Idly Sambhar - Jain Sambhar - Sambar Recipe

Hello foodies,

Wishing all of you and your families a very happy, healthy and hearty new year. Eat well, sleep well, and live well!

The cold winter days and nights make me crave all the more for warming foods. One of these warming food combinations is the good old, idly-sambhar. A healthy and tasty combination with the goodness of veggies, which is super nutritious as well. Provides a complete and wholesome meal for everyone in the family. 

Ingredients (you will need):
Arhar/Toor Dal - 1 cup
Salt, to taste
Red Chilli Powder, 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder, a pinch
MTR Sambhar Masala Powder, 1 Tbsp
Homemade Rasam Powder, 1 Tbsp
Amchoor Powder/Khatai/Dried Mango Powder, 1/2 tsp
Musturd seeds, 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves, 10-15
Oil/ghee, 1 tablespoon
Imli/Tamarind soaked and pulped, 25 gms


Cooking steps:
1. Cook arhar dal in 3 cups of water, turmeric, salt, and amchoor powder in a pressure cooker till soft and tender.

2. Pressure cook bottle gourd/ghiya with salt and turmeric till tender (one or two whistles).

3. Blend the cooked dal using a hand blender.

4. Add the cooked bottle gourd to the dal. Also add finely chopped tomatoes.

5. Soak imli/tamarind in water for 30 minutes and then extract the pulp by deseeding and straining the imli. Add the imli pulp to the dal mixture as per your likeness of sourness, my family likes it sour, so we add the complete imli pulp.

6. In a small ladle, heat some oil and add mustard/rai seeds.

7. Once the mustard seeds start sputtering add chopped curry leaves and saute them for 30 seconds. Add the sauteed mustard seeds and curry leaves to the sambhar mixture and cook for 5 minutes.

8. In the same ladle, take 1 tbsp of oil and heat it. Add the rasam powder, sambhar powder, and red chilli powder to the hot oil and fry the spices/masalas for 30 seconds. Add the spice/masala fry to the dal mixture.

9. Cook the dal mixture, now sambhar for 5 minutes to allow the flavours to blend completely to give you the taste of authentic sambhar.

10.Serve hot with idlis and coconut chutney.

Hope you like the recipe, do cook this version of sambhar and enjoy with your family!

Bon Appetit!