Chana Dal Sambar is another delicious South Indian sambar which goes well with idli, dosa, and uthappam. Most of them, especially my North India friends think that South Indian people make only toor dal sambar and coconut chutney for idli and dosa.
But that is certainly not true. We do have a variety of sambars, kurmas, chutneys apart from the regular ones. There are different types of lentils and we prepare different preparation with each lentil. Today we are going to see how the chana dal sambar/kadalai paruppu sambar is prepared.
The method of making this sambar is slightly different from the regular toor dal sambar. Usually, we don’t add any vegetables in this sambar. Also, we don’t use sambar powder in this. Instead, we add chili powder and coriander powder. Again, we add only a very little tamarind paste, approximately a one or two tbsps only, not like the one we use in normal toor dal sambar.
Here we also grind a quarter cup of coconut with a little water and add at last, as we do for kurma. Again to temper, we use mustard seeds and fennel seeds. Yes, you read it right, we use fennel seeds to temper this sambar, which gives a unique taste to this chana dal sambar. Now let us see how to prepare this sambar.
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- 1/2 cup Chana dal/kadalai paruppu
- 1 Onion finely chopped
- 1 Tomato finely chopped
- 1/4 cup Coconut grated
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Chili powder
- 2 tsp Coriander powder
- 2 Garlic pods
- 2 strand Curry Leaves/Karuveppilai
- salt to taste
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds /kadugu
- 1/2 tsp Fennel seed/Sombu
- 2 tbsp Tamarind water
- 1 tbsp Coriander Leaves/Kothamalli finely chopped
- Soak chana dal in water for 2 hrs. Then wash it and drain it completely.
- Take coconut in a mixer jar, add little water and grind to a smooth paste and set aside.
- In a pressure cooker add soaked chana dal, garlic pods, turmeric powder, a tsp oil, 1 strand curry leaves, required water until the dal is immersed and pressure cook for 5-6 whistles.
- Let the pressure release completely. Open the lid and mash it thoroughly and set aside.
- Heat a kadai and add remaining oil. Once the oil gets heated, add mustard seeds, fennel seed and let it crackle.
- Now add onion, curry leaves and saute until onion turns translucent. Then add tomato, a little salt for onion and tomato, and saute until tomato turns mushy.
- Then add chili powder, coriander and saute until raw smell goes. Then add mashed chana dal to it. Adjust water if required. Also, add required salt and tamarind water.
- Boil for 5 mins until tamarind is cooked well. Then add coconut paste and cook for another 5 mins or until the foam of coconut paste is gone. Garnish with coriander leaves.
- Chana dal sambar is ready. Serve hot with idli, dosa or uthappam of your choice.
- Soak chana dal at least for 2 hrs.
- After pressure cooking chana dal mash it coarsely. Do not make it to a smooth paste.
- Use only fennel seed to temper the sambar. In this sambar, we will not use cumin seeds.
- Also, use only 1 or 2 tbsp of tamarind water. This sambar does not require tamarind as we use in toor dal sambar.
- Once sambar cools the consistency of sambar thickens. So adjust water accordingly.
Delicious chana dal sambar/kadalai paruppu sambar is ready to relish with idli, dosa, and uthappam.
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