Home

Submit Recipes

Sambar

Categories: Vegetarian, World Cuisine (Indian)
Contributed by: MangoChutney

This is the sambar recipe learnt from my mom and slightly modified according to the ingredients available in US. This is very popular at my home. Try and enjoy!

Sambar Recipe:
Ingredients:
Toor dal – 1cup

Tamarind – ½ lemon size or ½ golf ball size (or less according to your taste)

3, 4 green chiles
Few curry leaves
1 large onion
½ inch ginger (optional)

Egg plant, okra, drumsticks, green gourd (lauki) or frozen mixed vegetables.

1 large tomato

Salt
Vegetable (or olive) oil
Turmeric
Red chili powder
Sambar powder

For tadka (seasoning): 1/4 teaspoon black mustard seeds, 1/4 teaspoon cumin, 1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds, pinch of asoefotida (also known as hing – optional)

Method:
Pressure cook 1 cup of toor dal with 1 and ½ cups of water. When the dal is cooked, mash the dal to a smooth paste and set aside. Add water if necessary while mashing it so its not too sticky.

In a microwavable bowl, take tamarind and add 1 cup of water and microwave for 1 minute. When the mix cools, squeeze the tamarind, save the pulp and set aside. Discard the tamarind wastes. Or you can substitute this step with 1 or 2 tea spoons (according to your taste) of ready made tamarind mix.

Cut the following vegetables into pieces of your desired size but not too small as they tend to get mushy – egg plant, okra, gourd (lauki), drum sticks making about 1 to 2 cups of cut vegetables. If you do not have these vegetables, you can substitute with about 1 cup of frozen mixed vegetables.

Cut the tomato into very small pieces.

Slit the green chillis length wise. Chop the onions length wise and about ½ inch wide (I like large pieces of onions in sambar).

Grate the ginger (ginger is optional)

Heat a 4 quart sauce pan; add 2 teaspoons of oil. When the oil is slightly hot, add black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, asoefotida (some people like garlic instead of hing) and curry leaves. When the mustard seeds start spluttering, add the onion pieces and green chili pieces and ginger. Sauté them for a few minutes. When the onions start getting translucent, add the vegetable pieces and tomato pieces and sauté for a couple of minutes, add 1 cup of water and let the vegetables cook for few minutes. When the vegetables start getting softer, add the mashed toor dal, tamarind paste, salt, a pinch of red chili powder, 2 pinches of turmeric powder, 1 or 2 tea spoons of sambar powder and add 4, 5 cups of water and bring the contents of the pot to a boil while stirring once in a while. Adjust the tastes accordingly. Adjust the dilution of sambar according to your liking by adding more water. Let the sambar boil until you see the froth. At the time of serving, garnish with fresh cut cilantro. Enjoy the aromatic and tasty sambar with white rice, upma, idli, dosa or vada.

Cheers,
Mango