Sambar rice also known as sambar sadam is one of the everyday foods from the Tamil cuisine. Sambar and rice cooked together as a quick fix to a meal. There are so many ways sambar rice can be made, this may not be a authentic style of making sambar sadam. But definitely yields one of the delicious sambar rice. It is similar to the Bisi bele bath from karnataka cuisine.
To make this sambar rice, i have used brown rice and a small quantity of white rice along with dal. This is the way I make this recipe at home and sometimes like to replace brown rice with soaked fox tail millets – thinai arisi in tamil / korra biyyam in telugu / navanakki in kannada.
However you can also make this only with white rice. But those who are looking for ideas to add brown rice or millets to your diet but do not like the taste, may like this sambar sadam.
You may like to check more Rice recipes
Curd rice
Dal khichdi
Tomato rice
Ghee rice
Venn pongal
For this recipe I have used fresh made sambhar powder which I have shared below, but you can also use a ready made one or make from this Sambar masala powder recipe.
South Indian sambar rice or sambar sadam recipe
Sambar rice recipe | Sambar sadam recipe | How to make sambar rice
Simple sambar rice known as sambar sadam in tamil. This is a simple rice and lentil dish from Tamilnadu cuisine. It is eaten as a meal with some papads and pickle.
Ingredients (240 ml cup used)
Ingredients for sambar rice
- ¼ cup toor dal plus 2 tbsps or 6 tbsp (can use little moong dal)
- ½ cup rice (brown rice white rice or millets)
- 2 cups water
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 1 pinch asafoetida or hing
- 1½ tbsp ghee or oil as needed
- 2 pinches turmeric or haldi
- 8 to 10 Shallots or 1 medium onion cubed
- 1 drumstick small or half (cut to 2 inch pieces)
- 1 carrot sliced or cubed
- 1 tomato medium, chopped
- tamarind Small lemon sized
- salt as needed
Sambar powder (or 1 to 1½ tsp any sambar powder)
- ½ tsp chana dal or bengal gram
- ½ tsp urad dal or skinned black gram
- 1 red chilies
- ½ tsp cumin or jeera
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- ¾ tbsp coconut fresh or dry
- ¼ tsp methi seeds or fenugreek seeds
How to make the recipe
Make sambar powder or use any ready made
- You can skip this step if you have sambar powder ready. To make the powder, heat a pan and dry roast dals and red chilies on a medium flame until lightly golden.
Then add coriander seeds and roast till golden. Then add methi seeds and jeera. When the methi seeds begin to smell good, turn off the stove.
- Cool these and make a fine powder in blender jar. For this recipe use only half of this powder.
Preparation to make sambar rice
Wash rice and dal. Then pressure cook them together with 2 cups of water for 1 to 2 whistles on a medium flame.
- Heat ghee in a pan. Add cumin, mustard, red chilli and curry leaves. When they splutter and curry leaves turn crisp, add hing.
Next add veggies and saute for 2 minutes. Saute tomatoes along with turmeric for 3 minutes.
- Pour 1 cup water and cook veggies until soft.
- Take some hot water from the pan to a bowl and soak tamarind in it.
- When the veggies are soft cooked, mash the soaked tamarind and remove the pulp.
How to make sambar rice
- Pour this tamarind water, salt and sambar powder to the boiling veggies. Cook until it begins to smell good.
- Add mashed rice and dal.
- Stir well to blend the rice dal in cooked veggies.
- If needed add more water to bring to consistency.
- Serve sambar rice hot with papad or pickle.
Preparation for sambar rice or sambar sadam- step by step photos
1. Add ½ cup rice and ¼ cup plus 2 tbsp dal to a pressure cooker. I have used a mix of toor and moong dal. Wash and soak for about 15 minutes. Cook with 2 cups water for 1 to 2 whistles on a medium flame. You can use a combination of white and brown rice or white rice and fox tail millet. If using millets, soak at least for 2 hours.
2. If using brown rice, the texture turns out perfect even when the dal and rice are cooked together. Since brown rice doesn’t turn very mushy but the dal turns very soft and hence adds a smooth texture to the sambar rice. Mash the dal and rice. Dal must become soft and blend well with rice.
3. If you have ready sambar powder, skip this one and the next 2 steps. But i suggest making this powder to get a very flavorful dish. Dry roast the ingredients for making the powder. You will find double the quantity of ingredients as i doubled it to make this recipe twice. First roast dals with red chilies until lightly golden, add coriander seeds. When they get roasted, add methi, cumin. Switch off the stove when you begin to smell the methi good.
4. Add coconut and toss in the hot pan for a while. You can also skip coconut if you do not have.
5. Cool these and powder finely.
How to make sambar rice or sambar sadam
6. Heat ghee or oil in a pan. Add red chili, mustard and cumin. When they splutter add curry leaves and hing. When the curry leaves turn crisp, i set aside half of this seasoning to use at the last step.
7. Add shallots, carrots, beans and drumsticks. If you are short of time skip drumsticks since they lot of time to cook. Chayote/ chow chow or mullangi can also be used.
8. Saute well for 2 to 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and turmeric. You can also skip tomatoes. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes.
9. Add 1 cup water and cook until the veggies are soft cooked.
10. Make sure the veggies are cooked completely before adding tamarind.
11. Add salt.
12. Add the sambar powder.
13. Simmer well for few minutes until the spice powder begins to smell good. Check if there is enough sour, salt and spice. You can adjust now.
14. Add the mashed rice.
15. Stir well and simmer until dal rice blends with the sambar masala. Add more hot water if needed to bring it to a consistency.
16. Add the tempering that was set aside. This doesn’t give any special tadka flavor but i still prefer.
Serve sambar rice with papad and ghee.
Nancy Pinto says
It looks tempting. By the way how much methi shd I use. Will try this weekend
swasthi says
Hi Nancy,
Thank you. You can use 1/4 tsp methi seeds. Thanks for the mention I will update.
Moumita Mou says
🙂
Suprita says
Yummy it turned out very delicious
swasthi says
Thank you suprita
Deepti Jayakumar says
It turned out really well ..! My Father in law was all praises…! Thanks for the recipe 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
swasthi says
You are welcome Deepti
Thanks for the comment. It made me happy
🙂
Sarada says
Madam thanks a lot my daughter loved it. She is 2.7 years old. I was shocked looking at her eating sambar.
Rheena says
This turned out superb.. TQ!