When I started this blog, I wouldn’t have imagined writing about this dish. Not because it is already such a popular dish and doesn’t really need introducing, but more so because growing up and up until very recently, I never really liked it at all. But like they say, our tastebuds change constantly, and what I didn’t like up until a year ago, changed completely when mum and dad visited me last year. This was when my mum made Sambar at home by grinding a fresh powdered spice at home. To the reader who is hearing about Sambar for the first time, it is a lentil and veggie stew and is such a popular and staple food in the South Indian states, and to be honest it’s going to become a favourite companion to your rice dishes.
Growing up, I remember making faces when I’d find out that sambar was on the menu. So childish! And this is despite the fact that my family and I originally hail South India where Sambar is a staple food. The fact that I didn’t like sambar was always a point of discussion among my friends and they’d knowingly annoy me more saying that they’d come home and ask my mum to make them sambar rice.
When I moved to the UK, I never bothered learning how to make Sambar, because I never once missed it or had a craving for it. You need really good sambar powder – this is the spice mixture that actually bring out all the distinct flavours. I didn’t know how to make it, and never asked my mum for it. But all this changed last year, when mum made sambar to accompany Dosas – which is an Indian rice based pancake. The sweetness of the onions perfectly complimented the sourness from the tamarind paste. The dal was perfect balanced by the spice mix and acts as the perfect source of proteins and deliciousness.
This recipe is adapted from my mum’s recipe and has soon become a firm family favourite. Serve this sambar alongside fresh hot rice with a dollop of ghee, some poppadoms, pickle and yogurt. Pro tip – add some of the pickle to your bowl of sambar, don’t tell anyone else.
| Prep Time | 10 mins |
| Cook Time | 40 mins |
| Servings |
people
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- 2 medium onions cubed
- 2 medium tomatoes quartered
- 1 green chilli slit
- 1 medium aubergine/small brinjals cubed - Optional
- 3-4 okra slit - Optional
- 100 gm red pumpkin cubed - Optional
- 2 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
- 4-5 curry leaves fresh or dried
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp fenugreek seeds Optional
- 1-2 dried red chillies
- 1 tsp asafoetida or hing
Ingredients
Veggies
For the Tempering
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For the Sambar powder
- Dry roast the red chillies, urad dal and chana dal until crisp. Set aside and cool.
- Now separately dry roast the coriander seeds until they are aromatic. Set aside and cool.
- Now dry roast the fenugreek seeds, set aside and cool. Then dry roast the cumin seeds and set aside.
- Once all the ingredients have cooled, grind them. Store in an airtight container until you use.
For the Sambar
- Wash the dal in water three times until the water is clear.
- In a deep bottomed pan, put two cups of water to the dal add turmeric and asafoetida, and cook on a medium flame until the lentils are cooked and can be swished easily.
- Use a masher to mash the dal. Season the dal
For the veggies and the dal
- In a large pot, add 4 cups of water, the chopped onions, split green chilli and tomatoes.
- If you’d like to use aubergines, then first sauté them in a pan with 1 tbsp of oil. Same with the okra and red pumpkin. Once sautéed, add these to the pot of water with the rest of the veggies.
- Let the veggies all cook, they should still hold their shape though.
- Once the vegetables have fully cooked, add in the mushy dal to the veggies and mix.
- Add turmeric, sambar powder and season with salt.
- In a bowl, make the tamarind pulp by adding some hot water from the veggies to the tamarind. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and squeeze the tamarind so that a nice brownish thick pulp forms.
- Add this pulp to the dal and veggies and stir to combine.
- Adjust the consistency by adding extra hot water if required and season well.
For the tempering:
- In a saucepan, heat oil or ghee.
- When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, chana dal and urad dal. Sauté till aromatic and the dal turning golden.
- Now add to this the curry leaves, asafoetida and halved dried red chillies.
- Roast all the ingredients until the curry leaves turn crisp and then add this tempering to the simmering dal.
- Add a couple of teaspoons of the simmering dal into the saucepan, to soak up all the tempering flavours from the saucepan. Toss back all the dal back into the deep dal pan.
Final steps:
- Once the tempering has been added to the sambar, stir everything together.
- Season well and check consistency of the sambar.
- Turn off the heat and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
- Serve alongside Dosas and chutney or with rice.
