BEETROOT SAMBAR / AN AMAZING SAMBAR RECIPE WITH BEETROOT
Beetroot Sambar an amazing stew, is enriched with heavenly aromas of South Indian tadka. This beautiful dish has always been inviting me to enjoy with fluffy idlis or rice. And if this appetizing sambar has a few more healthy veggies, you can’t resist yourself to indulge in a bowl of it. This beet sambar is a combination of colour, taste and aromas. The Scarlett colour of beetroot and the yellow-hued dal or lentil together create a wonderful dish to relish
Sambar is a lentil-based curried stew with a few veggies, some aromatics and a few spices. All these collectively make it an accomplished dish that originally belongs to the South Indian regions. To make the beet sambar beetroot is cooked with tomatoes and then mixed up with the boiled toor dal. The beet cubes can be mashed or kept as it is in the form of cubes. The beetroot has its own natural sweet taste so a little quantity of tamarind pulp balances the flavours. In short, this yummy beetroot sambar is a combination of colours, spicy, sweet, and sour flavours
Prep time – 30 minutes
Cook time – 10 minutes
Course – Main
Cuisine – South India
Author – Bharti Dhawan
INGREDIENTS REQUIRED
• Toor/Tuvar/Arhar Dal/pigeon eye lentil- 1 cup
• Water – 3+3 cups
• Beetroot – 1 medium ( cut into small cubes)
• Tomatoes – 1 large or 2 medium (sliced)
• Imli/tamarind (seedless)- 1-inch piece or to taste
• Jaggery/gur (optional)- 1 inch piece
• Sambar powder – 2 tsp
• Salt – 2 tsp
• Red chilly powder – 1 tsp
• Haldi/turmeric – 1 tsp
• Ginger – 1-inch piece ( finely chopped)
• Mustard seeds/sarson – 1 tsp
• Whole red chillies – 2 nos
• Curry leaves – 1 spring
• Fresh coriander leaves – 1 tbsp
PREPARATIONS TO BE DONE
1-. Firstly, add beetroot cubes, tomato slices, salt and 1 cup of water in a pressure cooker and cook for 5-6 minutes or until 4 whistles come
* Beetroot cubes should be cooked to a soft texture/fork tender
2-. When cooked, sieve through a strainer and keep aside. Also, keep the strained beet water aside
3- In the hot beetroot water, soak jaggery and tamarind piece and keep this aside to wait for them to dissolve completely
4-. For cooking toor dal, add dal, water, salt and haldi to a pressure cooker and cook until 4 whistles come at medium flame
5-. Open the lid of the cooker and mash dal with a wire whisk or a ladle until you get a mushy consistency
HOW TO COMPLETE THE COOKING OF BEETROOT SAMBAR
1- Take a pan and add cooking oil. When the oil is heated, add mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Now add whole red chillies, curry leaves and hing/asafoetida. Stir the aromatics well
2- Next, add chopped ginger, perfectly cooked beet and tomatoes. Roast the veggies for a minute and mash coarsely with a masher
3- Next, add 2-3 cups of hot water and allow to boil. Now, add imli-gur(tamarind-jaggery) infused beet water. Allow the water to boil for a minute
4- Next, add cooked and mashed dal with its water and give it a boil. Mix everything to incorporate all the flavours and colours
5- Now, add sambar masala (powder) and combine all the ingredients
*add more hot water for a perfect thin sambar type consistency)
6- Finish the beet sambar with fresh coriander leaves. Serve the piping hot beetroot sambar with rice, idli or dosa
TIPS AND NOTES
1- You can keep the beet cubes unmashed in the sambar
2- You can avoid jaggery/gur in the beet sambar as this has its own natural sweetness
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