Poriyal


Poṟiyal is the Tamil word for a fried, or sometimes sauteed, vegetable dish. The Kannada word for the same dish is Palya and in Telugu, it is Vepudu. It is usually made by shallow frying shredded or diced vegetables along with spices. The preparation would normally involve frying mustard seeds, urad dal, onions and then the main vegetable, and finally adding turmeric, various spices, dried red chillis and coriander. In Tamil Nadu, shredded coconut would be added as a dressing.
Poṟiyal serves as a side dish to a three-course meal of rice with sambhar, rasam and yogurt.
All poṟiyals by default have some vegetables and lentils, but many variations of the main vegetable exist:
Many other regional variations exist. Palya, a very common dish in the South Indian state of Karnataka is very similar to the poṟiyal. Some variations of the palya involve use of chana dal instead of urad dal. Porutu in Andhra region is prepared in almost same manner, but the name has become alternate to Guddu porutu, egg poṟiyal.

Etymology

The word poriyal refers to the cooking or preparation process involved in preparing the dish. The verb pori refers to stir frying, i.e., cooking in hot wok with a small amount of hot oil. The word Pori as a noun refers to puffed rice or popcorn, which is prepared in a similar manner.
Other Tamil words that refer to a dish based its cooking process are: