Instant Pot Mixed Vegetable Sambar is a simple Tamil Nadu style mixed vegetable sambar. It is healthy and absolutely delicious!
Instant Pot Mixed Vegetable Sambar
After the kheer, I slowly started to experiment with a different recipe in my instant pot, especially the day to day recipes like sambar, kootu, poriyal, and rasam. Guess what, all my experiments were successful. I just love this kitchen gadget. It’s worth the money.
Before getting into my next Instant Pot recipe, let me explain a bit about the Instant Pot. Each and every kitchen gadgets has its pros and cons. I see these regular comments in social media regarding the need for instant pot when both pressure cooker and instant pot takes more or less same time to cook.
Believe me I had the same thought too, but still went ahead and bought it as many recommended it. Instant Pot doesn’t prepare anything in instant. The IP takes its time to build the pressure and cook but as I mentioned in my previous post, we don’t need to babysit and that’s a huge boon.
Things to Know About Instant Pot
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 and I forget about the food and go on with my calls and kiddos pick and drop. After cooking, the IP goes back to warm mode automatically. If you have little ones at home, needless to say about its benefits.
For the past two weeks, mostly I used my rice cooker for preparing rice and IP for preparing rasam and sambar and do the sauté in the same vessel too. The other benefit is that in the end, I need to wash only two vessels plus our plates and also no big kitchen cleaning. Weekends, I give rest to my IP and go about the regular way. :-)
Now coming back to the sambar, I prepared this as a mixed veggie sambar. Basically, I tempered and cooked my shallots first in the sauté mode, then threw all the other ingredients required for sambar and set it to manual mode and then back to sauté mode for thickening the sambar with rice flour mix. Here is the quick IP formula…
Instant Pot Mixed Vegetable Sambar Recipe
Sauté mode + Manual for 10 minutes (normal pressure release) + Sauté mode.
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.
Ingredients:
- Oil – 1 tbsp
- Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
- Methi Seeds – 1 tsp
- Hing – ¼ tsp
- Shallots – 5
- Mixed Vegetables
- Beans – 4
- Half carrot
- Half capsicum
- ¼ cup of chopped white pumpkin
- 5 to 6 drumstick pieces
- Brinjals – 2
- Okra – 2
- Tomato – 2
- Water – 1 cup + ½ cup + 2 cups
- Tamarind paste – 2 tsp
- Sambar Powder – 1 tbsp
- Turmeric Powder – 1/4 tsp
- Rice flour – 2tsps
- Curry leaves – 1 strand
- Toor dal – 1/3 cup
- Salt – 2 tsp
- Jaggery – 1 tsp
- Chopped Cilantro – 1 tbsp
Prep – Work
- Chop the vegetables.
- Peel the shallots and chop into roughly or you can use as is.
- Wash the toor dal and drain the water.
- Dilute the 2 tsp of tamarind paste in 1 cup of water.
Steps:
- Set your Instant pot in saute mode.
- Once it is hot, add oil.
- Then add mustard seeds, methi seeds, and hing.
- As the mustard seeds start to splutter, 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 the washed toor dal and mix well.
- Check for salt and spice and adjust accordingly.
- Set it in manual mode for 10 minutes. Once done, let the pressure release normally.
- Once is the pressure is released, open the IP lid and mix the sambar.
- Set it back to saute mode again.
- If you need thick consistency, mix 2 tsp of rice flour in 1/2 cup of water and add it to the sambar.
- Add cilantro and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
- Turn off the IP.
That’s it. Yummy and easy sambar is ready. Stay tuned for how I served this sambar. :-)
Notes:
- Instead of adding all the veggies, you can just add anyone veggie or just add onion and prepare onion sambar.
- Adjust the salt and spice as per your preference.
- Jaggery is completely optional.
- If you prefer thin consistency, ignore the rice flour mix.
Instant Pot Mixed Vegetable Sambar | Video Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1 tsp Methi Seeds
- 1/4 tsp Hing
- 5 Shallots
- Mixed Vegetables Here is what I used
- 4 Beans
- 1/2 Half carrot
- 1/2 Half capsicum
- ¼ cup Chopped white pumpkin
- 5 to 6 Drumstick pieces
- 2 Brinjals
- 2 Okra
- 2 Tomato
- 3.5 cups Water 1 cup + ½ cup + 2 cups
- 2 tsp Tamarind paste
- 2 tsp Rice flour
- 10 Curry leaves
- 1/3 cup Toor dal
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Jaggery
- 1 tbsp Chopped Cilantro
Instructions
- Prep – Work
- Chop the vegetables.
- Peel the shallots and chop into roughly or you can use as is.
- Wash the toor dal and drain the water.
- Dilute the 2 tsp of tamarind paste in 1 cup of water.
Steps
- Set your Instant pot in saute mode.
- Once it is hot, add oil.
- Then add mustard seeds, methi seeds, and hing.
- As the mustard seeds start to splutter, 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 the washed toor dal and mix well.
- Check for salt and spice and adjust accordingly.
- Set it in manual mode for 10 minutes. Once done, let the pressure release normally.
- Once is the pressure is released, open the IP lid and mix the sambar.
- Set it back to saute mode again.
- If you need thick consistency, mix 2 tsp of rice flour in 1/2 cup of water and add it to the sambar.
- Add cilantro and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
- Turn off the IP.
- That's it. Yummy and easy sambar is ready. Stay tuned for how I served this sambar. :-)
Video
Notes
- Instead of adding all the veggies, you can just add anyone veggie or just add onion and prepare onion sambar.
- Adjust the salt and spice as per your preference.
- Jaggery is completely 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.
P.S. Follow my Pinterest boards for more healthy and delicious recipes.