Udupi Style Sambhar
Udupi sambhar from South Indian Cuisine
Servings: 8 -10
Ingredients
Ingredients for Dal
- Toor / Arhar dal - 1 cup
- Water - 3 cups
- Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Ingredients to cook Vegetables
- Onions - 1 small sliced thin
- Tomato - 2 small
- Baby eggplants - 2
- Lady finger - 6 to 8
- Drum sticks - 8 to 10
- Lauki - 1/2 cup cubed into 1 inch pieces
- Water - 3 cups
- Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
- Salt - 2 tsp or to taste
- Oil - 1 tbsp
- Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
- Asafetida/ Hing - a pinch
- Curry leaves - 8 to 10
Jaggery - 2 tbsp
Sambar powder - 1&1/2 to 2 tbsp
Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp
Ingredients for Tadka
- Oil - 1 tbsp
- Asafetida - a pinch
- Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
- Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
- Dry red chili whole - 2
- Curry leaves - 4 to 5
Instructions
Cooking the Dal
- Wash the dal nicely. Soak it in water for about 10 minutes. Drain the water.
- Take a pressure cooker and add toor/arhar dal with turmeric and water to it. Pressure cook it for 2 to 3 whistles till the dal is of mushy consistency.
- In case you are cooking it in open pan, add more water and cook till dal is soft and mushy.
Preparing vegetables
- Meanwhile dal is cooking, wash all the vegetables and dry.
- Chop all of them into similar size and shape, approximately of 1 inch cube size.
- Take a heavy bottom deep pan and heat 1 tbsp oil in it. Add mustard seeds and asafetida/hing to it. When the seeds start crackling, add curry leaves and lower the heat to medium.
- Add slced onions to the pan and saute till slghtly pink. Now add all the other vegetables along with salt and turmeric. Saute for 2 minutes on medium high heat, till slightly soft.
- Now add water and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat. Cover and let cook for 12-15 minutes till the vegetables are soft.
Making Sambhar
- Make sure that dal is cooked to the mushy consistency and vegetables are cooked till soft.
- Remove the lid from the vegetables pot. Add the mushy dal, jaggery, sambhar powder and tamarind paste to the pan.
- Take a heavy ladle/spoon and stir the ingredients properly, making sure that there are no lumps of jaggery or sambhar powder.
- While stirring, mash the ingredients a little with the ladle.
- Bring the sambhar to a boil.
- Reduce the heat and cook further for another 8-10 minutes. If you like more runny sambhar, add more water. Adjust the salt or sambhar powder or jaggery or tamarind to your personal taste.
- More you cook, better are the flavors. Sambhar is ready.
Tempering the Sambhar
- Heat 1/2 tbsp oil in a small pan. Add hing, mustard seeds and cumin seeds to it. Once the seeds start crackling, add the whole dry red chilies and curry leaves. Switch off the heat.
- Add this tadka/tempering to the sambhar before serving.
Serving suggestions
- Udupi sambhar goes very well with any dosa, uthapam. idli, wada, or rice. I can drink it as is like a soup.
Cooking Sambhar in Pressure Cooker
- For a complete pressure cooker udupi sambhar, this is what I do -
- Heat oil in a large pressure cooker and add mustard seeds, hing, curry leaves to the oil. Once the seeds crackle, add onions to the pan. Saute onions till pink.
- Then add all the vegetables to the cooker along with salt and turmeric. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add soaked dal and 6 cups of water.
- Pressure cook for 3 whistles.
- Once the pressure releases from cooker, add tamarind paste, jaggery and sambhar powder. Adjust the water if required more. Adjust salt accordingly.
- Cook for another 10 minutes.
- The complete pressure cooker recipe will be done in half the time as compared to the original recipe.
Notes
You may add a small piece of ginger and 3-4 green chillies with the vegetables. I did not add the green chilies since it becomes too spicy for my family. You may also use any seasonal vegetable available in the market including gourds, pumpkin, potato etc. If you want to make it for the festival like Onam etc, you may leave the onions out.