Tomato Sambar – Indian Tomato Dal Lentil Stew

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 is basically a lentil tomato stew or soup made with Indian spices and it goes great as a side dish 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.

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

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

How to make Indian tomato sambar or lentil tomato dal stew?

We use the following ingredients to make Indian tomato sambar.

ingredients used

¾ 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

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

¼ teaspoon red chili powder

2 tablespoons coriander powder

¼ teaspoon fenugreek powder

asafoetida powder a pinch, optional

For Seasoning(optional)

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

4 dry red chilies broken

1 string curry leaves

Step by step 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 broken dried red chilies and curry leaves (make sure there is no water in the leaves or chilies), 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.

Below you can get the detailed recipe for spiced tomato lentil stew or Indian sambar using fresh tomatoes in detail.