Sambar is a vegetable stew based on a broth made with tamarind and yellow lentils and a very popular South Indian dish.

Know what you Eat: Lentils are one of the best vegetable sources of iron. This makes them an important part of a vegetarian diet, and useful for preventing iron deficiency. Iron is particularly important for adolescents and pregnant women, whose requirements for it are increased.
Cooking Time: 15 min
Preparation Time: 15 min
Serves: 4

Ingredients

Tamarind – Goose berry size ball
Green chilly – 2 or to taste
Onion – 1 medium sized chopped lengthwise
Tomato – 1 medium sized finely chopped
Garlic (optional) – 2 peeled and crushed cloves
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Cooked Toor Dhal – 1 cup
Asafoetida – 1 small piece
Curry leaves – few
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Quick Sambhar powder – 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil – 1 tsp
Water

For Quick Sambar powder

Cumin seeds – 4 tsp
Coriander seeds – 4 tsp

I got this recipe from one of my friend long time back. This is very easy to make and very delicious and goes very well with Idli, Dosa and Vada. The consistency should be slightly watery than the regular sambar.

1) Dry roast cumin seeds and coriander seeds till they are nicely toasted, make sure they don’t become black and let it cool and powder it and keep it aside. You can take just 1 tsp each of cumin and coriander and dry roast, but in lot of blenders you can’t make a fine powder if the contents fall below the blade level and can only get a coarse powder. You can make this powder and use two tsp for now and store the rest for later use.
2) Soak tamarind in some water.
3) Heat a pan add oil, once the oil becomes hot add the mustard seeds and the asafoetida piece.
4) After the mustard seeds splutter well add the chilly, garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Then add the sliced onion and curry leaves.
5) Once the onions turn translucent add the tomato pieces, turmeric powder and salt, sauté till the tomato pieces are half cooked.
6) Now squeeze out the tamarind pulp from the soaked tamarind with just enough water and add it to the above, let this boil for 5 minutes.
7) Combine the quick sambar powder to the cooked dhal and mix it thoroughly without any lumps and add it to the above. Add water if required, the consistency of this sambar should be slightly thin then the regular sambar. Stir and cook for 5 more minutes.
8) Switch off and garnish with chopped cilantro and the sambar is ready to serve.

This dish is our contribution to RCI-Pondicherry Cuisine, hosted by Lavi as an entry from Tamil Nadu. RCI was originally started by Lakshmi.