thayirsaadham

This is a very simple and tasty recipe. This is similar to the arachu vitta sambar that I posted sometime back. The main difference being that I reduced the vegetables and added black chana.

Ingredients

1. Black chana - 1 cup
2. Onion(chopped) - 1
3. Tomatoes (chopped) - 2
4. Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
5. Sambar powder - 2 tsp
6. Salt - according to taste
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
8. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
9. Urad dhal - 2 tsp
10. Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
11. Coconut - 4 tbsp
12. Red chillies - 2
13. Oil - 2 tsp

Recipe

1. Soak the chana for 6-8 hrs or overnight. Pressure cook them for 3 whistles.
2. Take a pan and add 1 tsp oil.
3. Splutter the mustard seeds. Then, add urad dhal. Once it turns light brown, add the onions.
4. Let the onions cook for 5 minutes. Add turmeric powder.
5. Now, add the chopped tomatoes and let them cook for another 5 minutes.
6. Mix the tamarind paste in 3 cups water and add this to the pan.
7. Add sambar powder and salt and let this boil for 5 minutes.
8. Add the soaked and boiled chana to the pan and let everything cook for 10 minutes.
9. Take a pan and add 1 tsp oil. Roast the urad dhal, red chillies and fenugreek seeds for 1 minute.
10. Grind the roasted ingredients with coconut adding very little water.
11. Add this ground mixture to the sambar and let it come to a boil.
12. Adjust for salt and we are done

This goes well with rice and a dollop of ghee( but of course )

Manju of MirchMasala has passed me the Good Chat Blog award. Thanks Manju. I feel that more than the cooking tips and recipes, the main advantage of blogging is the wonderful people that we come to know.

I would like to pass this on to AnuDivya of And a little bit more (hope this wakes her up from hibernation), Varsha of Will-o-Wisp and Usha from VegInspirations.

My mother calls this “thengai arachu vitta kuzhambu”. The name was too long and I cut it short .
Also, she does not add onions or tomatoes. She adds a wider variety of vegetables like drumstick, avarakkai, pooshanikkai, etc. I did not have any of that and so, I added onions and tomatoes so that I could have a wholesome sambar.

The ingredients mention olive oil and coconut oil. I used olive oil for frying the vegetables and used the coconut oil for roasting the coconut and other ingredients and for tadka. Preparing the tadka with coconut oil gives it a nice aroma

Ingredients

1. Toor dhal - 2 tsp
2. Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
3. Onion - 1 (chopped finely)
4. tomato - 1 (chopped finely)
5. potato - 1 (chopped)
6. beans - 2 (chopped)
7. peas - 1 handful
8. carrots - 1 (chopped)
9. coconut - 5 tsp
10. red chillies - 3
11. fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
12. turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
13. extra virgin olive oil - 1 tbsp
14. sambar powder - 2 tsp
15. asafoetida - 1 pinch
16. coconut oil - 2 tsp
17. mustard seeds - 1 tsp
18. urad dhal - 1 tbsp
19. coriander leaves - 4-5

Recipe

1. Pour a little oil in a thick bottomed vessel and fry the onions till they turn golden brown.
2. Add the tomatoes and let it cook for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the rest of the vegetables and fry them for 2 minutes.
4. Mix the tamarind paste in water and pour this into the pan.
5. Add turmeric powder, sambar powder, asafoetida and salt and let it cook on medium heat for around 8 minutes.
6. Take a pan and add 1 tbsp of coconut oil. Roast toor dhal, coconut, red chillies and fenugreek seeds.
7. Grind this in a blender adding very little amount of water.
8. Add this ground mixture to the tamarind water and vegetables.
9. Adjust salt as necessary.
10. Take a little oil. Add mustard seeds and once they splutter, add urad dhal and coriander leaves. Once the urad dhal turns light brown, pour this on the sambar and we are done

P.S - I took a picture of the sambar without the tadka so that the vegetables can be seen.

Ingredients

1. toor dhal (thuvaram paruppu) - 1 cup
2. red chillies - 4
3. asafoetida
4. salt - to taste
5. tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
6. sambar powder - 2 tsp
7. turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
8. mustard seeds - 1 tsp
9. oil - 1 tsp
10. urad dal - 1 tsp
11. curry leaves - 5-6
12. cilantro

Recipe

1. Soak toor dhal in water for 1 hour.
2. Grind toor dhal along with the red chillies, asafoetida and salt into a coarse paste.
3. In this step, we need to remove the excess water from the dhal paste. We can do it in 2 ways - either steam the dhal paste using idly plates in a pressure cooker. Or you can heat the paste so that the excess water gets evaporated. I used the second method. Cool this mixture for sometime.
4. Mix cilantro with the above mixture.
5. Roll the dhal mixture into small balls. The size should be such that the balls get immersed in the gravy for atleast 3/4ths of their size. (Mine came out a little bigger than the preferred size)
6. Mix the tamarind paste in 3 cups of water and add it along with the sambar powder, salt, asafoetida and turmeric powder. let this boil for 15 minutes on a medium flame.
7. Add the balls one by one to this gravy and let them cook for around 10-15 minutes.
8. Once the balls rise up to the top, they are done.
9. Heat the oil and splutter mustard seeds and urad dhal and pour this tadka on the gravy.