Sambar is one of my favorite veggie curries. A South Indian staple, this curry can never have too many veggies. Use your end-of-summer garden produce if you’re scratching your head wondering what else to cook up.
Toss in beans, eggplants, zucchini, peas, potatoes, tomatoes and more. Personally, I love my sambar with a lot of pumpkin and tomatoes. Ingredients can easily be found at your friendly neighborhood desi / Indian store. My favorute sambar powder brand is Baadshah.
INGREDIENTS
• Tamarind paste
• Water – 1 cup
• Toor dal – ½ cup
• Water – 2 cups
• Tomato – 2
• Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
• Asafoetida – a generous pinch
• Pumpkin – 1 cup
• Eggplant – 1
• Zucchini- 1
• French beans – a handful
• Water – 1 cup
• Salt – ⅛ tsp
TO TEMPER
• Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
• Urad dal – ¼ tsp
• Fenugreek seeds – 10
• Dry red chilli – 1
• Curry leaves
• Asafoetida – 1 pinch
• Small onions – 10
TO FLAVOR
• Sambar powder – 1 tbsp
• Cilantro leaves
• Salt
LET’S START COOKING
• Wash ½ cup toor dal twice and transfer washed dal to Instapot or a large cooking pot.
• Add 2 cups water and ¼ tsp turmeric powder.
• Add 1 spoon if tamarind extract, a generous pinch of asafoetida and 1 chopped tomato.
• Cook till dal is soft.
• Wash pumpkin well, scoop out seeds and fibrous strands, and cut into small pieces. Boil with 1 cup water and little salt.
• Cover the pot and cook on medium flame for 5 minutes. Once it’s soft, remove from heat and keep aside.
• In a pan, warm up sesame oil. Once hot, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add urad dal and fenugreek seeds.
• Add chopped onions, a few curry leaves and 1 dry red chilli with a pinch of asafoetida. Fry on low flame until onions are slightly browned.
• Add a tablespoon of sambar powder, give a quick stir and pour in the tamarind paste.
• Turn to medium flame and cook covered for 10 mins.
• Add a pinch of asafoetida, required salt and cooked dal along with water in it.
*I rinsed the dal and cooked using ¼ cup water and added to it.*
• Mix well, adjust salt and once it starts to boil, add cooked pumpkin along with water in it. Mix gently.
• Let it boil for 5 more minutes. Add chopped cilantro leaves and salt.
Serve with rice or fluffy idlis found…that’s right… in the frozen section at any Indian store!
