Sambhar is a lentil-based vegetable stew made with tamarind popular in South Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil cuisines, adapted in each to its taste and environment.

Ingredients

Method

1. Wash dal a few times in running water.



2. Pour it into a pressure cooker. Add 5 cups of water, haldi, salt. Close the lid and wait for the whistle.
3. When it starts whistling, reduce the heat. Wait for 5 more minutes. You may have to fine tune the time because it depends on your pressure cooker.
4. After 5 minutes, turn off the heat.
5. In the mean time, chop the vegetables. Peel and cut drumsticks in 2 inch pieces. Chop onions coarsely. Cut carrots in slices. In a small pan, heat ghee. If using butter, add a few drops of oil to prevent butter from burning.
6. Add mustard seeds and asafoetida. Wait till they puff up.



7. Break whole dried red chilies in 2-3 pieces and add to the butter.



8. Quickly add coarsely chopped onions and fry for 2-3 minutes.



9. Now add rest of the vegetables and cook till carrots are slightly soft.



10. Add chili powder, sambhar powder, kari patta and tamarind paste. Mix them up and turn off the heat.



11. Open the cooker after all the steam dies down.



12. Pour the vegetable mixture into the cooker and mix. Cook for a couple of minutes till it starts boiling. Turn off the heat. Sambhar is ready. If you want, you can top it with a tadka of ghee and mustard seeds.





13. Serve hot with plain boiled basmati rice.

Notes:

1. Some people don’t like the strong aroma of asafoetida. You can always leave it out but it’s very good for digestion.
2. Sambhar becomes a little thicker after it cools down.

Summary

Recipe Name

Sambhar

Author Name

Ruchi Garg

Published On

2010-04-15

Total Time

30M

Average Rating

5 Based on 1 Review(s)