Onion Sambar | Vengaya Sambar Recipe

Onion Sambar is usually made with pearl onions/small onions which pairs well with rice. This is a popular South Indian sambar which can be had as an accompaniment with idli, dosa, upma, pongal, vada and almost all South Indian breakfast tiffin items.

When you run out of vegetables, onion sambar comes in handy. I love to have potato podimas along with this sambar. Today let’s see how to make the simple onion sambar using big onions. You can either make use of home made sambar powder or any branded one available in grocery. I use home made sambar powder. Soon will post how to make home made sambar powder as well.

Onion Sambar | Vengaya Sambar Recipe

Print Recipe

Popular South Indian Onion Sambar.

• CourseLunch
• CuisineSouth Indian

Servings	Prep Time
4 people	10 minutes

Cook Time

15 minutes

Servings Prep Time 4 people 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Onion Sambar | Vengaya Sambar Recipe Print Recipe Popular South Indian Onion Sambar. CourseLunch CuisineSouth Indian Servings Prep Time 4 people 10 minutes Cook Time 15 minutes Servings Prep Time 4 people 10 minutes Cook Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Toor dal
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tomato
• 1 Garlic pod
• 1 Tamarind small lemon size
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp Chilli powder
• 1 tbsp Sambar powder
• 1 tbsp Coriander leaves finely chopped
• 1 strand Curry leaves
• salt to taste

To temper

• 3 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp Mustard /kadugu
• 1/2 tsp Jeera/seeragam
• 1/4 tsp Fenugreek seed/vendayam
• 1/2 tsp Hing/Perungayam
• 1 strand Curry leaves

Servings: people

Instructions

1. Chop Onion lengthwise and tomato roughly. Soak tamarind in hot water for few minutes, mix it thoroughly, filter it and set aside. Wash Toor dal thoroughly and cook till 4-5 whistles using medium flame in a pressure cooker along with 1 and 1/2 cup water, 1/2 tsp oil, turmeric, garlic and curry leaves.

   
2. Once done open the lid, mix the dal with ladle and add one more cup of water and set aside. Heat a Kadai, add remaining oil, add the ingredients listed in "To temper". Let it crackle.

   
3. Now add onion and saute till golden brown colour. Then add tomato and saute till it becomes mushy. Now add little salt and chilli powder.

   
4. Saute it for 2-3 minutes till raw smell goes. Now transfer this sauteed ingredients to the pressure cooker with dal. Now reheat the dal to medium flame, add the extracted tamarind water, add required salt and let it boil for 4-5 minutes.

   
5. Then at last add sambar powder, bring it to boil and switch off the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves.

   

Recipe Notes

• Generally, onion sambar is prepared using small onions.
• You can temper with ghee instead of oil. It gives a nice aroma to sambar.
• Add tamarind according to your taste.
• Sambar powder should always be added at the last and boil for 1-2 minutes only.

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The delicious Onion Sambar is ready to relish with rice, idli, dosa, vada, upma, pongal and with all South Indian breakfast.