Sambhar – Everbody loves idli and dosa but a good sambar and chutney makes all the difference. Sambar is a lentil and vegetable stew, most popular in South India. Sambhar can be eaten with rice, chapati, idli and dosa. Sambar is a lentil-based vegetable stew, cooked with pigeon pea and tamarind broth. It is popular in South Indian and Sri Lankan cuisines. The stew has been adapted into Burmese cuisine as a popular accompaniment to Burmese curries. The famous South Indian dish smoothens the digestion as they are loaded with fibres which improve gut health. Fibre adds bulk to the stool, whereas the rich water content of sambar facilitates passing of stool through the intestinal walls easily.
Sambhar enhances the taste of delicious dishes like Idli, Vada and Dosa. Apart from these three dishes, there are many other things with which sambar is served. Make South Indian style sambar by mixing lentils, sambar masala, curry leaves and mustard seeds.
Sambhar is now famous all over the world, not just a part of South India’s food. Not only is it wonderful in taste, but it also has excellent health benefits, which help a lot in keeping you healthy. Most of the dieticians also recommend eating idli-sambar, as it is a treasure trove of many health benefits. It requires cooking steamed/boiled vegetables and lentils with sautéed tomato onion and spicy mix of tamarind, Sambar Masala Powder and varieties of spices. You can use mixed vegetables like Cauliflower, Drumsticks, Capsicum, Radish, Potato, Brinjal, Carrot, French Beans, Okra and so on. Use maximum 3 to 5 varieties of vegetables so that Sambar doesn’t turn thick and Vegetables don’t take away Slurpee-ness of this delicious dish. Vegetables are cooked along with arhar dal in pressure cooker.
If you are looking for more ways to cook with paneer, check out the tasty recipes :
Sambar | Aloo Gobi | Methi Matar Malai | Jeera Aloo | Gujrati Khichdi
Sambhar
Ingredients
- ½ Cup pigeon peas arhar dal, toor dal
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric / haldi
- 1 ½ cup water or as reqd
- 1 tablespoon tamarind
- ½ cup hot water
Vegetables:
- 20 grams pumpkin,
- 20 grams French beans
- 20 grams potatoes,
- 20 grams okra
- 20 grams brinjals
- 2 drumsticks scraped and chopped
- 6 -7 small onions sambhar or normal onions sliced
- 1 medium tomato chopped
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
- 1 tsp salt or as to taste
- water as required
- 2 tablespoon oil refined/sesame, coconut or what ever you deem fit.
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1-2 red chili dry
- 7-8 curry leaves
- 1 pinch asafetida
- 1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds / methi dana
- 1 teaspoon coriander leaves to garnish
Sambhar Powder :
- 1 tablespoon chana dal
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 2 dried red chilies or more to taste
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 clove
Instructions
- Soak tamarind in water for 30 minutes
- Rinse dal, drain water and add dal in a pressure cooker, Add turmeric and water and pressure for 10-12 minutes or 7-8 whistles on medium flame.
- Let the pressure cooker cool. Open the cooker, dal should be cooked and it should be mushy.
- Mash dal. and keep aside.
- Meanwhile rinse all the vegetable.
- Add all the vegetable with onion, tomato in a pan. Put the pan on medium flame
- Add haldi, red chilies powder and salt as per taste. Add 2 cups of water. mix well.
- Cook the vegetable till done.
- Add tamarind pulp and sambhar powder. Mix well
- Add mashed dals, mix well.
- simmer on medium low flame and bring to boil.
- put off the stove as soon as the dal is on boil.
- Heat oil and add mustard seeds and let it crackle.
- Add dry red chilies, curry leaves, fenugreek leaves and hing
- fry till the red chilie change color
- add this to sambhar dal.
- Cover the lid to infuse the tadka with dal.
- Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with chapati, naan, rice or idli, dosa.
Sambhar Powder :
- Heat a pan and add all masala for sambhar powder and heat for 1 minute. Grind these masala in a grinder.
