Sambher

Sambhar

Sambhar is an amazing authentic south Indian dish made with Toor dal and vegetables and seasoned with mustard seeds, asafetida and curry leaves tadka and other ingredients are add to it according to the personal taste. Sambhar is usually served with south Indian dishes and white boiled rice, but all over India it is served with dosa, idly and vada. Sambhar is a versatile dish which can be prepared with or without the vegetables or with one or combination of vegetables. Vegetables typically and frequently used to make sambhar are okra, eggplant, drumsticks, pumpkins and carrots. The taste of the sambhar would vary with the vegetables used to make it, while the preparation remains the same. Sambhar is a complete dish where you do not need to make separate vegetable dishes.

Ingredients:

1       Cup Toor dal (Arhar Dal)
1       Medium onion – fine chopped
1       Medium tomato – Chopped into small pieces
½      Teaspoon turmeric powder
2       Teaspoons tamarind concentrated pulp
4 To 5 tablespoons Sambhar powder or to your taste (Any preferred brand) 1½ Teaspoon salt or to your taste
1 Teaspoon sugar or to your taste
2 Teaspoon lemon juice
1 Teaspoon vegetable oil

Ingredients for seasoning:

1     Teaspoon mustard seeds
1     Pinch of asafetida (Hing) or to  your taste
2     Whole dry red chilies – break them half
6 Curry leaves
2 Tablespoon vegetable oil

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Toor Dal (Arhar Dal)

Curry leaves

Tamarind Pulp (Imly)

Sambhar powder

Mustard seeds, Asafetida & Red chilies

Lemon juice

Optional vegetables:

Any one or combination of vegetable could be added to sambhar. The amount of vegetables could be adjusted according to taste.

1     Cup chopped eggplant- cut into 2” cubes
1     Cup chopped potatoes – cut into 2” cubes
1     Cup okra- chopped or whole baby okra
½    Cup pumpkin- chopped into 1” cubes
1     Cup green beans – chopped
1     Cup carrots –chopped in to small pieces
5     To 6, 3” long drumstick (vegetable)

Directions:

1. In a pressure cooker add dal and wash, changing water several times until the
water appears clear and then soak dal in 6 cups of warm water for 15 to 20
minutes.

In a Pressure cooker add Toor Dal

Wash Toor Dal

Soak Toor Dal in warm water

Toor Dal is soaked

2. Once dal is soaked drain all the water out and wash.

Rinse & wash soaked Dal

Soaked Toor Dal

3. Add 6 cups of water. turmeric powder and salt and one teaspoon of oil and mix. When Dal is boiling it create lot of foam and the foam comes out from the pressure cooker to prevent that is a good idea to add little oil.

Add water in soaked Dal

Add Turmeric in Dal

Add salt and mix

Add oil and mix

4. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and place the weight on the lid and cook
on medium high heat.

5. In about 8 to 10 minutes pressure cookers will start steaming turn the heat down and cook for 6 to7 minutes. Turn the heat off and wait until steam goes down. Different brand of cooker required different time to cook.

6. Open the pressure cooker. Turn the heat on to medium, with the cooking spoon
mix dal well so there are no lumps.

Close the Pressure Cooker

Open the Pressure Cooker

7. Add chopped onion and mix.

8. Add chopped tomatoes and mix and let the Toor Dal cook.

Mix Dal well

Add chopped onions

Add chopped tomatoes

Mix onions and tomatoes

9. If adding the vegetables add this time and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until
     vegetables become tender and Toor dal become like a thin soup. (I did not add
any vegetables)

10. While Dal is cooking dilute sambhar powder and mix. (if you add powder
without diluting it create lumps, then you have to breaks lumps.)

11 Add sambhar powder, tamarind pulp (imily), sugar and lemon juice and mix
and cook for 8 to 10  minutes.

Add water in Sambhar powder & mix

Add sambhar powder in Dal

Mix sambhar powder well

Add Tamarind Pulp (Imly) & mix

Add lemon juice and mix

Add sugar and mix well

12. While Dal is cooking prepare tadka for seasoning.

13. In a small pan heat 2 tablespoons of oil, add mustard seeds and asafetida and
fry for 1 minutes or until seeds are fried.

14. Add curry leaves and broken red chilies pieces and fry for few seconds, or
until chilies become brown. Turn the stove off.

In a pan add oil & Mustard seeds & Asafetida

Add curry leaves

Add Red chilies and fry

Tadka is ready

15. Once onions and tomatoes become soft add the seasoning tadka to the dal and
mix and cook for another 5 minutes.

16. Toor dal tends to observe water, and sambhar is generally soupy in
consistency, add 1 or 2 cups of water to the desired consistency, bring the
Dal to boil, turn the stove off.

Pour tadka in the Dal

Tadka in the Dal

Mix tadka well in Toor Dal

Sambhar is cooked

Tips:

1. Instead of using tamarind pulp you could use tamarind. Take pitted lemon size tamarind and soak it in 1 cup of warm water. Once tamarind is soaked mash it and squeeze it to take the pulp out. Then strain it in a strainer to take the juice out. Make it about 1 cup of juice then instead of adding tamarind pulp add tamarind juice.

Please take the time to let me know what you think about my recipe. Your comments would be helpful to me to improve the recipe.

Thank you

Geeta Seth

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