Easy Simple Sambar Recipe Without Vegetables And Without Coconut – How To Make Sambar Without Vegetables For Rice, Dosa, Idli – How To Make Idli Sambar Without Vegetables

Easy simple sambar recipe without vegetables (or simply sambar without vegetables) can be made really quick if you are looking to make a quick lentil based curry for rice or some quick sambar to go as side dish for idli or dosa. This is a very simple plain sambar recipe without using vegetable 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), tamarind extract and sambar powder, (using a pressure cooker or programmable instant pot) or by adding more spices (even without sambar powder) and a simple seasoning (which is what I do).

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 lentils 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

However 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.

The main ingredient for sambar is split yellow pigeon peas which is known as toor dal in India. I am going to use some extra lentils (toor dal) for this sambar recipe as this is needed to add thickness to the sambar which is made without vegetables or coconut.

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

If you have tamarind paste, just take half a lemon sized tamarind paste, dissolve this in half a cup of water(soak for about 5 to 10 minutes) and filter it to get tamarind extract.

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

See easy recipe for instant sambar powder here ( I have shown in it how to make instant sambar powder without dal and tamarind and also another method where you can prepare instant sambar powder with dal & tamarind)

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

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 and you can cook the sambar in the same cooker, which will make the dish more easy and a one pot dish. This is the way I am going to explain here in detail.

However, as you see in the picture below, you can make fry the ingredients for the seasoning separately in a pan and pour on top of the sambar after you make the dish which will make it more yummy especially if you love the spicy red chilies in the seasoning.

Recipe For Easy Sambar Without Vegetables

Ingredients For Simple Sambar Without Vegetables

• Toor dal (yellow split pigeon peas) 2 cups
• Water 4 Cups
• salt as required
• filtered tamarind extract (from tamarind paste of about half of a lemon dissolved in half cup of water)
• turmeric powder 1/2 teaspoon
• red chili powder 1/2 teaspoon
• coriander powder 3 tablespoons
• asafoetida a pinch

(or you can use sambar powder instead of spices as mentioned in the package)

For seasoning

• mustard seeds 1 teaspoon
• red chilies 4 to 5
• curry leaves a few
• Oil  2 tablespoons

Instructions for sambar without vegetables for rice, dosa, idli – simple sambar recipe without vegetables

• In a pressure cooker (without lid), heat the oil and add mustard seeds.
• When the mustard seeds splutter, fry the red chilies and curry leaves for few seconds.
• Now add the lentils and saute for few seconds.
• Add the salt and spices  and saute for 1 minute.
• Add the water and tamarind extract 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 as this is important for safety.
• Cook the contents in medium heat for about 10 minutes or until 3 whistles come.
• After 10 minutes or 3 whistles have come, switch off the stove and wait for the pressure cooker to cool down.
• Once the pressure cooker is cool, you can open the cooker and see if the lentils are cooked enough and soft and blended with the spices nicely.
• You can check the salt at this point and add more if needed.
• If you need more gravy for your sambar, you may add a little more of water and heat for another 2 minutes (without closing the cooker).
• In case you feel the gravy is more for your taste, you may cook in high heat for few minutes if you wish. But samabar tends to thicken more as it cools down, so this should be fine.

Your sambar is ready to serve, you can serve the hot sambar for rice, dosa or idli!

You may also make the tadka (seasoning) by frying the ingredients for the seasoning separately and add to the sambar later, as you see in the pictures below.

Hope you found this post on simple sambar recipe without vegetables helpful to make easy and quick sambar for breakfast, lunch or dinner!