Mixed Vegetable Sambar Made With Toor Dal

This sambar is so tasty and so yummy I love it very much on a cold day just as much as I love pepper soup. Sambar is from South India and it is very comforting  when it is cold out side while pepper soup is a most beloved African dish that I feel the same way about.  However this post is all about sambar.

Firstly there are countless sambar masala recicpes here on the net.  You can go to my Pinterest page or Google it on your own or you can use a store bought sambar masala which I guarantee is not going to be quite as tasty  as the one you make yourself.

I  washed and soaked 2 cups of toor dal. It is also called arar dal too for 4 hours to overnight.

I make my own  sambar recipe from here.

The link above is where you will find the sambar masala recipes I use and we are going to refer to this link in the future.

I added  to the pressure cooker 4 tbs of corn oil. You can use canola or any type of vegetable oil you wish. I added 1 pinch each of fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, cumin seeds and hing to the hot oil. I soaked  1 marble size of tamarind in some water. I have the seedless kind and I broke it up before I put it in the water to soak.   I added 4 curry leaves, 1 shallot chopped and stirred until it started to brown. I added 1 pinch each of turmeric,  red chili powder, pink salt and sambar masala if using store bought.  However if you make your own. Make enough for single use only and promptly use it  which is a lot tastier then the ready made masala. I added 1 roma tomato chopped  and cooked it until soft and mushy.

I added 1 handful of tindora  meaning ivy gourd that has been washed and cut in half lengthwise.  I threw in 1 handful each of  raw or unripe mango and  frozen lotus root. I washed and peeled 4 carrots and 4 drumsticks.

These Indian vegetables can be found at any Indian grocery store and some are frozen and packaged for convenience.   It is always best to use fresh but if you can’t find them then frozen is a hell of a lot better then canned. Drain the toor dal and give it one final rinse and add it to the pressure cooker with the masala and the vegetables that is sitting in the pressure cooker. Add the tamarind  along with the water it has been soaking in and add 1 pinch of jaggery  or turbinado sugar.  I chose the turbinado sugar this time around and I think this is better for diabetics then jaggary.

I added 1 1/2 liter of water to cover the dal and vegetables and waited for it to boil then I put the lid of the pressure cooker  on  and waited for the safety valve to pop up. I set the timer for 20 minutes  and let it cook hiss  whistle etc.

When time was up I turned the stove off and let the pressure escape. After the safety button fell I opened the pressure cooker and checked inside and everything was perfect. Suggested use is with idli, dosa and rice.

I had some singoda dosa with this and some leftover jasmine rice  I had made for the fish in Thai green curry.

It tasted really good and there was no way I was going to throw away some perfectly delicious rice.

Oh also I nearly forgot, please forgive me?   The vegetables that can be used also for sambar are red radishes and no I am not pulling your leg. I had watched a cooking video where Manjula Jain of Manjula’s kitchen  uses  radishes in her sambar and the wah  chef Sanjay Thumma uses them also in his.

Ok  they turned this  once radish hater in to a radish lover and it is just only in sambar only. The radishes gives it a lovely taste and it is the red ones I have been hating since childhood.  Cauliflower too another option for a sambar vegetable and even celery can  be used.

I hope you enjoy this sambar and I hope I have made it easy enough for you so you can make it without a problem.

Peace out peeps!!!!!!!