Sambar Recipe - Mullangi Sambar

In this recipe, I'll describe the steps for Mullangi (radish) Sambar.

Ingredients:

• Two radishes
• 1" ball of tamarind soaked in 1/2 cup water
• For pressure cooking:
• 1 cup toor daal
• 2 ripe tomatoes - chopped
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp dhania powder
• 1 tsp jeera powder

• For tadka:
• 2 tbsp oil
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp jeera seeds
• 3 pinches of hing (asafoetida)
• 2 sprigs of curry leaves
• 1 1/2 tsp of sambar powder

Directions:

Wash and cut up the mullangi into 1" cubes. Put them in a cooking vessel, add 1/3 tsp of salt and fill it up with enough water to cover the mullangi and bring it to a boil. Once the water is boiling, simmer it and continue cooking for about 20 mins. Once it is cooked, you can turn the stove off.

Meanwhile, add the daal, chopped tomatoes, turmeric, dhania and jeera powders along with 2.5 cups of water in a pressure cooker and cook until 2 whistles or 20-25 mins on medium heat. I heat it on high until pressure builds in the cooker. Then bring it down to medium to medium-low heat until done.

Once you are able to open the pressure cooker, add the boiled mullangi and all its water into the daal in the pressure cooker and keep this on simmer.

Squeeze the tamarind pulp and add it to the daal mixture.

For tadka: In a separate small vessel, heat up the oil and once its hot, add the garlic. Let it cook a little bit and then add mustard and jeera. Give this a few seconds and then add the curry leaves.

Lastly, add the hing and the sambar powder. Give this just about 5-7 seconds and add it to the daal mixture and stir well. Sambar is ready.

In this recipe all the spice comes from the sambar powder. When I use store bought sambar powder, it is usually MTR brand. If you want to lessen the spice levels, reduce the amount of sambar powder. Even 1/2 tsp will give you good flavor. To add extra spice, consider adding red chilli powder in the pressure cooker while cooking the daal. Another ingredient you can consider trying different quantity is tamarind. Control that, and you will get a different variation every time.

Another optional ingredient is jaggery. 1"-2" cube can be added to the above ingredient list and can be added to the mixture when you add the cooked vegetable to the daal.