Simple Sambar ( Lentil and Vegetable Gravy)

Sambar is one of the dish which you can find in every south Indian homes or marriage functions..It is a mixture of dal and vegetables which has a spicy and tangy flavour to it..And this is one of the dish which I grew up with...

In our house Amma makes this 4 times a week and it is really close to us...I am totally surprised that I don’t have this recipe in my blog...That is a kind of sad and pity..

My Blog has 300+ recipes and How come I didn’t post this till now...OH..I might have forgot that..OOPS Sorry..

So the time is arrived and here you have the recipe..I have a simple sambar dish which taste perfect with dosa,idli or pongal...

You can have this with rice too but I have another sambar recipe which goes perfect with rice..That one has tons of vegetables in it..I will post that in another day..

This recipe uses Sambar powder.. And for you Folks who cannot find that,I have a instant sambar powder recipe below..So I think that might help..

Here you go for the recipe..

Ingrediants:

Toor Dal / Tuvaram Paruppu / Split Pigeon Peas -1 cup

Onion-1 large chopped

Tomato-2 chopped

Potato-3 Chopped

Sambar Powder-2 tblspn ( See below)

Tamarind -1 small lime size ( if using paste use 1 tblspn)

Green chilli-2

Salt to taste

Sugar-1 tsp

Cilantro / Coriander leaves for garnishing

For Tempering:

Oil-1 tblspn

Mustard seeds / Kaduku-1 tsp

Cumin seeds / Jeerakam-1 tsp

Dry Red chilli-1

Hing / Asafoetida / Kaya podi- ¼ tsp

Curry leaves-1 spring

For Quick Sambar Powder:

For making instant sambar powder...Mix 1 tsp of chilli powder,1 tblspn coriander powder,1 tsp turmeric powder,1 tsp cumin powder together. Store this in air tight container..

Method:

Dissolve tamarind in ½ cup of water. Add in sambar powder and mix well.Set this aside for a moment..

Soak Toor dal for 30 mins and put that in pressure cooker...Add in onion,tomato,potatoes,green chillies to this..

Pour in 3 cups of water and cook it for 3 whistles. Simmer it for 5 mins. Switch off the flame and let the pressure go all by itself.

Bring the dal to a boil again and pour in the tamarind water in this..Season with salt and sugar..Taste it and adjust to your taste..Simmer it for 10-15 mins..

Now make tempering by heating some oil and crackling mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing, red chilli and curry leaves..

Pour this over the sambar and mix well..

Throw in a handful of cilantro and mix well..

Serve this with rice,dosa or idli...

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Pictorial:

Take all your ingrediants...Please add sugar in this list..

Dissolve some tamarind in water..I used tamarind paste...

Add in sambar powder...I used my instant sambar powder

Mix well...

Prepare all your vegetables

Take soaked toor dal in a pressure cooker

add in all vegetables

add in some water

Cook it till done..I mean the dal should be very soft and potatoes should be cooked

Pour this in a kadai and heat it up

add in the prepared spice mixture to this

season with some salt and sugar....

Simmer for a while

Make tempering with the ingrediants given in the list

pour that over the sambar

add in tons of cilantro...This give a nice aroma to the sambar...Don't do sambar without cilantro...

Serve...Does that look inviting

I need some idli's now...