VIRUNDHOMBAL

Aval Varatiyathu - prepared with aval, jaggery, coconut, cashew nuts, fried grams and black sesame.  This dish is a popular sweet in Nanjil that's easy to make and tastes like karthigai vella pori. In most of the Nanjil dishes they add a good amount of coconut and jaggery. For this dish use samba thin aval or white thin aval. Here we are going to saute the aval in a thick jaggery syrup, so no need to soak the aval. So do not use the thick variety aval because it will take more time to cook and it will also be harder. For 2 cups of aval add 1 cup of jaggery which will be perfect to coat the aval evenly. The coconut gratings can be added at the final stage without frying or you can add it while frying the cashew nuts. The roasted black sesame seeds add a nice flavour to any of the jaggery based desserts so do not skip it. With a wonderful balance of flavours the dish tastes so good. When tasting the sweet, you can feel how each mouthful is loaded with wonderful flavours. Ch...

Karupatti Samba Aval - prepared with red poha, grated coconut and palm jaggery. Just 3 ingredients are required to prepare this healthy breakfast. I prepared this recipe for 30 varieties easy and healthy dishes with few ingredients for the Aval Vikatan magazine. For this dish you can use either thick aval or thin aval. One of the common mistake that why dishes made with aval gets soggy is due to over soaking the aval which turns mushy. If you are using thick aval, soak the aval in warm water for 15 minutes and then drain the water completely. If you are using thin aval, just rinse the aval and drain the water completely. Make sure that you don't soak it for more the 15 minutes. To prepare this dish, you have to grate the palm jaggery and prepare a thick syrup. Then the syrup is strained to remove the impurities and add it to the soaked aval. Finally, a handful of fresh grated coconuts is added. If you want to prepare even more ahead of time, you can prepare the palm jaggery...

Onion aval upma - easy evening tiffin recipe within 15 minutes. Avals are a staple ingredient in my home and I frequently prepare many dishes like upma, payasam, pongal, puttu with aval.

Vegetable aval upma is a quick and simple evening tiffin for your kids. Of course, it's packed with nutrients too. Preparing the upma with soaked aval, cooked vegetables and few basic tempering ingredients make a healthy and delicious tiffin that taste like vegetable rice.The onions, green chillies and peanuts are sauted well in oil to bring the flavour for the upma and then the soaked aval and cooked vegetables are added to it. Once added, all the ingredients are mixed well to prepare a beautiful upma. The best part in this upma is all the ingredients give a unique taste. If you miss any one of the ingredients, the taste may differ a lot. If you use the thin aval, no need to soak them in the water. Since I like a chunky upma, I always go with thick aval for this upma.

Aval payasam is a healthy and easy dessert prepared with aval, jaggery, coconut milk and cashew nuts. For this I have used samba red aval, but you can use any type you have in your kitchen. The total cook time is not more than 20 minutes. There is no pressure cooking or any other major preparation work for this payasam. Jaggery based payasams are basically prepared with coconut milk or ground coconut paste. It makes the payasam amazing. We use coconut in the kitchen all the time. Avals(Rice flakes) are suitable for both sugar based and jaggery based desserts. Now let's see some important tips for preparing this payasam. Use a fresh aval(rice flakes) and pagu jaggery for best results. If possible, try to use freshly extracted coconut milk. If you are using canned coconut milk mix half cup coconut milk with 1/2 cup of water and then add it the cooked aval. Roasting the aval(rice flakes) is the most important step in this dish. The taste of this payasam comes from roasting the...

I wanted this recipe to be healthy and easy, so I have added cane sugar. If you do not have cane sugar you can add powdered sugar. This ladoo take only 15 minutes to put together and you don't need to check for sugar syrup consistency or any difficult works.

Coconut Milk tomato aval upma (Flattened rice upma with coconut milk) A mild aval(poha, flattened rice) recipe with tomatoes, onions, coconut milk and crushed peanuts. It is easy to make and doesn't require too many ingredients. Some people find cooking this type of aval upmas  a little tricky so follow these simple points for good results.

Starting from my childhood days aval is one of my favourite food. Aval tastes great on its own, but tastes even better when mixed with jaggery or sugar. Now a days there are many varieties you can buy at the supermarket. Some are thick aval that they taste better after cooling and some are thin aval that must be served quickly or you can use it as raw.Usually the thicker varieties are used for sweet dishes like aval ladoo, aval payasam, aval puttu and the thin varieties are used for aval upma, aval mixture and aval chat.  The thick aval has a firm texture and it needs some water or milk to absorb and later it  becomes soft. I always like to use thick aval for this dish because it absorbs the jaggery syrup and tastes better after resting. The other main ingredient in this recipe is fresh grated coconuts. Coconut has long been an important ingredient in enhancing the taste of South Indian cuisines, used in variety of sweets, curries, rice varieties and also for ste...