Sambar recipe video
Podcast transcript and show notes
Today we are traveling back to South India to make a delicious sambar.
In North America we would describe sambar as a type of stew filled with lentils and vegetables.
Its consistency is thicker than a soup but thinner than a gravy. It’s very hearty because of the lentils and vegetables. The broth has a slightly sour taste and is often spicy. Sambar should be served steaming hot.
Ingredients in Sambar
Sambar recipes vary between regions of India and even families.
Traditionally, it includes a lentil base. Toor dal is the most common. Some recipes also use a combination of toor dal, moong dal, and masoor dal.
In fact, restaurants often use a blend of masoor dal and toor dal because masoor dal is a little cheaper than toor dal. So over the long run they can save some money. Restaurants also make their sambar more watery than what you might find in a typical South Indian home, again because this saves them money.
The vegetables in sambar vary by what’s locally available and in season, but generally sambar can include some combination of onion, shallot, drumstick, okra, carrot, tomato, pumpkin, eggplant, and other Indian vegetables.
The dal and vegetables are simmered in a tamarind broth and spiced with salt and sambar powder.
Finally, a traditional South Indian tharka of oil, mustard seeds, red chilies, and curry leaves is poured on top of the sambar.
What is sambar powder
Going back to the spices, sambar powder is one of the most important components as it’s the only dry spice powder added to the dish.
Sambar powder is a premade blend of spices, but despite the name, sambar powder is used to season many other South Indian dishes. It is somewhat analogous to garam masala in North Indian cuisine. It’s used across a wide variety of dishes and often gives a distinct South Indian flavor.
Every family has its own unique blend of spices to make sambar powder.
Traditionally, sambar powder includes dry roasted chana dal, urad dal, toor dal, dried red chilies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, and methi seeds (which are fenugreek seeds). Turmeric powder, asafoetida, and salt are often added at this stage too.
After the dry roasted spices cool, they are ground into a powder.
Many Indian families make their own sambar powder at home. My South Indian mom makes hers in a large batch and stores the extra in a jar for a couple of months.
But Indian stores in North America sell premade sambar powder from a variety of pakka Indian brands. You can also buy them online in the United States from Amazon and Walmart. Sambar powder is shelf stable when you store it in an airtight container in a dry environment. So you can order it online and use it a little bit at a time.
Sambar history and by region
The exact origin of sambar is lost to history, but it was first dated to the 17th century in Southern India.
Folklore claims that the Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Sambhaji created the dish himself in his Thanjavur palace in present day Tamil Nadu. The legend says that as a prince Sambhaji attempted to make dal for himself when the palace’s head chef was away. He loved his creation so much it became a regular dish and he named it Sambar, after himself.
Sambar recipes vary from region to region in India and between families depending on what vegetables are grown in each state.
Generally, sambar in Karnataka is more watery than sambars from the other states of India. The main reason for this is that wet pastes are popular to season sambar in Karnataka while other states use dry spices.
Tamil, Telegu, and Malayali sambars tend to be thick by comparison.
Tamilians use vegetables grown in the state such as drumstick, radish, and eggplant.
Andhra is often considered the spiciest sambar variety.
Sambar in Kerala usually contains grated coconut. Even if grated coconut is not used directly in the dish, coconut oil is often used for tempering spices while other regions of India use vegetable oil or ghee. The coconut oil gives a unique flavor to Malayali sambar.
Of course, I want to note that these differences are vast generalizations.
Sambar recipes have adapted and changed as families move around different parts of India and many non-native vegetables are shipped around India and the world.
Sambar in meals
Sambar is a versatile dish because it can be served with breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Although, the sambar recipe changes slightly depending on when it’s served.
Lunch and dinner sambar contains more vegetables and dal which makes it thicker. This heartier dish keeps the eater fuller longer, is more nutritious, and is better for eating with rice.
By contrast, a tiffin sambar is usually lighter.
Tiffin in India is a light meal, usually associated with breakfast or a tea-time lunch in the mid-afternoon.
A tiffin usually contains some combination of idlis, dosas, and vadas which are more filling than rice on its own. In fact, the traditional varieties of idlis, dosas, and vadas contain dals in their batter so it makes sense that a tiffin sambar will contain less dal and need to be less filling compared with the heartier sambars served with rice.
Like a good designer, a thoughtful Indian chef or home cook will create a sambar that complements the other dishes in the meal and leaves the eater full.
How to make sambar
I think recipes are best taught through video or text so I created a video recipe and a text version of this recipe to accompany this episode.
The video recipe is on my YouTube channel CookLikeAnAunty.
The text version is available on my website cooklikeanaunty.com/sambar.
See the link in the show notes.
That said, I want to give you an idea about how to make sambar. Teaching recipes over audio isn’t very easy, but I will do my best aunty impression to “give you easy way”. After all, we are trying to cook like an aunty.
Ok, let’s get to it.
You can break down making sambar into four larger steps: 1 cook the lentils, 2 cook the vegetables, 3 add the tamarind broth and spices, and 4 make the tharka.
Start by washing half a cup of toor dal and half a cup of masoor dal. Then add 1 cup of water and the dal to a pressure cooker. Cook it for four to five whistles. I like to use my Instant Pot to cook the dal. I set it on the Pressure Cook setting with high pressure and cook it for 30 minutes.
By the way, this recipe makes six servings so you can scale the amount of ingredients up or down accordingly.
While the dal is cooking, let’s cook the vegetables. Heat a saucepan on medium heat.
After the pan is hot, add 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil or ghee in the pan.
After the oil is also hot, add 3 cloves of minced garlic and a quarter diced onion and mix them well into the oil.
Once the onions turn translucent, add 2 diced roma tomatoes and mix.
After five-ish minutes, the tomatoes will get mushy. At this point, add 12 oz of cut green beans, 2 diced carrots, and 1 diced yellow squash. Mix them into the other vegetables.
After three to four minutes, the vegetables will get a little softer. Then add 4 cups of water and bring it to a light boil.
Now it’s time for step 3, adding the tamarind broth and spices.
You can add 2 Tbsp of diluted tamarind concentrate to the boiling vegetables.
Also add about 1 tsp of salt and 2 tsp of sambar powder.
By this point, your dal should be done cooking. Mash the dal using a potato masher. Then add it to the simmering vegetables.
Now is a good time to do a taste test. Feel free to add more taminard, salt, or sambar powder depending on if you want more sour, savory, or spicy flavors respectively.
Put a cover on the pan and let the sambar simmer for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables reach the consistency you prefer. You can turn off the heat after the vegetables are done cooking.
Finally, we will prepare the tharka which is a tempering of spices in oil.
Heat a separate small pot over high heat.
Once the pot is hot, add 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil or ghee. Use an oil with a high smoke point and preferably one with neutral flavor. I prefer peanut oil.
After the oil is hot, add 1 tsp of mustard seeds and cover the pot quickly. The mustard seeds will start popping.
After the mustard seeds stop popping, add 1 tsp of cumin seeds and cover the pot again. The cumin seeds will start crackling.
After the cumin seeds stop crackling, turn off the heat.
Add a pinch of asafoetida to the oil.
Carefully add about 10 curry leaves to the oil. Quickly cover the pot as the leaves will sputter oil back at you.
After the curry leaves stop sputtering, pour the oil into the sambar brewing in the other pot.
And there you have it, a delicious homemade sambar.
Making sambar can be tricky at first. It seems complicated the first time you make it and gets easier every time after that. As my mom says, “I have little bit of experience.” Your sambar will get faster to make and taster over the years.
As mentioned earlier in this podcast, sambar recipes adapt to the ingredients available as people move. The preceding recipe does just that. I created this recipe as a traditionally flavored sambar using vegetables we can easily find at the American grocery store.
If you want the downloadable recipe, fill out the form below.
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Thanks for listening! And see you next time.
Podcast credits
Background Music: Vathapi Ganapathim by Shobana Music
Title Music: Flow of The Ganges by Simon Folwar From #Uppbeat (free for Creators!) with License code M1ADLQ9V0KCQ3ECP
Sources
History of Sambar – Times of India
The Sambar You Eat Your Idlis With Is Actually Maharashtrian – Gulf News