Onion Sambar Recipe Without Vegetables (Instant Pot & Stove Top Onion Sambar)

Easy and simple onion sambar without vegetables can be made really quick in an instant pot or stove top using a pressure cooker with toor dal or masoor dal, onions & spices.

Actually, onions are also vegetables, but usually sambar is made with a lot of vegetables but this sambar uses only onion for it’s flavor from vegetables. So when I say sambar without vegetables, I mean no vegetables other than onions are used!

If you are looking to make a quick sambar or dal based curry as a side dish with rice, idli or dosa, try this delicious but simple sambar made with yellow toor dal or red masoor dal and spices!

This is one of the most simple and easy sambar without vegetables can be made in pressure cooker on stove top or you can make this even more easily using a 6 quart instant pot.

Instant pot sambar with mixed vegetables (Kerala style sambar) is also very easy, simple & delicious!

This delicious but simple sambar without vegetables can be made using toor dal (yellow split pigeon peas) or using masoor dal (red lentils).

This is a very simple plain sambar recipe without using vegetables for preparing easy and quick vegetarian/vegan meals for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

You can make this quick sambar using just toor dal (yellow pigeon peas) or red masoor dal, tamarind and sambar powder, (using a pressure cooker or programmable instant pot) or by adding more spices (even without sambar powder) and a simple seasoning (as I do sometimes).

This is basically a very simple and plain idli sambar recipe without vegetables (samabar for idli & dosa) and this goes great with rice too.

 See here how to make sambar without sambar powder

You can use a pressure cooker or programmable instant pot to quickly make sambar at your home.

As a matter of fact, vegetables are main ingredients in traditional sambar recipes, as this is actually a healthy soup/stew kind of combination of dal and vegetables with spices.

However if you are out of time and if you don’t have chopped vegetables with you, this simple sambar recipe without vegetables can help you to make a quick gravy for rice or dosa or idli.

Even simple sambar recipe without vegetables can be made in different ways with slight modifications. This simple sambar recipe without vegetables is made without coconut as well.

However, if you love adding coconut, go ahead and dry roast a cup of grated coconut which can be grind and added to the gravy. This will add extra thickness to the gravy which is made without vegetables.

You might like to see my post on authentic south Indian sambar recipe here

You might like to see my post on easy sambar recipe in pressure cooker (with vegetables) here

Even if you don’t want to add roasted grind mix of coconut to the sambar, you can easily make sambar using this simple sambar recipe without vegetables.

Tips To Make Sambar Without Vegetables

The main ingredient for sambar is split yellow pigeon peas which is known as toor dal in India, or you can make it using the red lentils which is known as masoor dal.

With both kind of dals (toor dal or masoor dal), this sambar tastes great!

You will need to add tamarind for this sambar recipe even if you don’t usually add, as we are not using tomatoes for this recipe.

Tamarind will add the needed  sourness for sambar and so tamarind is another important ingredient in this sambar.

If you have tamarind paste, just take about 1 teaspoon of, dissolve this in half a cup of water(soak for about 5 to 10 minutes) and filter it to get tamarind if there are fibers. If there are no fibers you can use this directly, no need to filter.

You can use sambar powder or use individual spices as mentioned in this recipe.

See easy recipe for instant sambar powder here  where I have explained how to make instant sambar powder without dal and tamarind and also another method where you can prepare instant sambar powder with dal & tamarind.

More Notes: You can make most of the Indian curry dishes including sambar in many different ways and one thing you can do in two different ways is the addition of seasoning.

The ingredients for the seasoning in the recipe can be made in advance in the same pressure cooker or instant pot and you can cook the sambar in the same cooker or instant pot, which will make the dish more easy and a one pot dish.

You may also make the tadka (seasoning) by frying the ingredients for the seasoning separately and add to the sambar later.

So here is how you can make simple sambar recipe without vegetables.

How To Make Simple Sambar Without Vegetables?

We need the following ingredients to make delicious, easy and simple sambar without vegetables.

Ingredients to make sambar without vegetables

1.5 cups toor dal (yellow split pigeon peas) or masoor dal (red lentils)

1 medium sized red onion (you may skip this if you don’t have onions or you may use other kind of onions too)

4 cups water

salt adjust to taste

1 teaspoon tamarind paste (or tamarind paste which is dissolved in water and filtered if there are fibers)

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

½ teaspoon red chili powder

2 tablespoons coriander powder

asafoetida a pinch (optional)

¼ fenugreek powder teaspoon

2 teaspoons sambar powder (sambar masala)

For seasoning

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

5 dry red chilies broken

1 string curry leaves make sure there is no water in the leaves

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon shallots or pearl onions (or minced onion) peeled and chopped finely (optional)

For garnishing (optional)

1 tablespoon cilantro leaves chopped

Step By Step Instructions

To prepare on stove top

In a pressure cooker (6 quart size or about 5 to 6 litres size at least), add the dal and sliced onions (if you do not have onions you can skip them).

Add the salt and spice powders and sambar powder and mix well.

Add the 4 cups of water and also tamarind and mix everything well.

Close the lid of the pressure cooker with the safety valve inside. Always make sure you follow the directions in the manual of the pressure cooker.

Cook the contents in medium heat for about 7 to 8 minutes after the steam starts coming or until 3 whistles come. Once this is done, switch off the stove and wait for the pressure cooker to cool down.

Once the pressure cooker is cooled enough, you can open the cooker and see if the dal is cooked enough and soft and blended with the spices nicely.

Gently mash the contents and add more water & simmer for a couple of minutes more if needed for gravy based on your preference.

To prepare in instant pot

Add the dal and sliced onions to the inner pot of instant pot.

Add just 2 cups of water (we will add the remaining water later), stir well and close the instant pot with lid in sealing position.
Cook in high pressure for 7 minutes.

Once the cooking is done, the pot beeps and you can press the ‘keep warm/cancel’ buttom. Let the pressure release naturally.

Once the pressure is all released, you can carefully open the lid.

Stir and gently mash the contents inside.

Add the remaining 2 cups of water, tamarind, salt and all the spices and sambar masala, stir well and simmer for a couple of minutes (using saute function).

Once done, cancel the saute function, unplug the instant pot and you can transfer the inner pot to a safe place away from heat.

To make the seasoning

In a pan on stove top, heat the oil and add mustard seeds.

When the mustard seeds splutter, add the sliced shallots or small onions or dried minced onions and lightly fry until it starts to brown.

Also add the broken dried red chilies and curry leaves and fry for few seconds.

Pour this prepared seasoning or tadka over the prepared sambar (instant pot or pressure cooker). Gently stir in. You can also garnish the prepared sambar with cilantro leaves if you like. Serve the delicious sambar with rice or idli or dosa as you wish!

Notes:

You may also use just sambar powder instead of spices, just follow the instructions as mentioned in the package for sambar powder if you are not using other spice powders since you will need to use it more in that case.

Adding shallots or pearl onions (or you can finely chop the regular onions and use) will add much flavor but this is not necessary.

If you have onion powder, you may add it too which will increase the flavor (although its not the authentic way of doing), instead of using the onions, but you can add it while you add other spice powders.

Below you can get the recipe for sambar without vegetables in detail.