Divamani Enterprises

Type: Savoury
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 big lemon sized tamarind
• 1 cup red gram (tur) dal
• 1 litre water
• 1 tsp salt
• tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 3 tsps sambar powder
• pinch of asafoetida
• Vegetables cut into 1 inch cubes (potato, carrot, brinjal, colocasia, lady’s finger, drumstick, white pumpkin, red pumpkin – you can take any combination, as available)

For tempering:

• tsp ghee
• 1 tsp mustard
• 2 sprigs curry leaves

Instructions

1. Soak the tamarind in water for at least 5 minutes.
2. Squeeze out the juice into a large vessel. Again, pour water onto it and squeeze. Repeat at least 2-3 times.
3. The vessel will have around litre of water. If not, add water to the tamarind water.
4. Add salt, turmeric, chilli powder, sambar powder and asafoetida into the tamarind water.
5. Add cut vegetables into this and heat on high flame.
6. Bring it to a boil and reduce the flame. Let it continue boiling till the vegetables are cooked.
7. Cook the tur dal in the pressure cooker. Take at least 3-5 whistles.
8. Once the pressure is released and the vegetables in the sambar are cooked, pour the water from the tur dal into it.
9. Take the ladle and mash the cooked dal.
10. Pour this into the sambar and stir.
11. Let it boil together, stirring it occasionally so that the dal does not stick to the bottom of the vessel.
12. Take a pan, add ghee, mustard and curry leaves. Let it sputter.
13. Pour the tempering into the sambar and let it boil for few seconds.
14. Remove from flame and serve hot.

Notes

• If the tur dal does not cook easily, soak it for a couple of hours before cooking.
• Tur dal, when cooked, breaks apart and mixes easily with its water. Check this while mashing and then add to the sambar.