Plantain Avial Recipe – How To Make Plantain Avial (Without Tamarind) – Green Banana Avial – Green Bananas/Plantains With Coconut And Spices South Indian Kerala Style Recipe
Plantain avial recipe or green banana avial recipe Kerala style is a South Indian vegetable dish made using grind coconut and spices along with or without using tamarind, curd, coconut oil and curry leaves (for flavor). The addition of cashew nuts make this avial more delicious and crunchy.
Plantain avial or green banana avial is also known as kaya avial recipe or ethakka avial recipe in Kerala, where kaya means green bananas and ethakka means plantains.
The most popular avial recipe in Kerala style uses a variety of mixed vegetables to make the dish. However a few vegetables like potatoes, pumpkins, yams, drumsticks, green plantains etc can be used to make the avial dish, instead of using mixed vegetables. Here we make the avial using plantains or green bananas which are not yet ripe but close enough to ripe (don’t use sweet ones). If you don’t have freshly grated coconut you can use unsweetened shredded coconut.
More avial recipes in this blog:
Mixed vegetable avial/authentic avial Kerala recipe
You can make this dish using raw plantains (raw cooking bananas) with green skin or you can use regular green bananas, although using green plantains will make it more delicious. I am using green plantains to make this plantain avial, you may use green bananas instead if you don’t have green plantains. Make sure to use green skinned ones that are not yet ripe, as we do not want the dish to be too mushy or sweet.
We can us either a little tamarind or yogurt (curd) and also tomatoes to add the desired sourness to avial. You may also use sour raw mango pieces instead of any of these. In this recipe for plantain avial, I am using yogurt and one tomato, which will add the enough sourness. If you are using filtered tamarind extract or tamarind paste you may use a little of that instead of using yogurt or tomatoes.
So here is how you can make this plantain avial or ethakka avial following this plantain avial Kerala style recipe.
- raw plantains large sized 1
- tomato small or medium sized 1
- grated coconut 1 cup
- cumin seeds 1 teaspoon
- green chilies 1
- turmeric powder 1 teaspoon
- red chili powder 1/2 teaspoon
- coconut oil 1 tablespoon
- fresh curry leaves a few
- salt as needed
- water 1 cup
- thick yogurt (curd) 1 tablespoon
- raw cashews 1 tablespoon
- Peel the plantain and slice in slightly thick and long, even sized slices. You can cut the plantain lengthwise, then cut each long piece in half and again cut each of the pieces to make slightly thick and long slices. Keep the sliced plantain pieces aside.
- Slice the tomato in slightly thick and long even sized pieces, keep this separately from the plantains.
- Grind together the coconut, cumin seeds and green chili to make a coarse mixture, you may sprinkle a little water if needed, keep this grind coconut mixture aside separately.
- Heat water in a saucepan and add the plantain slices.
- Add salt, turmeric powder and red chili powder, mix everything well and bring the mixture to a boil.
- As soon as the mixture stats boiling, reduce the heat to very low and cover the saucepan and cook for about 4 to 5 minutes.
- After five minutes of cooking, open the pan and stir well the contents.
- Add sliced tomatoes to the pan and cover and cook for another 2 more minutes.
Once the tomatoes are lightly cooked, add the grind coconut mixture to the pan and also the raw cashew nuts, mix everything well, cover and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
- In a small bowl, beat the yogurt (curd) very well to remove any lumps.
- Add the yogurt to the pan, stir everything well and cook in very low heat for another few more seconds, make sure not to increase the heat to prevent the yogurt from curdling.
- Add the coconut oil and fresh curry leaves, stir everything well and switch off the stove. Keep the pan closed which will make the avial even more delicious.
Serve the plantain avial for a Kerala style lunch along with any Kerala vegetarian curry like moru curry, sambar, thoran etc for a delicious Kerala style vegetarian lunch.
Hope you found this post on plantain avial recipe or green banana avail recipe helpful in making easy and yummy plantain avial for lunch or dinner.
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