Tingle-UR-Tastebuds

Making sambar for idly/dosa is just an art. Born and bought up in a South Indian Chettinad family the art of making this sambar has become easy. No excuse in that. Just like how North Indians make roti, they will never face any problem in doing it as it is their integral part of cooking. Day in and day out they make the roti so it is easy for them. Likewise for a South Indian it’s very easy to make this sambar. Yes follow my steps and anyone can make aromatic sambar and you will never turn back from this recipe.

This is a very easy recipe and it will not take very long to make using a pressure cooker. I like to pressure cook the toor dal first and then cook the vegetables for the sambar. The difference between the sambar we make for lunch and the one for breakfast/dinner is the adding of sambar powder or chilies. The sambar for lunch has sambar powder for spiciness and the sambar for breakfast/dinner has chilies for spiciness.

Adding the Sambar Masala to this sambar at the end enhances the flavour. Try this recipe and do leave a comment if you enjoyed.

Cuisine: Indian(South) | Category: Side Dishes For Idly/Dosa  | Prep time: 20 mins | Cook time: 15 mins | Serves: 4

 

Ingredients

• Onion – 1 medium sized(chopped as shown)
• Tomato – 1 medium sized (chopped medium as shown)
• Potato – 2 medium sized (chopped big as shown)
• Brinjal – 2 long variety (chopped criss-cross as shown)
• Toor Dal/Tuvaram Paruppu – 3/4 cup (cooked)
• Tamarind Paste – 1 tsp. (Increase or decrease according to taste)
• Green Chilies – 6 to 7 (cut into halves- reduce or increase according to taste)
• Sambar Masala – 1 tsp.
• Coriander leaves – little chopped
• Salt as needed.

To Temper

• Oil – 2 tsp.
• Mustard/Kadugu – 1/4 tsp.
• Urad dal/Ulunthu – 1/2 tsp.
• Cumin seeds/Seeragam – 1/4 tsp.
• Hing – 1/4 tsp.
• Dry red chili – 1 no. (If needed)
• Curry leaves – A spring

METHOD

• Take all your ingredients ready.
• Pressure cook toor dal with enough water for three to four whistles until soft.
• After the pressure releases open the pressure cooker, transfer the cooked dal to a bowl and set aside.
• Chop the onion, tomato, green chilies, potatoes and brinjal as shown.
• Take little oil in a pan and saute the chopped veggies together for few mins.
• Transfer the sauteed vegetables and half of the cooked toor dal to the pressure cooker.
• Fill it with water until the vegetables get covered.
• Add required amount of salt and turmeric.
• Pressure cook everything for just one whistle in medium flame.
• Open the pressure cooker after the pressure releases. Check the consistency and add required amount of toor dal and mix everything well.
• Check the taste at this stage for spiciness. If the spice level is less then add a dry red chili while tempering.
• Take oil in a vessel for tempering.
• Temper mustard, cumin along with hing, dry red chili(if needed) and curry leaves.
• Transfer the Sambar into the vessel.
• Now add the tamarind paste and sambar masala.
• Finally add the chopped coriander leaves.
• Bring everything to a boil and check the taste and switch off the stove.
• Sambar is ready and it can be served with Idly/Dosa/Idiyappam/Upma.

Note :  I pressure cook the dal separately as we like the dal mashed up in the sambar. While pressure cooking add few drops of oil. This prevents the overflowing of the dal.

Adding green chilies we sometimes will not know the right amount. If the spiciness is less add a dry red chili to the tempering and can add more sambar masala also as it has dry red chilies. If the spiciness is more by chance just taste before tempering – remove the chilies from the sambar and discard.

We like the sambar thick. The consistency is upto ones taste so it can be altered by adding more water or less dal.

Adding Sambar Masala in the end makes it flavorful. So don’t skip it.

I generally don’t add any other vegetable other than given above. If you want can add some carrots, but keep an eye on the spice level as carrots tend to make it sweet.

Visual clicks

Sambar is ready to be served. Serve them with Idly/Dosa/Idiyappam/Upma. While serving for kids just add little ghee on top of hot idly and serve it with sambar. Try and let me know if you liked it.