Tomato Sambar Recipe – Tomato Dal Stew South Indian Recipe

Last Updated on October 17, 2019

Tomato sambar recipe in pressure cooker can be made easily using fresh tomatoes, dal (yellow split pigeon peas, and spices or ready made sambar powder).  This tomato sambar goes great with rice, dosa or idli for a South Indian style breakfast that is delicious, healthy, vegetarian/vegan and easy to make!

Following this easy tomato sambar recipe in pressure cooker, you can learn how to make easy tomato sambar for rice, idli & dosa using a pressure cooker.

This tomato sambar is healthy and delicious and it can be prepared really easy and quick. To me, this tomato sambar recipe is one of the most easy sambar recipes which you can make in no time.

This tomato sambar recipe (known as thakkali sambar recipe) is very popular in South Indian states, but this is especially popular in tamilnadu and you can also call this sambar recipe as tamilnadu sambar recipe or tamil sambar recipe.

See my post on tomato moong dal sambar (thakkali pasi paruppu sambar) recipe where fresh tomatoes and moong dal (yellow mung beans or pasi paruppu) is used to make the delicious and easy sambar.

You can easily make this tomato sambar recipe as a one pot sambar recipe if you make the seasoning in the same pressure cooker before adding the dal and vegetables.

You may also make the seasoning separately and add it to the prepared sambar at last. By seasoning, I mean the tadka that we make by frying mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chilies in oil.

You may also skip the seasoning if you don’t want to add it. In this tomato sambar recipe, I made the sambar in pressure cooker and then made the seasoning separately which I added to the already made samabar.

Tomato samabar recipe is also known as thakkali sambar recipe where thakkali is the malayalam and tamil word for tomatoes.

I do not use tamarind extract while making tomato sambar, since fresh tomatoes are enough to add the needed sourness for the recipe which makes this recipe even more simple and easy to make.

Other than dal and spices, I only used fresh tomatoes and also some fresh chopped cilantro leaves (coriander leaves) to add fragrance and flavor to the dish.

So here is how I made this easy tomato sambar recipe in pressure cooker.

This easy tomato sambar recipe makes 3 to 4 servings of tomato sambar.

See my post on tomato recipes for chapathi & rice

Easy Tomato Sambar Recipe Below

Easy Tomato Sambar Recipe - Tomato Sambar For Rice, Dosa & Idli

South Indian style tomato sambar or thakkali sambar is easy to prepare and makes a yummy, healthy sambar for rice, dosa and idli.

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Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: thakkali sambar, tomato sambar

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 197kcal

Author: Recipe Garden

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup yellow split pigeon peas
• 5 fresh tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
• 2 tablespoons instant sambar powder or as mentioned in the package
• 3 cups water or more as required
• salt as required

If you don't have sambar powder, use the following spices, you can also add these spice powders along with sambar powder

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/4 teaspoon red chili powder
• 2 tablespoons coriander powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fenugreek powder
• asafoetida powder a pinch, optional

For Seasoning(optional)

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 4 dry red chilies  
• 1 string curry leaves

Instructions

• Wash the dal and transfer it to the pressure cooker.
• Cut the tomatoes in medium evenly sized pieces and transfer it to the pressure cooker.
• Add the salt and water, close the pressure cooker and cook in medium heat for about 8 to 10 minutes or until 3 whistles come. Make sure you follow the directions in the pressure cooker manual including the use of safety valve as this is important while using pressure cookers.
• After 8 to 10 minutes, switch off the stove and wait for the cooker to cool down.
• Once the pressure cooker is cool, you can open the lid and see if the dal and tomatoes are cooked and soft. You can mash the dal gently using a spoon of fork.
• You can add a little more water at this point, if you prefer more gravy for the sambar.
• Add the sambar powder or the spices, mix everything well and heat for another 2 minutes so the spices will blend nicely with the tomato dal mixture and the tomato sambar is actually done, now only the garnishing and seasoning is left.
• Add the chopped cilantro leaves and gently mix the delicious tomato sambar now flavored with fresh green cilantro leaves.
• Switch off the stove and transfer the pressure cooker from the hot stove so it won't get cooked anymore.
• Now let us prepare the seasoning. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.
• When the mustard seeds starts spluttering, add the red chilies and curry leaves, fry for a few seconds.
• Add this seasoning to the tomato sambar in pressure cooker, now your delicious tomato sambar is ready, you can gently mix it if you wish.

Notes

Serve the hot tomato sambar for rice for an easy, yummy and simple South Indian lunch or you can serve this tomato sambar for idli or dosa for breakfast or snack or dinner as you wish!

Hope you found this simple and easy tomato sambar recipe helpful!

You can find all sambar recipes in this blog here