Instant Pot Mixed Vegetable Sambar is a simple Tamil Nadu-style mixed vegetable sambar/lentil stew. It is healthy and absolutely delicious!
When we think about South Indian recipes, especially Tamil Nadu, the idli and sambar will be among the few recipes that come into our minds. It’s one of the signature recipes of South India. I have shared quite a few sambar recipes, and today I will share how to make a mixed vegetable sambar, aka South Indian lentil stew, in the Instant Pot.
Things to know about Instant Pot sambar
Making sambar in Instant Pot is very convenient. You don’t need to worry about adding the pressure cooker weight and turning it off in 3 or 4 whistles. I turn my IP on, forget about the food and go on with my calls and other errands. After cooking, the IP goes back to warm mode automatically.
This Instant Pot sambar is truly a one-pot sambar recipe, and I do the tempering also in the Instant Pot. So not much cleaning involved either.
Now coming back to the sambar, I prepared this as a mixed veggie sambar. The procedure is straightforward. I tempered and cooked my shallots in the sauté mode, then threw all the other ingredients required for the sambar and set it to manual/pressure cook mode. Once the cooking is complete, we add the rice flour slurry and simmer the sambar in saute mode to thicken the sambar.
Ingredients required
To temper: We need oil, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida. I always add extra fenugreek seeds as we like the flavor. But you can reduce it to ½ tsp.
Vegetables: While you can make sambar with just one vegetable like my onion sambar or pumpkin sambar, for this sambar, I went with mixed vegetables, and I have used shallots, beans, carrot, capsicum, white pumpkin, drumstick, brinjal, okra, and tomatoes. You can add veggies of your choice. Instead of shallots, you can use regular onions too.
Spice powders: The critical ingredient for sambar is sambar powder. I always use homemade sambar powder, but you can also use store-bought. Please check the FAQ section for my store-bought recommendations. We also need ground turmeric.
Tamarind paste: Like sambar powder, I used my homemade tamarind paste. You can use store-bought paste, or if you are using tamarind block, soak small lime size tamarind in 1 cup of water for 30 minutes and extract the juice.
Toor dal: Yet, another key ingredient in sambar is toor dal. I have used ⅓ cup, and please check the FAQ sessions for all tips and tricks.
Apart from these ingredients, we also need jaggery, rice flour, curry leaves, and cilantro.
Watch me make the Instant Pot Sambar.
Here is the instant pot recipe preparation video. Please subscribe to my youtube channel for more video recipes. Also, find the detailed written recipe below.
How to Make Vegetable Instant Pot Sambar
- Set your Instant pot in saute mode. When the IP is hot, add the oil. And after 20 to 30 seconds, add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, and asafoetida.
- Let the mustard seeds splutter, and add the curry leaves and shallots—Cook for a couple of minutes.
- Then add all the veggies and mix well.
- At this stage, add the turmeric powder, salt, sambar powder, tamarind extract, and two cups of water and mix well.
- Now add the jaggery, if using, and add the rinsed and drained toor dal and mix well. Check for salt and spice and adjust accordingly.
- Turn off the Instant Pot and close it. Ensure the sealing ring is in place and set the vent to the sealing position. Cook the sambar in manual/high-pressure mode for 10 minutes at high pressure, and after the cooking is done, naturally release the pressure.
- Then carefully open the Instant Pot. Set it in saute mode. If you need thick consistency, mix 2 tsp of rice flour in ½ cup of water and add it to the sambar. You can skip the slurry and directly add cilantro. Add cilantro and let it simmer for a couple of minutes or until the sambar thickens. Turn off the IP.
That’s it. Yummy and easy sambar is ready.
Recipe notes
- Instead of adding all the veggies, you can add anyone veggie or add onion and prepare onion sambar.
- Adjust the salt and spice as per your preference.
- Jaggery is entirely optional.
- If you prefer thin consistency, ignore the rice flour mix.
Dietary specifications and serving suggestions
This sambar recipe is naturally vegan and nut-free. Use gluten-free asafoetida for a gluten-free version. Serve this sambar with rice and dry curries/poriyal or kootu/gravy curry of your choice. Sambar tastes delicious when served hot. You can refrigerate this sambar for three to four days, and you can also freeze the sambar for longer shelf life.
Frequently asked questions
A perfect sambar is where the toor dal is cooked well and disintegrates in the sambar. It should be mushy and not grainy. Sometimes when making one-pot sambar, many find it difficult to get perfectly cooked toor dal. So let’s see some troubleshooting tips. But before that, like rice, every bag of toor dal is different. The way they are dried and processed significantly impacts their texture.
Trying soaking the dal: Soaking toor dal, especially in hot water for 20 minutes, helps.
Increase the cooking time: I have cooked only for 10 minutes. You can increase the cooking time to 15 to 18 minutes. But the veggies you add might turn mushy.
Try adding tamarind water after the cooking cycle is complete: Tamarind sometimes prevents toor dal from turning mushy. So skip the tamarind water and cook the sambar with toor dal, and after the cooking is complete, add the tamarind water and bring the sambar to a rolling boil.
Try cooking the toor dal first: First, you can partially cook the toor dal alone in Instant Pot for 10 minutes and quickly release the pressure. Then add the other ingredients and make the sambar. I have made a separate video, and here it is. In this way, you don’t need to worry about veggies in the sambar turning mushy.
Try using frozen dal: As a part of my meal prep, I cook and freeze my dal. You can use that for making sambar, and that’s how I made my leeks sambar. Do check it out.
I hope these tips help. If you have any questions, do let me know in the comments.
I always use my homemade sambar powder, but I have tried a few store-bought brands, too, like grand sweets, 777 brand, and Sakthi masala. (None of these are sponsored) You can try your favorite regional brand too.
We add the rice flour slurry to thicken the sambar. But it’s optional. You can also increase the toor dal quantity for a thick sambar.
While we have separate tiffin sambar for idli and dosa, you can very well serve this sambar with idli, dosa, pongal, and upma.
Yes, you can. Please check out my masoor dal sambar and moong dal tiffin sambar recipe for the same.
Explore other sambar recipes
PS: If you try this Instant Pot sambar, please don’t forget to comment and rate this recipe. If you have any questions, please leave a comment, and I will get to it ASAP. Make sure to follow me on my Pinterest for more healthy and delicious ideas! Follow me on Instagram or join my Facebook Group for more recipe updates! You can also sign-up for my newsletter for weekly updates.
Instant Pot Mixed Vegetable Sambar
Equipment
- Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
Measurement Details: 1 cup = 240ml; 1 tbsp = 15ml; 1 tsp = 5ml;
To Temper
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
- ¼ tsp asafoetida
Vegetables (peel if required and chop roughly)
- 5 shallots peeled
- 4 beans
- ½ carrot
- ½ green capsicum
- ¼ cup white pumpkin chopped
- 5 to 6 drumstick pieces
- 2 brinjals
- 2 okra
- 2 to matoes small ones
Other ingredients
- 3.5 cups water divided
- 2 tsp tamarind paste mix it with one cup of water
- 1 tbsp sambar powder
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 strand curry leaves
- ⅓ cup toor dal
- 1 tsp jaggery optional
- 1 tbsp cilantro chopped
- 2 tsp rice flour
Instructions
- Set your Instant pot in saute mode. When the IP is hot, add the oil. And after 20 to 30 seconds, add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, and asafoetida.
- Let the mustard seeds splutter, and add the curry leaves and shallots—Cook for a couple of minutes.
- Then add all the veggies and mix well.
- At this stage, add the turmeric powder, salt, sambar powder, tamarind extract, and two cups of water and mix well.
- Now add the jaggery, if using, and add the rinsed and drained toor dal and mix well. Check for salt and spice and adjust accordingly.
- Turn off the Instant Pot and close it. Ensure the sealing ring is in place and set the vent to the sealing position. Cook the sambar in manual/high-pressure mode for 10 minutes at high pressure, and after the cooking is done, naturally release the pressure.
- Then carefully open the Instant Pot. Set it in saute mode. If you need thick consistency, mix 2 tsp of rice flour in ½ cup of water and add it to the sambar. You can skip the slurry and directly add cilantro. Add cilantro and let it simmer for a couple of minutes or until the sambar thickens. Turn off the IP.
- That’s it. Yummy and easy sambar is ready.
Video
Notes
- Instead of adding all the veggies, you can add anyone veggie or add onion and prepare onion sambar.
- Adjust the salt and spice as per your preference.
- Jaggery is entirely optional.
- If you prefer thin consistency, ignore the rice flour mix.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
Can u show how daal can be cooked using pip method..my daal never cooks well with pip method
Ok, I will do a post on it for sure. Thanks
I can see why you say it is absolutely delicious… Yum!
Hi,
In the Ingredients you list 5-6 drumsticks. What are you referring to?
Those are the moringa pods. It is also known as drumsticks. In Indian groceries, you can find them fresh or you can find them in frozen packs also. Hope it helps. Also, it is not a mandatory ingredient.
Loved this recipe, explained in a detailed way gives a clear idea. After seeing this recipe thinking of keeping away my pressure cooker.
Thank you so much. Glad you liked it. :-)
Srividya, lovely recipe! Can the dal be added to the IP cooker in an uncooked state? When mixed with tamarind water, will it cook?
Hi, I am extremely sorry about the delayed replay. Yes you can cook the dal in uncooked state with tamarind water. Soaking the dal for 10 minutes does help. For toor dal, I usually cook in manual mode for 10 minutes and if I am using masoor or moong, 4 to 5 minutes is sufficient. Hope this helps. Thanks
Hi Vidya. You should not have called it simple – this sambar was authentic, excellent and tasted like something that was complicated! But you are right…it was simple to make. Two questions: 1) methi seeds(fenugreek) made it a bit bitter – did I do something wrong? Should I use less? 2) If I wanted to vary the vegetables, do you have a formula for the total amount of cups of vegetables/shallots/tomato to add? This would make it easier to make this many different ways. Thanks for an instant pot adaptation!
Thanks a lot Brad. :-) Glad you liked it.
Actually if you over cook/fry methi seeds, they turn bitter. Please make sure it doesn’t brown. If you have fenugreek powder, you can add 1/2 tsp instead of 1 tsp of the seeds.
There is no such formula. In fact during festive days, we don’t add shallots or onions so I skip them completely. At times I go with just one veggie like 1 cup of butternut squash or just 1 cup of radish.
I would say 5 shallots and 1 tomato would be good for 1 to 1.5 cups of mixed vegetables or any single vegetable.
Hope this helps. :-) Thanks Again.
Thanks for the recipe! It looks great. I’ve tried sambar before, using store bought sambar powder and black mustard seeds and most of the same ingredients above but it was way too spicy hot for my taste – and I can tolerate heat! It smelled great and tasted great until the heat hit. I tried adding more dal to half the amount and more liquid – not a success in reducing the heat. Can you tell me which ingredients above add heat and how I might temper that some – just in case? (I wonder about the boxed sambar powder…)
ALso, is there a substitute for curry leaves – hard to locate in my area?
Thanks so much. I look forward to trying this and your other recipes too.
Hi Barbara, Thanks a lot and sorry for the delay in replying back. The main ingredient that adds heat is the sambar powder. Couple of option to try to reduce the heat are,
1) Adding about 1 or 2 tsps of cane sugar or jaggery.
2) Adding vegetables that add a tinge of sweetness to the sambar like carrots, butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potato.
3) I usually add about one leveled tbsp of sambar powder, but if you feel it’s more, add about 1 heaped tsp.
4) Increasing salt suppresses the heat too.
Reg curry leaves, actually there is no substitute for the same. If you can’t source it, your can add cilantro instead. But there is no exact replacement for it.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other concerns or questions. Thanks
Thank you so much for your reply and your helpful suggestions! I actually made another batch of sambar today, reduced the sambar power amount and it still had plenty of spice and great flavor. I loved it! I realize now that carrots probably helped that too. I have to find some curry leaves but will try cilantro in the meantime. You’ve helped me a lot. Thanks. You’ve got a fan!
Awwww.. Thanks much. Your comment made my day. :-) :-)
Hello Srividya! This looks amazing. How much of the sambar powder and turmeric powder would you recommend? I am not seeing it in the list of your ingredients. Looking forward to making this excellent recipe tomorrow. Thank you!
Hi Jordan, thanks a lot and extremely sorry. Mentioned those two ingredients in video but missed it in the recipe description. I have update the recipe. You need to add 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder and 1 tbsp of sambar powder. Thanks again. :-)
Thank you so much for your prompt reply! I appreciate your sharing this recipe!
:-) Thanks
Hi Vidhya. We are from a vegan magazine. Trying to get in touch with you. Could you please share your email id or a contact number to aishwarrya@vegplanet.in?
Sure. Just sent you an email. Thanks
Interesting sambar and I am yet to jump into the IP bandwagon!
Please do jump :-)
Hi Vidya, Its long time.. I have some veggies at home and would love to try your recipe. Sounds delicious!!
Hi Seena, how are you?. Same here, long time naa. I have to visit a lot of blogs. Work and other stuff keeping me busy. :-)
Thanks for the comment, please do try the recipe and let me know.