas, yams, drumsticks, potato, and sweet potato into a pot and add enough water to just cover them.
2. Add the sea salt and turmeric and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
3. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally (be gentle), until the vegetables are tender (10-12 minutes).
4. Meanwhile, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
5. Add the split peas to the hot oil and roast them, stirring constantly, for 1-2 minutes.
6. Scoop the peas out of the pan, leaving as much of the oil behind as possible. Place the peas in a blender and set aside.
7. Add the curry leaves to the hot oil and let them sizzle for a few seconds, then add the leaves and oil to the pot of vegetables.
8. Once the vegetables are done, reserve 1 c. of the cooking water⁵ and then drain the veggies.
9. Add 1/2 c. of the reserved water to the blender jar with the roasted split peas.
10. Add the coconut, cumin seeds, and chilies and blend until a somewhat gritty sauce forms.
11. Return the drained vegetables to their pot and pour the sauce over them.
12. Add the remaining 1/2 c. of cooking water to the blender jar and swish it around to rinse it out and pour this into the pot as well.
13. Stir in the rock salt and coconut oil (if using).
14. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until warmed through (~5 minutes).

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¹ I substituted all three of the above ingredients (carrots, pumpkin, and cauliflower) for 3 c. of frozen veggie fries, which were a mix of carrots, beetroot, and parsnip. This produced a different result, but still a good one. ^Back
2 We're not huge fans of "drumsticks" (a slightly musky, tough-skinned Indian vegetable that looks a bit like an overgrown okra) in this household, so I swapped them out for 20 spears of asparagus that had been trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces. ^{Back 3} Or 1/2 c. unsweetened dried coconut soaked in 1/2 c. boiling water for 15 minutes, then skimmed off the water. ^Back
4 I didn't have any rock salt and I didn't want to go out looking for it just for this recipe, so I just used an additional teaspoon of coarse sea salt here. ^Back
5 I used an additional 1/2 c. of the hot vegetable cooking water to reconstitute my coconut. Plain water works fine, but why use extra water and lose the flavour and nutrients in the vegetable water? ^Back