Olan is a true Kerala dish made with coconut milk and pumpkin as the main ingredients. I love the texture of the cooked beans (vanpayar is most common in olan) and the mild spices in this dish and make it now and then even as a side dish for roti. Olan is one of those dishes in a Kerala sadya that lends more variety than flavour since it’s quite mild and doesn’t necessarily hold its own when served with an avial or thoran.
KERALA OLAN RECIPE | ONAM SADYA RECIPES
So try this simple yet authentic Kerala Olan for this Onam this year and be surprised at how such simple ingredients can create such a magical dish.
KERALA OLAN RECIPE | ONAM SADYA RECIPES
Ingredients:
3/4 cup black-eyed beans
1 cup pumpkin, cubed
3 – 4 green chillies
1.5 cups coconut milk
1/2 tsp Jeera / jeerakam powder
Salt to taste
To Temper:
2 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
4 shallots sliced thin (optional)
A few curry leaves
How to Make Olan
1. Soak the beans for atleast 5 hours and pressure cook for 3 whistles in 3 cups water. Set aside. (I have once done this without soaking it and it came out fine. I am sure it depends on the kind of beans, the place and other factors so please soak them to be on the safer side)
2. Add the cubed pumpkin, slit green chillies, jeera powder and a little bit salt into a pan with 1 cup water and let it cook on a low fire until soft. Cook closed for best results but check to make sure it doesn’t get too mushy. This shouldn’t take more than 5-7 mins.
3. Add the beans and 1/2 cup coconut milk to the cooked pumpkin pieces. At this stage, adjust water so that the curry is not too watery or dry. Ideally, there should be enough liquid to cover the pieces. Cook for another 4 mins or so on low fire. If you feel the curry is too watery, add 1 tsp rice flour mixed with 2 tbsp water and mix well.
4. Add the rest of the coconut milk, adjust salt and heat through for not more than 2 mins. Remove from fire.
5. Heat oil and add all the ingredients for tempering. Once the shallots turn a golden brown (if using, otherwise just wait for the mustard seeds to pop), add it to the curry. Mix well and serve hot.
Notes
– Back home, my mom makes this with ashgourd (kumbalanga) and cowpeas (vanpayar). This is said to the more authentic version, the one that we see in Kerala Sadya. The reason why pumpkin is not used or is used in addition to ashgourd is because of the other important dish in a sadya that already uses pumpkin – erissery.
– You can use a mix of ashgourd and pumpkin, mix of yellow and white pumpkin or only yellow pumpkin, like I have done. Even with the beans there is a lot of flexibility. Cowpeas (Vanpayar) is the most common but sometimes people add the pods from yardlong beans (achinga payar).
Can I substitute pumpkin with someother veggie?
yes you can try yam
Believe it or not, 1) there is no jeera (Cumin) Authentic Kerala Olan. 2) the bean you have used id white, but the real recipe calls for the same but brown bean (van-pair).
If you have made this as an experimental dish, it is fine. if not, I find it hard to agree that this is real.
I have clarified this with my ammachi who is a repository of authentic Kerala recipes at Kottayam who is 85 years old.
regarding vanpayar, I have mentioned that in the notes of the olan recipe. i didn't have that in hand so used black-eyed peas. as far as jeera goes, we always add that in our version of olan and i am sure different homes/families/regions make it with minor variations.