Ingredients
Tempering
Method
- Pressure cook the dal with turmeric and 2 cups water until very soft, then mash.
- Cook the vegetables and tomato in 2 cups water with a little salt until just tender.
- Squeeze the tamarind, strain the water into the vegetables, add sambar powder, jaggery and salt, and simmer 8 minutes.
- Add the mashed dal and simmer for 5 minutes; adjust the thickness with water.
- For the tempering, heat oil, pop the mustard seeds, then add fenugreek, chillies, asafoetida and curry leaves. Pour over the sambar. Serve with rice, idli or dosa.
The spices that matter
Black or brown mustard seeds start most South Indian, Gujarati and Maharashtrian tempering: they pop in hot oil before curry leaves and dals go in. G…
No mustard seed? Cumin seeds give a different but workable tempering. Yellow mustard seeds are milder.
Fried in hot oil with mustard seeds for sambar, rasam, poha, upma, chutneys and Kerala and Tamil dishes.
No curry leaves? No real substitute. Lime zest gives a hint of the citrus note.
Gives sambar, rasam, pulihora and sweet chutney their sour taste.
No tamarind? Lime juice with a little brown sugar, or kokum.
A pinch in hot oil is the base of dal tadka, sambar, kadhi and many Jain and Brahmin dishes that use no onion or garlic.
No asafoetida? A little garlic and onion powder together give a similar savoury effect.
A few seeds go into South Indian tempering, sambar powder and pickles. Soaked fenugreek helps idli and dosa batter ferment and adds softness.
No fenugreek seed? A pinch of mustard seed with a little maple syrup gives a rough approximation, but most recipes are fine without it.
A pinch goes into almost every dal, sabzi and curry, usually with the onions or straight into the dal as it boils. Fresh turmeric root is pickled in …
No turmeric? There is no real substitute for flavour. For colour only, a tiny pinch of saffron or Kashmiri chilli changes the shade, but not the taste.
Nice to have
The blend to use
Sambar powder: The roasted spice blend that gives sambar its depth: coriander-heavy, with lentils for body.
Salt, oil or ghee, onions, ginger, garlic and fresh herbs are assumed. See how to make a tadka for the order to add whole spices.
Dishes with similar spices
Frequently asked questions
How long does sambar take to make?
About 15 minutes to prepare and 40 minutes to cook.
What spices are in sambar?
The essentials are mustard seed, curry leaves, tamarind, asafoetida, fenugreek seed, turmeric. Nice to have: dried red chillies, jaggery.
Tips from travellers
Use Sambar differently at home? Share your tip. The first good one goes right here.