Sambar – A common dish in South Indian homes especially in Tamilnadu. The base ingredients for sambar are dal, veggies and sambar powder. Generally sambar is prepared with Toor dal. We can prepare with other dals too. Sambar powder is a mixture of ground spices that does the trick for the tasty sambar. Sambar is different for each person. It is more customizable. Somebody like the sambar to be thick….. Somebody like this to be very thin and runny….. Somebody loves this with lot of veggies….. No veggies in the sambar except onion and tomato for somebody.
So you can customize the following sambar recipe(prepared with Toor dal in Uduppi style) according to your taste buds.
Ingredients:
- Toor dal(Thuvaram paruppu) – 1/2 cup
- Green chili – 3
- Sambar Onion or Small onion – 8 to 10 (If you cannot get small onion, use 1 big onion)
- Vegetables – Any veggies of your choice(like carrot, radish, drumstick, potato, brinjal, okra, beans) 1 to 2 cups. No veggies also fine.
- Tomato – 1
- Tamarind – a gooseberry size soaked in water
- Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon
- Hing – 2 to 3 pinches
- Jaggery or Sugar – 1/2 teaspoon
- Salt – to taste
Roast and make a fine paste of:
- Red chilies – 4
- Urad dal – 1 teaspoon
- Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Coriander seeds – 1 ½ teaspoon
- Fenugreek seeds(vendhayam) – 1/2 teaspoon
- Curry leaves – 3 sprigs
- Coconut(Fresh or frozen) – 3 to 4 teaspoon (grated)
For tampering:
- Mustard seeds and Urad dal – 1 teaspoon
- Curry leaves – a sprig
Recipe:
- Cook Toor dal in pressure cooker or in vessel. If you use pressure cooker, for 1/2 cup of dal use 1 ½ cups of water and leave for 3 whistles. Smash the dal coarsely after the pressure is released from the cooker.
- Soak Tamarind in little water for 15 minutes. Then extract the juice from it. Keep this aside.
- Cut Onion, Tomato and Vegetables. Slit the green chilies length-wise. Keep all this aside.
- Heat little oil in a pan. Add Red chilies, Urad dal, Cumin seeds, Coriander seeds, Fenugreek seeds, Curry leaves, Coconut and fry till it turns into light brown. When u fry these ingredients, you can smell nice aroma raising from it.
- Make a fine smooth paste of the fried ingredients with little water. Keep this aside.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add green chilies and Onion, fry till onion turns into golden brown.
- Add all the cut vegetables and fry for 2 minutes. Then add tomato, Hing and Turmeric powder, fry for a minute. Pour enough water to sink all the vegetables. Cover and cook till the vegetables are cooked.
- Once the veggies are cooked add Tamarind juice, Jaggery or Sugar, Salt and the Ground paste. Cover with a lid and bring this to boil once.
- Add cooked dal and water(Adding water depends upon the consistency you desire). Remove from heat just before the samabar starts boiling.
- Finally do the tampering. For tampering, heat oil in pan. Add mustard seeds and urad dal to it. Once it splutters add curry leaves to it. Remove from heat and pour this mix to the Sambar.
Goes well with: Idly, Vadai, Dosa, Ven pongal, White rice