Small Onion Sambhar (With Ground Masala)

Small Onion sambhar is a delicacy in every South Indian home. It is generally made on Sunday mornings with potato podimas and fried apalams. This is an extremely tasty combo and I am sure every southie would agree with this. This sambhar is made by grinding ingredients, so we do not add sambhar powder to this.

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Small onions or shallots

• Salt, to taste

• 1 lemon sized Tamarind soaked in hot water

• 1 cup Tur dal

• 1 tsp Turmeric powder

• 1 tbsp Ghee

To be roasted and ground to a paste

• 1 tsp Methi seeds

• 2 tbsp Chana dal

• 2 tbsp Coriander seeds

• 1/4 cup fresh grated coconut

• 4 Red chillies

• 1 tbsp Ghee

For tempering

• 1 tbsp Coconut oil

• 1 tsp Mustard seeds

• 3 Slit green chillies

• 4-5 Curry leaves

Instructions

1. To roast the dals, in a pan take ghee and methi seeds, chana dal, coriander seeds and red chillies and roast till the dals get light brown

2. Just before switching the gas off add the coconut, sauté for half a minute and keep aside

3. Grind this to a paste along with 3-4 shallots and keep aside

4. Cook the tur dal in a pressure cooker, mash and keep aside

5. In a pan, take 1 tbsp ghee and sauté the shallots till it becomes light pink

6. Add the tamarind pulp, salt and turmeric powder and boil till the shallots get cooked

7. Add the ground paste and cook for a minute

8. Add the mashed dal and curry leaves and cook for a minute more

9. In a pan, take coconut oil and temper with mustard seeds, green chillies and curry leaves

10. Add this to the sambhar

11. Serve hot with steamed rice and some South Indian poriyal and papads

Notes

Some important notes on sambhar:

You can make sambhar with:

• mixed vegetables like ladies finger, drumsticks, capsicum and brinjal

• mooli and turnip

1. In case you are using mixed vegetables, sauté ladies finger, capsicum and brinjal lightly in ghee before adding tamarind water. Drumsticks need not be sautéed

2. If you make sambhar with veggies, add hing in the tamarind water while boiling as well as while making the ground paste.

3. Do not add hing when you make Onion sambhar as the aroma of hing would overshadow small onions