If you wonder how to prepare sambar at home from scratch easily and quickly or how to make sambar for idli, dosa or rice, here it is. I have posted many sambar recipes in my blog, so this post is a general information on how to prepare sambar or how to make sambar at home.
I will add helpful information and links to my many different varieties of sambar as well as tips to make the best sambar for rice, dosa or idli.
Make sure to read through the end of this page to see all the useful tips and links to the collection of sambar recipes in my blog.
Sambar is vegetarian/vegan dish with the consistency of a soup or stew.
Sambar is basically a healthy combination of dal (generally toor dal which is yellow pigeon peas) and many different vegetables and also few spices.
We use tamarind extract or fresh tomatoes to add sourness to sambar recipes. The most important ingredient for sambar other than dal and vegetables is sambar powder, which is a combination of different spices and although we can easily make sambar using different spices even without using sambar powder, I recommend using few spoons of sambar powder for best results.
Traditionally you cook the dal until soft, then mash them up and mix with cooked vegetables (vegetables which are cooked separately) and then you add tamarind extract and spices, sambar powder and finally you add a delicious seasoning made of oil, spluttered mustard seeds, fried red chilies and curry leaves.
To make the preparation of sambar more easy and quick, we can cook the dal and vegetables in a pressure cooker together, and add the tamarind (not necessary if the recipe has enough tomatoes) and add the spices and sambar powder.
You can make the seasoning in a small pan and add this seasoning to the prepared sambar or you can add this seasoning initially in the same pressure cooker (before cooking the dal and vegetables). That way you can make the sambar preparation so simple,easy and quick by putting all ingredients in a pressure cooker and cooking them all together.
To make the sambar more quickly in the busy mornings, you can cut the needed vegetables in advance and store them in your refrigerator the day before or a couple of days back.
You may also cut all vegetables during the weekend and save enough for the entire week if you make sure to use the most fresh and fine vegetables.
Sambar is a South Indian style dish and it is served with rice for lunch or dinner or it is served with dosa (Indian style savory pancakes) or idli ( Indian steamed rice cakes) for breakfast or even served with snack items like different varieties of vada (savory dal fritters).
In brief, sambar is a great side dish but you may enjoy it like a soup or stew if you wish. And with all the goodness of vegetables and peas cooked along with spices, this is a very healthy dish which you can enjoy on a daily basis.
How To Prepare Sambar/How To Make Sambar At Home For Idli, Dosa & Rice
Sambar Recipes & Tips To Make Sambar
If you don’t know how to make sambar powder, you can learn here how to make sambar powder, where I have explained different methods on making sambar powder at home easily from scratch.
If you don’t have sambar powder at home, you can use different spices to make the sambar without sambar powder, so you can learn here how to make sambar without sambar powder.
If you want a real quick sambar and if you don’t have cut the vegetables yet, you can learn here how to make sambar without vegetables.
The plain sambar without vegetables is very simple to make and quick, and it is yummy to go with rice, dosa or idli.
You can learn how to make traditional authentic sambar here.
If you want an easy one pot sambar recipe, you can learn how to make one pot easy sambar here.
Even though yellow pigeon peas which is known as toor dal is popularly used for making sambar in South India, the yellow mung beans or moong dal can also be used to make yummy sambar and this sambar using moong dal is popularly known as pasi paruppu sambar. Learn here how to make pasi paruppu sambar for rice or dosa & idli.
I have a post where I have gone through different varieties of sambar for rice, dosa and idli, you can see sambar varieties here.
I have all sambar recipes in my blog under Indian sambar recipes and all easy sambar recipes here which will help you to make sambar at home from scratch.
Hope you found this post on how to make sambar or how to prepare sambar at home for idli, dosa & rice helpful!
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