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Sambar Recipe

My variation of making sambar. It will taste good. 
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time50 minutes
Course: Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Side Dish
Cuisine: South Indian
Servings: 4 People
Calories: 278kcal

Ingredients

for tamarind pulp

  • 3-4 spoon tamarind pulp (imli)
  • 1/2 small bowl hot water

vegetables for it

  • 1 medium size chopped carrot (gazar)
  • 2 medium size chopped potatoes (aloo)
  • 1/4 size chopped Bottle gourd (or one small bowl) (ghiya)
  • 1 big chopped onion (pyaz)
  • 1 medium size Capsicum (shimal mirchi)
  • 2 medium size Chopped Tomatoes (tamatar)

lentil or pulses for it

  • 2 cup Arhar Dal or Tuvar dal

spices and other ingredients

  • 1/2 teaspoon red chilies powder (lal mirch powder)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi powder)
  • 15-16 leaves curry leaves
  • 3 dried chilies
  • 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida (hing)
  • 2 teaspoon black mustard seeds (rai)
  • 2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
  • 2 teaspoon fenugreek (methi dana)
  • 2 teaspoon salt or according to your taste
  • 2-3 tablespoon cooking oil (you can use any cooking oil or use sesame oil, coconut oil, ghee etc.)
  • 4 glasses water or add as required

very important ingredient for sambar

  • 2 tablespoon sambar masala

Instructions

Steps for making tamarind pulp

  • soak 1.5 tablespoons of tamarind in 1/2 cup of hot water for 30 minutes.
  • After soaking tamarind will get soft. Squeeze it in the same water and discard the strained tamarind after squeezing.
  • Steive the pulp with a tea strainer to remove tamarind seeds and another left over of it.

Steps of cooking dal and vegetables

  • Soak dal in water half an hour before making it. After soaking it drain the water.
  • add dal and all the vegetables in the pressure cooker for boiling. I have already peeled and cut the vegetables into dices. 
  • Add 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
  • add 2.5 glass of water. Mix it will.
  • Cover the pressure cooker and cook it for 7-8 whistles.
  • When the pressure settles down, open the lid. And mix it well to mash it. Dal and vegetables will be cooked well. 

Making sambar after completing above steps

  • heat the kadai on stove
  • add 2-3 tablespoon of oil in kadai and heat it up
  • add mustard seeds meethi dana in oil and let is sputter
  • add fenugreek (rai ) in it and let it sputter too.
  • add cumin seeds (jeera) and fry it until its color changes to golden brown.
  • add 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida (hing) 
  • add 3 dried red chilies and cook it little.
  • add 15-16 curry leaves 
  • add 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • add 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
  • add 2 tablespoons of sambar powder
  • add 1.5 teaspoon salt or according to your taste.
  • cook all spices in it until it releases oil from it.
  • add all cooked mixture of dal and vegetables in it. and mix it well.
  • if its consistency is too thick then add water according to your choice.
  • add 3-4 tablespoons of tamarind pulp and mix it.
  • boil it for 4 to 6 minutes so that all the spices get infused in dal and vegetables.
  • Serve sambar with dosa, idli, vada, steamed rice, or plain chapati.

Video

Notes

  1. You can add a little bit of jaggery (gud) for adding a little sweet taste.
  2. As I earlier mentioned you can add different vegetables to it. If you use a vegetable like a pumpkin which gets mushy when you pressure cook it. Then, add this is kadhai with dal so that it will cook and not get mushy.
  3. Add tamarind at the end of the recipe not at the starting at the time of boiling vegetables.