Sambar
Preparation Time
20 minutes
Cooking Time
40 minutes
Difficulty Level
moderate
Meal Type
Lunch
Serves 4
Key Ingredients
- Toor dal (arhar)
About This Recipe
This is the sambar toor dal is used to make: a thick, sour, vegetable-studded dal stew that anchors the South Indian thali, poured over rice or mopped up with idli and dosa. The pot here is the home standard — toor dal cooked to a cream, drumstick, brinjal and carrot, tamarind for the sourness, and a masala roasted and ground in the same kitchen.
The masala is what makes it sambar and not dal. Coriander seeds, chana dal and dry red chillies are dry-roasted together, then ground; chana dal lends a nutty, earthy note, and the roasting is what wakes it up. The tamarind goes in only after the vegetables are nearly done, because sour liquid slows their cooking, and it is tasted against the vegetables' own sweetness.
Whisked smooth after cooking, the dal gives the sambar its body. The toor dal guide has the numbers behind the dal. A chana dal sambar recipe uses the same pot with chana dal as the main dal, and the toor dal recipes roundup carries the other versions.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Dal and water
- Toor dal (arhar) — 1 cup
- Water (3 cups for the dal, 1 cup for the vegetables, 1/2 cup hot for the tamarind) — 4 1/2 cups
- Tamarind pulp — 15 g
- Turmeric Powder — 1/2 tsp
- Salt — 1 1/2 tsp
Vegetables
- Carrot, peeled and cut into rounds — 1 piece
- Brinjal (aubergine), cut into cubes — 1 piece
- Drumstick, cut into 5 cm pieces — 1 piece
Sambar masala
- Coriander seeds — 2 tbsp
- Chana Dal — 1 tbsp
- Dry red chillies (two for the masala, two for the tempering) — 4 pieces
Tempering
- Ghee — 1 tbsp
- Mustard Seeds — 1 tsp
- Curry Leaves — 10 leaves
- Hing (asafoetida) powder — 1/4 tsp
- Fresh coriander leaves, chopped — 2 tbsp
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Serving Suggestions
Serve hot over steamed rice with a spoon of ghee and a papad, or as the bowl beside idli, dosa or vada; a spoon of podi in the rice and a ladle of sambar is the fast tiffin. It stays good in the fridge for up to two days and thickens as it cools, so loosen it with hot water when reheating.
Tips for Cooking Sambar
Roast the masala on low heat until it smells toasted, then grind it fine; it should disappear into the stew. Add the tamarind extract in stages and taste, since its sourness varies from batch to batch. Cook the vegetables until nearly done before the tamarind joins the pot, and whisk the dal smooth before it goes in.
Chef’s Note
Drumstick, brinjal and carrot each soften at a different rate, so they finish together only when cut evenly; keep the pieces similar in size. A bowl comes to about 227 kcal with 11.9 g of protein and 6.3 g of fibre, most of the fibre from the dal.
Per serving (approx.): 227 kcal, protein 12 g, carbs 32 g, fat 5.1 g, fibre 6.3 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Apr 18, 2026
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