Sambhar or huli recipe

Sambhar recipe

 Sambhar forms a  part of the staple food in Karnataka along with rice.Anna (rice) and sambhar are so rich with proteins and vitamins for daily intake.

How to make sambhar?
Its so easy to make sambhar. Just be cautious of vegetables that can be added to it. 
The vegetables not used in sambhar - Cauliflower (gobi), bitter gourd (haagalakayi), mushrooms
Certain combinations that spoil the taste - navilu kosu or gedde kosu (Kolrabi or knolknol) with badanekayi(brinjal), mulangi (white raddish) with badanekayi (brinjal). 
Vegetables like brinjal, white raddish, Kolrabi have their unique taste and must not be messed up with other vegetables.
What combinations taste good - 1. beans, carrot, potato and with or without onion 2. ladies finger with or without onion 3. brinjal with or without onion 4. carrot, onion and potato 5. onion and potato 6. kolrabi with carrot and onion 7. cabbage with onion and potato 8. green leafy vegetables like spinach with onion

You can also make sambhar with individual vegetable.

Ingredients:
Toor dal 1/2 cup
chopped vegetables of your choice
salt
water
rasam and sambhar powder
Tamarind about the size of a lemon or 1 medium sized tomato

Procedure:
Boil the vegetables and dal in a pressure cooker so that the dal is soft.
For vegetables like Brinjal or ladies finger, you should not boil with dal. Instead you must shallow fry them in 2 spoons of oil and dal must be pressure cooked and added to the vegetables.
Add salt and bring it to a boil.
Now add 1 spoon of rasam powder and 1 spoon of sambhar powder to it and continue to boil.
Add the squeezed tamarind juice and continue to boil for about 10 minutes.
It is optional to add some coriander leaves and curry leaves.

Then add seasoning and serve. For seasoning details see my rasam recipe.

Huli pudi or Sambhar powder

Huli pudi or Sambhar powder

 This is the powder used to make huli (as we call at home) or sambhar as referred to in restaurants or more commonly. The sambhar is a combination of lentils, spice mix (sambhar powder) and vegetables. Note that there are certain combination of vegetables which give excellent taste and also certain combinations that spoil the taste of the dish. So be careful when you prepare sambhar. Take a look at my post on sambhar on how to make sambhar.

This is yet again a Karnataka recipe for sambhar powder and can be different from other states in India.

Ingredients for a medium spicy sambhar powder:
byadagi menasinakayi (colour) 30 in number
guntur menasinakayi (spicy) 30 in number
kadale bele (chana dal) 6 spoons (100g)
uddina bele (urad dal) 6 spoons (100g)
dhaniya (coriander seeds) 6 spoons (100g)
grated coconut 12 spoons which is about 2 half dry coconuts grated

Note: should you need more or less spicy powder then increase or decrease the no of guntur menasinakayi (spicy red chillies).

Procedure:
Dry fry the following ingredients and keep them separate after frying -
kadale bele (chana dal)
uddina bele (urad dal)
dhaniya (coriander seeds)
byadagi menasinakayi and guntur menasinakayi

Now, most importantly the order of grinding them into powder -
First grind the red chillies and grated coconut.
Then add dhaniya (coriander seeds) and grind to a coarse powder.
Now add kadale bele (chana dal) and grind it to a coarse powder.
Then add urad dal and grind it to coarse powder.

Remember that sambhar powder is not as fine as rasam powder. It has to be coarse so when you make sambhar it makes it thick.

Now that the powder is ready, make sambhar and taste it. Add more or less red chillies or coconut depending on your family needs.