Instant Sambar

I really don’t understand why weekends wear skate boards. Or maybe something faster than that! 😕 They just come and go, with things done half and Saturday nights is for yearning and wishing I had more time. If anybody asks me what did I do over the weekend, I did nothing much but I still did something. Some shopping, sat simply at home working on the old posts on the blog, and then visited a friend of mine – I guess that does sound like a decently packed weekend! I guess I need to learn how to space out my time so that I don’t feel drained… hmm…

Coming to today’s recipe… I had already mentioned how crazy my girls are for idlis. Leftover batter is usually loosened out and converted to dosas. Most of the time, my girls need it only with their favorite coconut chutney, but at times they do ask for sambar too. Now cooking sambar at a time when you just need so little to go with is not something I would like to do. Mostly, I don’t stock sambar powder at home since I don’t seem to like the taste of any of the powdered mixes. One such sambar request at an odd time landed me on this link and I got to making it. The hing and the tamarind pulp will actually not make you miss any sambar powder in this one! HD was surprised that I went ahead and made sambar and then when he tasted it, he looked at my face very quizzically. Everybody was so shocked that this mock sambar tasted so close to the real deal. So now each time it’s dosas, then this sambar makes its appearance – it is that easy. Thank you Padhu for this lovely recipe which is such a keeper!

4.50 from 2 votes

Instant Sambar

Course Curry

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 3

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup toor dal washed
• 1 onion roughly chopped
• 1 to mato roughly chopped
• 1 carrot peeled and chopped (optional)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 green chillies slit
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• Salt to taste
• A small pc tamarind soaked in 1/2 cup hot water
• FOR TEMPERING:
• 1 tsp oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• A fat pinch hing
• A sprig curry leaves

Instructions

• Add ingredients till salt in a pressure cooker with a cup of water. Cook on one whistle and switch off. Allow the pressure to go by itself.
• Nicely smash the tamarind and discard the pulp. Open the pressure cooker, add the tamarind water and allow to boil for sometime.
• Heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves. Add into the sambar.

Notes

I have added only carrots here, you can add any vegetable of your choice.