Sambar Rice - Simply The Best of South

Sambar Saadham or Sambar Rice - Simply The Best of South

What is common in bisibelebhath, kadamba sadham, kichdi, vennpongal, sambar sadham and paruppu sadham? its the pulse and rice. other ingredients are what that brings the difference in these rice dishes. All are one pot dishes, with pulse and rice, with different vegetables and spices. 

Another common ingredient is the ghee! none of the above dishes are complete without a couple of spoons of ghee.

Sambar sadham otherwise called as sambar rice, is a very typical comfort food of south Indians. i used to make it, sometimes well planned or sometimes even with the left over vegetables in my fridge. 

The secret of good flavourful spicy sambar rice depends on the good homemade sambar powder (For the recipe click Home made sambar powder). another secret ingredient for an awesome flavour is the vegetable drumstick. this drumstick complements excellently to the sambar powder. but today, i had only few green beans, one carrot, small capsicum and little cabbage along with small onions and tomato. even if we do not have other veggies, we can make this sambar rice with just sambar onions and tomato. 

here is the recipe for the sambar rice or sambar sadham.

Ingredient:

• raw rice - 1/2 cup
• thoor dhal - 1/2 cup
• vegetables - beans, carrot, brinjal, drumstick - 1 to 2 cups
• small onions - 10 nos.
• tomato - 1 medium
• sambar powder - 3 teaspoons
• turmeric powder -  1/2 teaspoon
• tamarind - extract from one lemon size tamarind
• asafoetida -  pinch
• for tempering - curry leaves, mustard, urad dhal, dry red chillies, asafoetida
• salt to taste

Procedure:

• wash and pressure cook the dhal and rice together in 2 and 1/2 cups of water with little asafoetida and turmeric powder for 10 minutes, after weight, in low heat. keep this aside,

• in the mean while, heat few tablespoons of oil in  a broad vessel and add the tempering ingredients mentioned above,
• then followed by onions and tomato.
• stir for few minutes.
• add drumstick, carrot and beans and give a mix. 
• add sambar powder, salt, turmeric powder.
• add 1 to 2 cups of water, stir it and cover it. 
• once the drumstick is almost cooked, add the brinjal pieces and cover it again for 5 minutes.
• open it and add the tamarind extract and let it boil for another 5 minutes.
• now mash the rice and dhal mixture and add to this boiling vegetable kuzhambu.
• stir well in medium heat to avoid the rice getting stuck at the bottom. check for salt.
• add a small piece of jaggery at the end. this helps to enhance the flavours of other spices.
• finish it up with few spoons of ghee and the awesome flavourful sambar rice is ready to be served.

Tips:

we can use other vegetables like broad beans, peanuts, ash guard, pumpkin etc

serve this sambar rice with pickle or potato chips.

if you wish you can do a second tempering in the end with ghee, mustard, curry leaves and cashew nuts.

Happy cooking !!