Hotel style sambar recipe

Sambar is a healthy as well as nutritious South Indian recipe which has a mix of one or two types of vegetables along with lentils, tamarind, sambar powder and a few spices. Sambar can be made with just one vegetable or a mix of vegetables. A basic sambar is made by cooking vegetables and dal separately. The dal is cooked till it is mushy and then mashed. Cooked vegetables, mashed dal, tamarind pulp and sambar powder are mixed together and then simmered for some minutes. Sambar served with rice or idli makes up for a complete meal.

A good sambar powder always yields a good and tasty sambar. so when you make it, try to have a good aromatic sambar powder. You can also use your favorite brand of sambar powder. I make Sambar powder at home and I feel homemade sambar powder gives the best and perfect taste in sambar.

I usually add a mix of vegetables from the list mentioned above or just one vegetable in the sambhar. In this sambar recipe, I have added drumstick, okra, pumpkin, carrots, brinjals, french beans and small onions.

HOTEL STYLE SAMBAR

Recipe card for Hotel style sambar recipe:

HOTEL STYLE SAMBAR

PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES

COOK TIME: 30 MINUTES

TOTAL TIME: 40 MINUTES

CUSINE: SOUTH INDIAN

AUTHOR: SWATI RASOI

SERVES: 4

INGREDIANTS

Cooking dal

1 cup toor dal or arhar dal

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 to 4 cups water or add as required

Cooking vegetables

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

5 to 6 fenugreek seeds (methi seeds) — optional

1 to 2 dry red chillies — halved and seeds removed

10 to 12 curry leaves

2 pinch asafoetida (hing)

1 to 1.5 cups cleaned and chopped vegetables like pumpkin, carrot,onion

1 to 2 drumsticks, scraped and chopped in 3 to 4 inches sticks.

1 onion, roughly chopped

2 green chilli, finely chopped

1 inch ginger, finely chopped or paste

3 medium size tomato, finely chopped

6 to 7 pearl onions (sambar onions) or 1 small to medium onion, thickly sliced

½ teaspoon kashmiri red chilli powder

1.5 to 2 cups water or add as required

2 tablespoons sambar powder

Salt per taste

for garnish

1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves (cilantro leaves)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cooking Dal

1. Rinse ½ cup of toor dal a couple of times in water.
2. In a pressure cooker add toor dal with 2 cups of water and also add pinch of turmeric.
3. Pressure cook it for 5–6 whistles on medium flame.
4. When the pressure settles down on its own, open the lid and check the dal. The dal should be completely cooked and mushy.
5. Mash the dal with a spoon or wired whisk. Cover and keep aside.

Cooking vegetables

1. When the dal is pressure cooking — rinse, peel and chop the veggies like carrot, pumpkin, bottle guard, drumstick, onions and tomatoes. You can choose veggies whatever you required. Drumstick is essential as it is south Indian vegetable.
2. Now, In a deep sauce pan, heat up 2 tablespoon oil and add mustard seeds.
3. Let the mustard seeds crackle.
4. Add 10 to 12 curry leaves, 5 to 6 methi seeds and 2 pinches of asafoetida (hing).
5. Fry them till the red chilies change color and curry leaves become crisp.readmore…