Vegetable Stew

Vegetable Stew is always in our weekly menu. I prepare it as a side-dish usually for idli or appam. I never had idli-stew combination before my wedding and I found that it was something very common at my husband's family. I was actually unaware of such a combo and for me it was always idli-chutney or idly-sambhar. I just loved idli and vegetable stew combo the first time I had it and from then on I started preparing stew for idli.

The stew is a common sidedish for most of the breakfast in Kerala such as appam, idiyappam etc. The vegetables are cooked in coconut milk along with whole spices which makes this curry so flavourful and delicious. I have posted Soya chunks stew recipe long back, which is a small variation to this. If you haven't tried idli - stew combo, do try it and you will love this.

What you need?

1 cup mixed Vegetables of your choice

1 Onion chopped

Whole Spices: 1/2 stick Cinnamon, 2-3 Cloves, 2 Cardamom pods, 1 star anise

3-4 Green chillies slit

1/2" pc Ginger finely chopped

5-6 Curry Leaves

1 cup thin Coconut milk

1/2 cup thick Coconut milk

Pepper powder or crushed Peppercorns

1 tsp Oil

Salt

How to prepare?

Heat oil in a pan. Add the whole spices as mentioned above and saute until it emits aroma. Add ginger, green chillies, curry leaves and saute for a minute. Now add onions and saute until onion turns transparent.

Add the vegetables, pepper and salt and saute for a few minutes. Add the thin coconut milk and water if required, then cover and cook until all the vegetables are cooked. Reduce the flame and finally add the thick coconut milk and mix well. Simmer for 3-4 minutes. Serve with idli, appam or idiyappam.

Sending this to the Kerala Kitchen event hosted by Kaveri , original event announcement here.