How To Make Easy Sambar And Sambar Rice - A Two In One Recipe

Many of us require some easy recipes to save time while cooking. In this recipe I will explain how to make sambar and sambar rice, a two in one recipe, which is quick and easy to make as well as healthy and tasty.

An introduction on Sambar

Sambar is one of the popular dishes of south India. Sambar from different south states tastes different. Sambar is usually a broth otherwise known as kuzhambu or curry. There are lot of variations in sambar based on the type of vegetables and ingredients used. For non veg lovers there is mutton sambar a specialty of my Grandmother. Let me save that recipe for later. Now let us stay strictly vegetarian. Mostly sambar is loved by all, even in some restaurants sambar is given as dal soup.
It is not possible in today's busy life to prepare a full course dinner or lunch every day. Instant food in today's market is always not a healthy choice. So we have to find methods to make good healthy food quickly. One such recipe is quick sambar rice.
If we have to make a curry in a hurry we can gladly choose quick sambar recipe. This is a short cut recipe for quick sambar. If we dont have time to cook rice separately we can make all in one sambar rice. Sambar rice with roasted papad or raitha would be a great course for lunch or dinner.

Servings 2-3

Ingredients for Sambar

For pressure cooking

Toor Dal 1 cup, some may prefer Mysore dal
Onions big 2 chopped
Tomatoes medium 3 chopped
Garlic pearls 4-5
Coriander 1 handful
Curry leaves 10 nos
Chilli powder (1 tablespoon more or less as per one's requirement)
Coriander powder or curry powder 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder 1 teaspoon
Quick rasam powder 1/2 tablespoon
Asafoetida cube (1cm x 1cm)
Salt to taste( 1 tablespoon or more as per requirement)
Water 3 cups
Vegetables 2 cups sliced(any or combination of the following vegetables)
Brinjal, Hyacinth or broad beans, Beans, Banana stem, Capsicum, Radish, Fenugreek leaves, Fresh green peas

For seasoning

Oil 1 tablespoon
Mustard 1 teaspoon
Black gram broken 1 teaspoon
Cumin 1 teaspoon
Green chilly optional
Tamarind 1 marble size to be soaked in water and juice has to be extracted. 1 cup juice.

For sambar rice

raw rice or basmati rice 2 cup
water 4 cups

rasam powder recipe

blend fried 1 tablespoon of black pepper corns and 2 table spoon cumin seeds with 1 teaspoon asfoetida

Preparation of sambar

soak Toor dal in water for 10 - 15 minutes
Take a pressure cooker add the toor dal, chopped onions, tomatoes, vegetables, garlic pearls, half of curry leaves and coriander leaves, asfoetida, chilly powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, quick rasam powder, asafoetida cube and salt into the vessel. Add two cups of water.
That is add the entire ingredients mentioned under for pressure cooking in the cooker.
Cook the mixture for about 10 minutes on medium flame. For about 4 to 5 whistles in cooker approximately. Do not let the dal be over cooked. The dal cooked should be leafy or flaky.
Now heat the oil in a sauce pad, add the seasoning items such as mustard, black gram, cumin and green chilly along with remaining curry leaves. Fry the items, add the tamarind juice and remove the pan from stove. Add the contents into the cooker which has the cooked sambar mix.

Making sambar

Remove the pressure weight, add one cup water and coriander leaves to the sambar curry and close the cooker lid. Let the mixture cook for 7 minutes after the steam comes out of the top. Remove from stove.

Making sambar rice

Add 4 cups of water, remaining coriander leaves and rice in the cooker with sambar curry. Close the cooker lid without pressure weight. Once the steam comes from the top wait for 10 minutes. Remove from stove

Garnish the sambar or sambar rice with coriander and fried cashews(only optional) have with chips, papad, potato fries or raitha.