Surti beans gravy (AvrekaLu huLi)
Surti lilva or avrekaLu was unknown to me till I moved to Bangalore. There, I started hearing about avrekaLu everywhere. Once I found out what it was and how it looked, I checked them out in the vegetable market.
The whole beans(avrekayi) look almost like green peas with shells on. The shells are harder than green peas.
I tried these beans a couple of times and didn’t like them very much. So I stopped buying them. I started wondering why all my friends from Bangalore loved them. Recently when I saw Ramya’s post, I thought of trying them again. I had seen this ’surti lilva’ many times in frozen section of Indian store here, but didn’t know what they were. Thanks to Ramya who had mentioned this name in her post. I bought these and tried a couple of dishes, my husband loved it and started saying he wants these dishes often in our meals. I started liking them too after I tried a few dishes. This gravy turned out to be simply great.
Note: If you have not tried these beans, try more than once if you don’t like them the first time. I am sure you would love them. I suggest you all to try this gravy and you will definitely love it.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup avrekaLu
1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut
1/2 cup chopped onion
4-5 red chilies
3/4 tea spn coriander seeds
1/2 tea spn urad daal
1/2 tea spn cumin seeds
1/2 tea spn poppy seeds
1/2 tea spn chana daal
1/2 tea spn sesame seeds
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
4-5 curry leaves
A pinch asafoetida
1/2 tea spn tamarind extract or 3-4 pieces of tamarind
Oil
Salt
Method:
Cook avrekaLu in pressure cooker with little water.
Heat oil and add chana daal, urad daal, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, chilies and fry till a nice aroma comes out. Add onion and fry till they are translucent. Now add coconut and fry for 1-2mins. Grind it to a smooth paste with tamarind.
Mix the paste with cooked avrekaLu, enough water to get gravy consistency and salt. Cook for 7-8mins.
Heat little oil. Add mustard seeds. When they start popping add curry leaves and Asafoetida. Pour this seasoning over the gravy.
Serves : 2-3
Preparation time : 25mins
Avrekayi, i love it! Whenever i can find it i just add it to my upma, sabzis etc etc.This one is a must try for me
. THank you, Shilpa.
wow so nice avarekayi, nange thumbane ista but here i rarely can find them. we get the dry ones. nothing like fresh ones!
thumba chenagidde shilpa!seeing those greens are making me very nostalgic
Hi Shilpa,
Did you know you can make this gravy with either chicken or goatmeat with the avrekai.It tastes great!
Yesterday i saw them at the food world but had no idea what to do with them, i shifted to Bangalore recently,will definitely try them the next time.
hey, your huli looks gr8!!
Even we make a similar huli with avarekai… tastes gr8 naa??!! 
. Glad you finally got yourself to liking it!!! 
Shilpa!!!! Didn’t know about Avarekai or Kalu!!! Oh man!! Avarekal saaru is a classic ajji’s dishes in Mysore and B;lore,often served with Ragi mudde and rice as well.
Huli looks great,thanks for the recipe.I will post some too later.
I was wondering is this also called Avre Bendi?, another confusing name but looks like above recipe fits my taste so I am going to try it.(Is teppal(triphala) added also?)
Shilpa, thanks for sharing another delish recipe. I love beans, but I’m always confused by the diff names we have for dried and fresh beans + the diff names in Kannada, Konkani and in Gujarati at the Indian grocery store !
To KonkaniBoy: I think Vee has blogged Avre Bendi and her Avro in English is Navy beans ! My own Aayi made Avre Bendi with black eyed peas and always added teppal (Sichuan pepper) to all her coconut curries.
Thanks to you all. Good to know you like it.
Asha, I am still confused if it is avrekayi or avrekalu.
KonkaniBoy, I don’t think it is avre bendi. By what I have read in different places about bendi, I think it does not have so many spices in it. I think its just a coconut masolu with garlic phanna(Vee’s avre bendi). I have never tasted it and didn’t know about it till I started AayisRecipes, so I can’t tell more about it.
Bhanap, Thats one of the reasons I post the pictures(so that I remember the names next time I want to try them, haha)
hi shilpa,
is poppy seeds an important ingredient? will try this one out.
The recipe is great ….I just make simple beans porial for rice ..but this looks excellent..Never had it before …Must give it a try
The recipe sounds yummy..will definitely try it. Altho, the Avro that we refer to is, as Bhanap mentioned, the black-eyed peas.
The green beans in your picture, is what we call surti papdi and is actually a small half-moon shaped bean. You can see the picture @ http://www.vadilalgroup.com/surtipapdililva.html
Konkaniboy, bendi does not have any spices other than coconut masolu, with theppal and garlic seasoning.
Chetna, thats the link I have given in my post. I have taken it from same packet that I bought in Indian store here. I am not sure what avro is since I am not familiar with the name. Avrekayi is the one shown in picture.
I don’t think I have had this, but my neighbour who is from Andhra talks about something like this bean. She wants to plant it or something. Does this have a “Angezi” name ?
Avro in Kankani means Vaal in Gujarati and very common preparation with Dhaanya(Kathol as they call it in Gujarati). Above green beans when dried and sold is called Vaal. That is my understanding as I(fluent in Gujarati because I went to Gujarati School in Fort area in Bombay)had more Gujju friends than Marathi speaking, only my wife is Konkani speaking that kept my konkani speaking language.
I love avrekayi! And idakbele too (when the skin of the avrekayi is removed after soaking the beans overnight)
Avrekayi uppit tastes yummy!
Hi,
i am visiting ur blog the first time.I can try this one ,its different form other ordinary avrekayi foogath.thanks for posting.pls do visit my blog and give ur comments.
hai shilpa,
Nice one.i think these flat beans(chikkudukaayalu in telugu)r mostly prevelent in south india.my mom used to make this very often.we just boil them and then stir fry in with little tampering with the whole skin too.My mom used to say these have the rich proteins similar to that of chicken.for veggies this gives the protiens that we get by chicken and the skin of beans has lot of fiber in it,which is very good for digestion.And this version is great.i luved it.
Available during the summer season, these fresh bean (Vaal, field bean, avrekai, etc.) Pods are called Papadi by Gujaratis and available in most Indian stores (expensive though than Vadilal’s frozen field beans) and is a must for making their popular dish called “Surati Undhiu”. As described in Asha’s blog (link below),these are also called Val, Surati Val or Val beans which are split beans…..whole Val or field beans,….which is really called Avarekalu Palya in Kannada to be authentic!
http://foodieshope.blogspot.com/2006/11/jaggary-jello-jiggler-and-field-beans.html
hi shilpa,
really it tastes fantastic….i prepared it without poppy seeds….yet the taste was excellent….thank you…
Isn’t it wonderful when we give an ingredient a second chance?
Hi there nice blog, I really do like the pic with this recipe it makes it look really yummy!
Hi Shilpa,
Your site is quite interesting as also the Surti Papdi curry..well, surti papdi has been originally native to the areas of Gujarat around Surat…hence the name..and of course, the hugely popular Gujarati dish called Undhiyu has Surti papdi as a major ingredient…And “Lilva” is a Gujarati word for pigeon peas as people know them from the frozen sections of Indian stores in the US..
Firstly thanks for sharing the huli.
Looks like there is some confusion here with respect to avre kalu, tingalavro and vaal.
Avre kalu used in Karnataka and surti papdi in Gujarat as the same as mentioned by konkani boy(used in surti undiyo etc). Vaal is a dried version, but tingaloavro is different. The english name for it is navy beans.
I have updated the post with AvrekaLu. Usually the beans is called kaLu so avrekaLu and the whole vegetable is called avrekayi. I was confused because I read both the names interchangeably in few books.
I just bought some Avrekalu (Canned) Im gonna try this Recipe. The Gravy looks Yummy.
do you an any good receipes for lababdar chicken
thanks