After trying out the dhal with slow cooker, I thought why not try our Tamil Nadu delicacies? So the next recipe is the day -today sambhar or as we say kuzhambu.Kuzhambu or sambhar is one among best rice accompaniment. I usually make any one type of kuzhambu most of the days . Be it vathal kuzhambu or mandi or this kind of sambhar without coconut they go well with rice. The traditional araichuvitta sambhar is reserved for weekend. :-) During weekdays I usually try pressure cooker sambhar. I thought why not try the same with slow cooker. In my pressure cooker sambhar recipe I used masoor dhal as it cooks comparatively faster and also its light. But for this slow cooker sambhar I went with toor dhal itself. For sambhar I use only one veggie, either with or without onion so you get the taste of that veggie completely in the sambhar.
Here is the red radish sambhar.
Ingredients:
- Toor dhal – 1 cup
- Half of medium onion chopped
- Red Radish – 1 bunch chopped in to halves.
- Tamarind paste – 1 tsp or 1 cup of juice extracted from small gooseberry sized tamarind
- Cilantro chopped – 1 tbsp
- Curry leaves – 1 strand
- Jaggery – 1 tsp
- Sambhar powder – 1 tbsp (heaped)
- Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
- Salt – 1.5 tsp (as per taste)
- Water – 3 cups + 3 tbsps (if required)
- Rice flour – 2 tsps (optional)
For tempering,
- Oil – 1 tbsp
- Hing – 1 tsp
- Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
- Methi seeds – 2 tsps
Steps:
- Wash the toor dhal and chop the veggies.
- Now add the radish, onion, washed toor dhal, sambhar powder, turmeric powder, tamarind paste,salt, jaggery, cilantro, curry leaves along with 3 cups of water.
- Set it in low mode for 7 hours. (5 hrs should be enough if in high mode). I tried in low mode.
- Remove the pot from the cooker and mix well.
- Heat the kadai or pan and add oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, hing and methi seeds.
- As they start to splutter add the cooked sambhar mix.
- (Reheating the cooked sambhar mix is for thickening it.)
- If you feel it’s too thick, add water to required consistency and let it boil for a 5 minutes. If it’s too thin, add 2 tsps of rice flour in 3tbsps cup of water and add it and let it boil so that sambhar becomes thick.
That’s it. Yummy sambhar is ready. On a busy weekday set this up in the morning or in the previous night. Once its cooked all you need is 5 minutes for the tadka and mixing it up. Loving this slow cooker.
More South Indian recipes to come.. :-)
Thank you for sharing this information and Very good looking blog.very informative article.
Thanks
I have tried sambar in regular cooker this s interesting.. Have always used mini radish for salad thus s nice idea Sri
Thanks da. I like this radish in sambhar too.
Great – using the slow cooker nicely eh?! :)
Yup.. Return of Investment ;-) ;-)