Today, let’s learn How to prepare Avarakkai Poriyal following this easy recipe. This is an everyday simple, fuss free vegetable stir fry that tastes great with rice and also pairs well with roti. Cooking at home is all about simple flavours with ingredients that are readily available….Right?
Avarakkai (Broad Beans) is a healthy vegetable rich in dietary fibre. I love the Indian Broad beans known as “Naatu kai” or country vegetable. It has a very high fibre content and has a very earthy taste.The country variety is also a great adding to some non veg dishes. I made this poriyal with the available broad beans in the market….the only version of avarakkai that I could source here!! But if you are lucky, use the Indian avarakkai, which are really broad and make sure you tear them up into bits after removing the stalks for this avarakkai poriyal.
Poriyal, in Tamil cuisine, is a simple stir-fry procedure that can be applied to most vegetables. This poriyal is very forgiving and the true essence of it lies in the tempering. Poṟiyal serves as a side dish to any meal of a mound of steaming rice with sambar or dal, rasam and yogurt.
Many other regional variations exist. Palya, a very common dish in the South Indian state of Karnataka is very similar to the poṟiyal. Porutu in Andhra region is prepared in almost same manner, but the name has become alternate to Guddu porutu (egg poṟiyal).
Coming back to How to prepare Avarakkai Poriyal, I’m using sambar powder but you may use kuzhambu thool or kuzhambu powder if you have some or just use Red chilli powder. The addition of even a little bit of spice enhances the flavour of any dish.
Off to How to prepare Avarakkai Poriyal?
Let’s Learn How to prepare Avarakkai Poriyal:
- Wash the beans well and dry using a kitchen towel. Snap off the top and tail of the beans and remove any strings along the sides. Tender beans wont have the fibrous strings, so can be used just after slicing off the top and tail.
- Stack up handful of beans (10-12) together and finely slice them.
- Steam the cut beans with a little salt, sugar (or baking powder) and water. You can microwave for 5 minutes, pressure cook for one whistle or just steam them on the stove top. But do not overcook them.
- Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat.
- Add the urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds and dry red chillies. Once the urad dal turns golden and mustard seeds splutter, add asafoetida and curry leaves.
- Add chopped onions and stir for a few seconds till they turn translucent.
- Now add in cooked beans, turmeric powder, salt and toss everything together.
- Add sambar powder and stir well until the raw smell goes away (takes about 5 to 6 minutes).
- Finally add fresh coconut, mix well and turn off the heat immediately. I have used fresh grated coconut, however, you can swap it for desiccated coconut if you prefer.
- Serve with Sambar, tomato pappu or rasam and rice. It also pairs well with roti. Today I’m serving along with rice and Spinach dal…coming soon!!
A Quick Summary:
How to prepare Avarakkai Poriyal | Broad Bean Stir Fry
Ingredients
- For boiling vegetables:
- 500 grams Broad beans Avarakkai
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar or a pinch of baking powder
- ¼ Cup water
- For Tempering:
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 2 Dry Red Chilies
- ½ teaspoon Mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon Urad dal
- 1 teaspoon Chana dal
- A Pinch of asafoetida
- A sprig of Curry leaves
- 1 Large Onion finely chopped
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon Sambar powder or Red chilli powder
- ¼ cup grated fresh Coconut
Instructions
- Wash the beans, snap off the top and tail of the beans, remove any strings along the sides and finely slice them.
- Steam the cut beans with a little salt, sugar (or baking powder) and water.
- Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat.
- Add the urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds and dry red chillies. Once the urad dal turns golden and mustard seeds splutter, add asafoetida and curry leaves.
- Add chopped onions and stir for a few seconds till they turn translucent.
- Now add in cooked beans, turmeric powder and salt and mix.
- Add sambar powder, mix and fry till the raw smell goes away (takes about 5 to 6 minutes).
- Finally add fresh coconut, mix well and turn off the heat.
- Serve with rice or roti.
My Notes:
- Adding sugar or baking powder while steaming green veggies retains the colour of the vegetable.
- Adjust spice levels with red chillies and sambar powder to suit your taste.
- You can swap freshly grated coconut for desiccated coconut if you prefer.
- To give a real depth of flavour to the dish, you can also use coconut oil or mustard oil, but again vegetable oil would work too.
- You can also add cooked Moong dal or toor dal to this recipe.
Check out other VEGETABLE DRY CURRIES from blog.
Many more to come!!…..STAY TUNED!!
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Happy Cooking 🙂
Cheers!!
Padma.
