Moong Dal Sambar For Rice – Indian Pasi Paruppu Sambar

Moong dal sambar for rice (popularly known as pasi paruppu sambar or simply paruppu sambar in South India) can be used as a side dish for dosa and idli as well, however this sambar is perfect for rice as a main side dish. 

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This is an easy tiffin sambar recipe without toor dal so if you are out of toor dal to make sambar for breakfast or lunch, do try making pasi paruppu sambar following this recipe.

You can enjoy rice just with this moong dal sambar if you love rice and sambar.

If you are out of toor dal to prepare sambar and if you are looking to make sambar without toor dal, this moong dal sambar or pasi paruppu sambar made without toor dal is the perfect alternative if you have moong dal at home.

What Is Moong Dal Sambar?

Sambar is a very popular stew or curry from South Indian cuisine, that is in fact popular in other parts of India as well.

It is basically a very healthy & nutritious combination of dal & vegetables in a gravy made of spices and tamarind (or tomatoes).

Sambar is often enjoyed as a side dish with South Indian breakfast dishes like dosa, idli etc or it is also enjoyed with cooked rice for lunch or dinner.

While usually sambar is made using toor dal which is split yellow pigeon peas, this moong dal sambar is a variety of sambar made using yellow moong dal (skin removed version of mung beans).

This is actually an easy & healthy yellow mung beans soup/stew with tomatoes which is a South Indian style recipe.

I used fresh tomatoes to make this sambar so this is really an easy tomato sambar recipe with moong dal parippu (also known as pasi paruppu).

You can use a good quality pressure cooker to cook the sambar or now you can use instant pot to cook anything so easily including this delicious sambar.

Instant pots are very helpful in the kitchen, as you can cook many dishes in it including the sambar. Instant pots make cooking super easy!

Instant pot sambar is so easy to make and delicious too!

As we used tomatoes to make this pasi paruppu sambar, this is also known as thakkali sambar or thakkali paruppu sambar recipe (tomatoes are known as thakkali in South India) which can be used as a side dish for rice, idli & dosa.

As you know now, sambar is usually made using toor dal which is the yellow pigeon peas.

However with this recipe, you can learn how to make delicious easy sambar for rice using moong dal or yellow mung beans.

This delicious sambar is made using fresh tomatoes as well, and I have not used any other vegetables here.

So this is also a tomato sambar recipe for rice where we use yellow mung beans (moong dal) instead of pigeon peas (toor dal) for the preparation of sambar.

As I already mentioned above, tomato is known as thakkali in South India so it is also known by the name thakkali parippu sambar or simply thakkali sambar with pasi paruppu.

The combination of tomatoes and moong dal with sambar spices is perfect and goes great with rice but as I already mentioned you can also try this for dosa or idli as well.

See my post on tomato sambar recipe here which is made using regular sambar dal (toor dal which is pigeon peas)

See all posts on South Indian sambar recipes here

Fresh tomatoes add the needed sourness for this dish, so we don’t have to use tamarind here. See my post on tomato recipes for chapathi & rice

Tips To Make Perfect Moong Dal Sambar

We use yellow moong dal also known as pasi paruppu in South India, to prepare this sambar.

Moong dal tends to thicken more than the regular toor dal which is used for sambar, so we are using less amount of lentils here which is enough for this sambar recipe.

And we need little more water for this sambar recipe than the usual amount of water used for sambar.

By reducing the amount of dal (lentils) and increasing the amount of water you can make this perfect sambar for rice using yellow moong dal, fresh tomatoes and spices.

Traditionally sambar is made by cooking the dal and vegetables in separate pans or pressure cooker and then combine them together along with spices and tamarind extract.

To make things easier, I most often cook the sambar using a pressure cooker.

I am using a pressure cooker here to cook the moong dal sambar and I am cooking the lentils and tomatoes together which makes things more simple and easy.

If you prefer the traditional method where you prefer the lentils to be mashed before adding to the vegetables (tomatoes here) you can cook them separately too.

However I wanted to keep it simple and so I cooked them together in the pressure cooker and the dish turned out delicious!

So here is how I made this delicious and easy sambar for rice using this easy recipe!

How to make moong dal sambar?

As you know, fresh tomatoes, moong dal and spices are the main ingredients required to make this delicious & healthy sambar.

The full ingredient list to make this sambar is given below.

ingredients used

½ cup yellow split moong dal (yellow split mung beans/pasi paruppu)

4 medium sized fresh tomatoes

1 green chilies cut lengthwise

salt as required

3 cups water

Spice Powders

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon red chili powder

3 tablespoons coriander powder

3 teaspoons sambar powder

1 teaspoon fenugreek powder

asafoetida a pinch, please don’t over use it

For seasoning

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

4 dried red chilies broken into half

1 string curry leaves optional (make sure there is no water content)

Step by step instructions

Chop the tomatoes in medium sized pieces.

Add the mung beans (moong dal) to the pressure cooker and dry roast in low heat for about 3 to 4 minutes or until the raw smell is gone.

Add all spices, mix well and heat for another 1 minute.

Add the fresh tomatoes and green chili and saute for another 1 minute.

Add salt and water, mix everything well. Make sure the lentils are not sticking to the bottom of the pan, or else it will get burnt.

Close the pressure cooker with lid and safety valve in place and cook in medium heat for about 8 to 10 minutes after the steam comes or cook until 2 whistles.

Make sure to follow all directions in the manual while using pressure cooker.

After 8 to 10 minutes of cooking, switch off the pressure cooker and wait for it to cool down.

Once the pressure cooker is cooled, you can open and see if the lentils are cooked and soft.

You can gently mash the contents of the cooker using a ladle and mix everything well.

If you prefer more liquid like consistency for the moong dal sambar, you can add little more water at this point and heat for a minute.

(If you prefer to mash the dal separately or if you want to mash the dal much more you should use the traditional way of cooking the dal separately.

As I already mentioned above, this is a quick and easy way of making the lentils and vegetables together in pressure cooker, so we are fine with the little lentils which are not mashed so perfectly.

Either way, this is so delicious!)

Now let us make the seasoning for the sambar we just made.

Preparing The Seasoning

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.

When the mustard seeds splutter, add the red chilies and curry leaves, fry for a few seconds.

Now the seasoning for the sambar is ready.

Pour this seasoning over the sambar and gently mix the contents.

Moong dal sambar or pasi paruppu sambar is ready to serve, you can enjoy this with rice, dosa or idli as you wish!

Below you can get the recipe in detail.