Sambar

Sambar is very popular in the cooking of southern regions of India, especially in Tamilnadu and Andra Pradesh. It is also common in Srilankan dishes. I think the people who found out this have aimed at balanced diet, as it contains the right proportion of all the vegetables and cereals (ingredients in sambar powder).
Here is the tasty sambar...

Ingredients:

• Onion-2 (large) or 10-12 small onions
• Tomato-2 medium sized
• Cut vegetables-300 gms
• Sambar powder- 1and 1/2 heaped teaspoon
• Thoovar dal (Red gram/Pigeon pea)
• Tamarind juice -1 tablespoon (if desired)
• Oil for seasoning
• Salt

For garnishing:
Coriander leaves and curry leaves

For seasoning:
Mustard, Cumin Seeds, Urad dal, 1 red chilli or green chilli (if desired), curry leaves.



Method:

• Select any three or four vegetables and cut into equal large pieces.
• Usually Brinjal, carrot, Drumstick, radish are commonly used vegetables.
• Other than these vegetables, ladys finger, tunip, pumpkin, radish, brinjal, etc can be used seperately also.
• The taste differs according to the vegetable and the proportion used.
• Soak the Thoovar dal in water for 15-20 minutes and cook it seperately in a pressure cooker with the vegetables like radish, carrot,etc.,( which needs more time to cook).
• Heat oil in pan and add the seasoning items one by one as said in previous blogs.
• Fry onion and tomatoes in oil and add the remaining vegetables like brinjal, drumstick (which takes less time to cook).
• Add sambar powder(see previous blogs)and required amount of salt.
• Fry it for a minute and then add the required amount of water.
• When the vegetables are cooked well add the remaining vegetables and the cooked water.
• Smash the cooked thoovar dal (after draining the water)and add it to the mixture.
• Do not add the thoovar dal until all the vegetables are cooked well.
• Allow it to boil until the required consistency is attained.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and curry leaves.
  
• Can be served with plain rice, idli, dosa, pongal.