Vazhakkai poriyal recipe with step by step photos. This is an easy and tasty South Indian recipe of poriyal made with raw bananas, coconut, spices and herbs. This healthy dish makes for an excellent side dish with sambar-rice, rasam-rice or with any South Indian meal of your choice.
Vazhakkai is the Tamil name for plantain and Poriyal is a simply dry sauteed dish popular in South Indian cuisine. Poriyal is made with various vegetables and often feature in South Indian meals or thali. Not only a poriyal tastes fabulous but it is also healthy.
I make this recipe often with raw unripe bananas, spices and coconut. So thought of sharing the recipe too. Healthy, easy and nutritious.
What we like about cooked raw unripe bananas is its texture and taste. The tempering or tadka in this poriyal recipe also packs in a lot of flavor and not to forget the mild sweetness that comes from grated coconut.
This recipe is again a no onion no garlic recipe. However if you prefer then you can include both onions and garlic in the recipe.
A few more Raw banana recipes on the blog are:
Raw banana poriyal is mildly spiced and goes very well as a side dish with sambar-rice, rasam-rice or with any South Indian meal of your choice. You can also have it with chapatis or plain paratha. It can also be packed in the tiffin box.
This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled.
How to make Vazhakkai Poriyal
1. First rinse the raw unripe bananas in fresh water. Peel them lightly. I usually remove the black spots and keep the peels as they are. Dice them and add them in a bowl containing water, so that they don’t darken.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in a shallow frying pan. Keep the heat to a low and add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds and 1 teaspoon urad dal (husked and split black gram).
Saute till the mustard seeds crackle and the urad dal turn golden. Fry these on a low heat ensuring that they don’t burn.
TIP: Coconut oil gives a very good taste. But you can use sunflower oil or peanut oil or any neutral flavored oil.
Note: Before you begin frying the spices and lentils, drain the chopped plantains of all the water and set aside.
3. Then add ½ teaspoon of cumin seeds and fry till they splutter. Keep stirring them.
4. Then add 1 to 2 dry red chili, a pinch of asafoetida (hing) and 8 to 10 curry leaves.
5. Stir and fry till the red chilies change their color. But take care not to burn the red chilies.
6. Now add the raw banana and salt as required.
7. Add ¼ to ⅓ cup of water or as required. Mix very well.
8. Cover the pan with a lid.
9. On a low heat simmer till the bananas have cooked well and softened. Do check a couple of times when the bananas are cooking. If the water dries up in the pan then add some more water and stir.
10. When the bananas have cooked, there should be no water in the pan. If there is some water, then simmer without the lid, till all the water dries. Then add 3 tablespoons of grated fresh coconut.
If you don’t have fresh coconut then add desiccated coconut.
11. Mix the coconut with the rest of the banana stir-fry. Switch off the heat.
12. Add 1 tablespoon of chopped coriander leaves. Mix again.
Serve banana poriyal with sambar-rice, rasam-rice or any kulambu gravy-rice. It can also be had with roti or plain paratha. Its an excellent healthy side dish and can also be packed for a lunch box.
More tasty and healthy poriyal varieties for you!
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Vazhakkai Poriyal | Raw Banana Poriyal
Ingredients
- 3 small to medium raw bananas (plantain or vazhakkai)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 to 2 dry red chili
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon urad dal (husked and split black gram)
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 8 to 10 curry leaves
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
- ¼ to ⅓ cup water or add as required
- 3 tablespoon grated coconut
- 2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
Instructions
preparation:
- Rinse the raw unripe bananas first. Peel them lightly. I usually remove the black spots and keep the peels as they are.
- Dice them and add them in a bowl containing water, so that they don’t darken.
making raw banana poriyal recipe:
- Heat 1 tbsp coconut oil in a shallow frying pan. Keep the flame to a low and add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds and 1 tsp urad dal. Saute till the mustard seeds crackle and the urad dal turn golden
- Then add 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds and saute till they splutter.
- Then add 1 to 2 dry red chili, a pinch of asafoetida, 8 to 10 curry leaves.
- Stir and saute till the red chilies change their color and.
- Now add the raw banana and salt.
- Add ¼ cup water. Stir very well.
- Cover the pan with a lid.
- On a low flame simmer till the bananas have cooked well and softened. Do check a couple of times when the bananas are cooking. If the water dries up in the pan then add some more water.
- When the bananas have cooked, there should be no water in the pan. If there is then simmer without the lid, till all the water dries. Then add 3 tbsp grated coconut.
- Mix the coconut with the rest of the banana stir fry.
- Add 1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves. Mix again.
- Serve banana poriyal with sambar-rice, rasam-rice or any kulambu gravy-rice or any South Indian meal. It can also be packed in a lunch box or had with chapati or plain paratha.
Notes
- The recipe can be doubled or tripled.
- For a spicy version add some green chillies.
- If you don’t have fresh coconut then add desiccated coconut.
- Coconut oil gives a very good taste. But you can use sunflower oil or peanut oil or any neutral flavored oil.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Vazhakkai Poriyal post from the archives first published on July 2015 has been republished and updated on January 2023.
Wow! That’s amazing! I never knew bananas can be cooked like this!
Can you also leave some data around how much does the dish weigh in grams, I.e., output…. so that it is easier for visitors to make sense of the calorie consumption, per cup of 50 grams or 100 grams as the case maybe…
thanks for the suggestion sashi. we use a serving portion right now to determine the calories. the entire dish is divided into the number of servings as mentioned in the recipe card. to be honest most food bloggers do not prefer to give the nutrition info as it is rough or approximate for eg the nutrition value of an ingredient will vary as per different software or programs available on the web. so i would suggest not to take these nutritional values in recipe websites as hundred percent accurate. if i had a team i would have weighed the dish in grams and updated.
What happened to the app that you used to have? I can’t find it anymore.
we removed the app as managing it was becoming very difficult. right now all the recipes are on the website.
Yummy dish tq soo much
welcome divya