CHEERA AVIAL (Chuvanna Cheera / Red Amaranth Leaves / Sevappu Keerai cooked with grated coconut gravy)

We have already seen the benefits of red Amaranth leaves in this earlier post on Cheera Thoran.

We also earlier saw how to make the Avial with lots of vegetables. Here we see how to make Avial with Chuvanna Cheera. 

Ingredients:

Chuvanna Cheera leaves -1 bunch (around 500 gms)

Coconut - 1/2 grated

Small onions - 6-8 nos

Tamarind - lemon size

Green chillies -3- 4 nos

Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Chilly powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Salt to taste

PROCESS

Chop off the roots of the plants. Clean the leaves thoroughly multiple times in tap water to ensure  the mud in the stem, leaves etc  are removed.

Its is good practice to soak the leaves in salt water for an hour prior to chopping. This minimizes the effect of chemicals /pesticides attached to the leaves. This practice can be followed for most of the vegetables and fruits we buy.

Clean and soak the tamarind in 50 ml of warm water. Normal water can be used to soak tamarind but the advantage with warm water is that helps  in complete extraction of the tamarind pulp in less time. Keep the soaked tamarind aside.

Chuvanna cheera-red amaranth leaves

Once cleaned thoroughly, chop the leaves  as well as the stem into big size – approx. 1 to 1.5 inches in length.

For cooking the chopped cheera, pour around 50 ml of water, add turmeric,  split green chillies, red chilly powder and salt to taste.  

Make sure you don’t put excess water since leafy vegetables usually contain lot of water in them. 

Cook in low flame.

Once the red cheera is cooked (to understand whether its cooked, check whether the stem is cooked or not), extract the tamarind pulp from the soaked  tamarind  by squeezing it with your hands. Pour the extracted tamarind pulp into the cooked cheera. 

Sour raw mango  also can be used. If you are using sour raw mango, chop the mango length wise.

Grated and Crushed coconut

along with crushed shallots

Next put the grated coconut  into the mixie. Run the mixie in such as a manner that the grated coconut  gets a little crushed. Pl. DONOT GRIND the coconut.

Crush the small onions too and put it into the crushed coconut  and mix it. Put this cruched shallots/onion and crushed coconut mixture into the cooked cheera .

Mix it thoroughly in a low flame.

Garnish with 2 teaspoons of coconut oil.  

Cheera avail is ready…

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