Drumstick Sambar Recipe | Murungakkai Sambar
Learn to make South Indian Tamil Brahmin Style Drumstick Sambar or Murungakkai Sambar recipe. A delicious lentil stew made with drumstick pods, cooked split pigeon peas, tamarind, homemade sambar powder with a tempering of mustard seeds and curry leaves. No Onion No Garlic Sambar recipe. Serve with rice, breakfast dishes.
Servings 4 people
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 4 Drumstick or Murungakkai
- 1/3 cup Tur dal split pigeon peas, arhar dal
- 2 marble size tamarind balls
- ½ cup Hot water to soak the tamarind for extracting pulp
- 1 ½ tablespoon Sambar Powder
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Hing or asafoetida
- ¼ teaspoon Mustard Seeds or Rai
- 2 teaspoon Oil Use Veg oil or sesame oil
- A pinch of jaggery (optional) read notes below
- Salt to taste
For Tempering
- 2 teaspoon Ghee or clarified butter
- ¼ teaspoon Mustard Seeds
- 1-2 Whole Red chillies
- 1-2 sprigs of curry leaves
- Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnish
Instructions
- Rinse and pressure cook tur dal with water until soft and mushy. Keep aside.
- Soak the tamarind in hot water for 10 minutes.
- Rinse, peel and cut the drumstick or murungakkai into finger length pieces
- After 10 minutes, extract pulp or juice from the tamarind and keep aside.
- Heat a heavy bottom pan, add oil, mustard seeds. Once mustard crackles, add drumstick and saute for 1 minute.
- Next add tamarind extract, hing, turmeric and let it simmer on medium heat until raw smell of tamarind goes off.
- Add sambar powder and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the cooked tur dal, water to adjust consistency and mix well. Season with salt, add jaggery, mix and let it reach one boil. Note - Once you mix, taste check salt, spice, heat and add extra, if required.
- Switch off the heat, add finely chopped coriander leaves and prepare for tempering.
- In a small tempering pan, add ghee, mustard seeds, whole red chillies. Once mustard crackles, add curry leaves. Switch off the heat, add the tempering to the sambar, cover with lid and let the flavors absorb. Serve after 1-2 mins.
Notes
1 cup is 250ml, 1 tablespoon 15ml, 1 teaspoon 5ml
Ingredients & Substitutes -
- Jaggery is added to balance heat from spices and tanginess from tamarind. Feel free to adjust quantity.
- Red chili powder is not used as homemade sambar powder includes chilies. Add extra, if you like. Store bought masala is not usually spicy so you might have to add paprika or kashmiri red chili powder.
- Sambar is tempered with ghee. Feel free to use oil for vegan recipe. Ghee adds aroma and enhances flavors.
- For gluten free recipe, omit hing / asafoetida.
- If you have accidently added more water to sambar, thicken the sambar by adding 2 tsp of rice flour mixed with water. Whisk and add it to the simmering sambar. Stir and let it thicken for 1-2 mins before switching off the flame.
- Tamarind Paste instead of soaking the tamarind - Use homemade or store bought tamarind paste. The color of sambar depends on the variety of tamarind used.
- How to fix spicy Sambar - If you have accidently added too much chili powder or sambar powder, add a bit of jaggery to balance the heat. Taste and check or else the sambar will taste sweet.
- If making Sambar in bulk, cool it completely after cooking before transferring into small containers.
- In the refrigerator, sambar stays fresh for 48 to 72 hours. The taste may vary after 48 hours depending on weather conditions.
- When freezing sambar, store in individual containers. Thaw and use, as required.