Aviyal again is a dish prepared with as many vegetables as one can get. There is a legend about this dish.
It is supposed to have been invented by Bhima (one of the Pandava brothers) during his Agnaathavaasa. According to the legend, when Ballav (Bhima's name during this time) assumed his duties as the cook in the kitchen of Virata, did not know how to cook. One of the first things he did was to chop up many different vegetables, boil them together and top the dish with grated coconut and prepared "Aviyal."
Almost all vegetables go in it, except perhaps, some mushy vegetables, like, tomato, brinjal, ladies fingers, cabbage, cauliflower, beetroot (it stains the dish), radish, turnip, onion, sweet potato, etc. Otherwise, all the following vegetables can be used, depending on the availability. (Source: Wikipedia)
4 cups of all mixed vegetables depending on the availability. I have marked the vegetables I used and use commonly for aviyal everytime.
Raw Green plantain
Elephant yam (chenai kizhangu in Tamil),
Chembu (cheppam kizhangu in Tamil)
Snake gourd
Pumpkin
Ash gourd
Carrot
Beans
Avarakkai
Chow Chow
Drumsticks
Potato
Raw jackfruit
A small quantity of bitter gourd can be used to give a tinge of bitterness. But I avoid, as my kutti sundari likes without it. Since a variety of vegetables are used, we will need only very small quantity of each of them and also it is very difficult to prepare 2 servings or 4 servings. However, even if the prepared quantity is more than can be consumed, it keeps well for a couple of days under refrigeration.