Sambhar, a hearty lentil curry
Do you have food allergies or intolerances? When you first hear about them, you feel really sad to have to cut out something you love to eat. And you wonder how you can do without. Well, I think when you don’t have a choice, you find a way to continue to eat food that tastes great and is nourishing.
I’ve mentioned my food allergies before. I now have fructose intolerance to add to that list and can’t eat onions, tomatoes or coconut anymore. If you know anything about Indian food, you know how often these are used. I’m following a FODMAP diet and have also eliminated soy, dairy, gluten, lima beans, and kidney beans. So I’ve been wondering what to eat lately and very importantly, what to blog about!
Do you have food allergies? How have you adapted your cooking to your lifestyle? I know completely changing your diet can be a huge challenge. And to make sure that what you eat is tasty and varied. To help those of you with food allergies, I’ve been trying to remember to tag recipes with allergy information where applicable. You can do a search on the left.
That brings me to today’s post. Ever had dosa or idlis in a South Indian restaurant? The lentil curry that always comes on the side is called Sambhar. Now I think it’s a delicious dish in it’s own right and can be eaten as a main meal. The best part is that you can easily make 2 or 3 times the recipe and have a big pot to last you all week. It’s one of those rare curries that I don’t get tired of easily. I made this sambhar without onion but still included tomatoes and green beans (also on the FODMAP list). But they were easy enough to pick out.
The other thing I love about sambhar is that it is so flexible. You can eat it with rice or other grains like millet. We often cook pearl millet instead of rice at home. You can also eat it by itself as soup. It’s delicious with a spicy Indian pickle on the side or with papadum.
Typical vegetables used for sambhar
Cooking the sambhar vegetables
Serves 4
- 1 cup toor dal (split pigeon peas)
- 4 cups water
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
- 2 dry red chilis
- ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- ¼ teaspoon asafetida
- 10 curry leaves
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoons sambhar powder (buy in Indian store or see below)
- 1 scant teaspoon tamarind extract, dissolved in 1 cup hot water
- 1 cup vegetables (3 of any of green beans, potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, tomato, etc), cut to 1 inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- Cilantro to garnish
Rinse the toor dal thrice. Add 4 cups water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes or till the lentils are soft and fully cooked. Mash the lentils with a masher or large spoon.
Heat the oil over medium heat in a thick bottomed pot. When you see ripples on the surface of the oil, throw in a mustard seed. If it sizzles, the oil is hot enough. Sizzle the whole spices just for 5-10 seconds before adding the turmeric, sambhar powder, and tamarind extract in water. Stir well.
Add the vegetables, salt and enough water to just cover them. Bring to a boil, and simmer covered on low for 10 minutes or till the vegetables are cooked. Add water to just cover the vegetables if needed.
Transfer the vegetables to the pot in which you cooked the toor dal. Mix well. Simmer on low for 15 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.
Sambhar Powder
- 3 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 2 tablespoons cumin seeds
- 2 tablespoons urud dal (dehusked, split black lentils)
- 1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
- ½ tablespoon black peppercorn
- ½ tablespoon fenugreek seeds
- 1 teaspoon asafetida
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 20 curry leaves
- 10 red chilis
Dry roast the whole spices and urud dal for 3 minutes on medium low heat. Grind to a fine powder in a spice blender along with the turmeric and asafetida.
A pot of sambhar
