Category: Soups & Dal, Vegetarian Recipes
Cuisine: Indian, South Indian
Yields:
6 Servings
Difficulty: Medium
“Sambar” is a vegetarian stew made with lentils and vegetables. This dish is from South India. Sambar can be made with lentils and a single vegetable or with a mix of vegetables. This is an easy sambar dish made with radish. White radish or Daikon is known as mooli in India.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Wash and soak dal in water for 30 minutes. Drain completely, add chopped tomatoes, 3 cups water and turmeric and pressure cook this for 4 whistles.
- When cool, mash the dal and keep aside.
- Chop the radish or mooli into thin slices. Now add the radish/mooli pieces back into the pressure cooker> Mix well and add in a little more water if necessary. Add in the tamarind paste. Turn the gas on to simmer for about 10 minutes or until the vegetable is fully cooked.
- Heat ghee in a pan. Add in the mustard and fenugreek seeds. When the seeds splutter, add the shallots and curry leaves and asafoetida. When the shallots brown, pour this into the pressure cooker and let the sambar simmer again for about 5 minutes, before turning it off. Garnish with coriander leaves.
- INSTANT POT METHOD: Start the instant pot in Sauté mode and heat oil in it. Add mustard, asafoetida, and curry leaves to it. In about 30 seconds, add the chopped shallots and sauté for couple of minutes. Then add tomatoes, sambar powder and salt. Now add the mooli/radish, toor dal and 3 cups of water. Close the instant pot and cook the sambar for 8 minutes under high pressure. Let the pressure release , remove the lid of IP and then add in tamarind paste and finely chopped cilantro and simmer for couple of minutes (putting it back on saute mode).