Sambar rice also known as sambar sadam is one of the everyday foods from the Tamil cuisine. It is nothing but 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 best & delicious sambar rice. It is made on the same lines as the Bisi bele bath from karnataka cuisine & Vegetable Masala Khichdi.
Sambar rice is a dish made with lentils, rice, mixed vegetables, spices & herbs. It is a delicious, flavorful & protein packed dish that is also healthy & nutrient dense. Sambar rice is best served with papad & some buttermilk or lassi.
Other similar popular Variety Rice recipes from south Indian cuisine are these
Tomato rice
Ghee rice
Ven pongal
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 foxtail millets. (thinai arisi in tamil, korra biyyam in telugu, navanakki in kannada.)
However you can also make this using only white rice. If you are looking for ideas to include brown rice or millets to your diet but do not like the taste, then you may like this sambar sadam. The dish turns out to be super delicious with lots of aroma that comes from the sambar powder.
I would not say it is very quick to make sambar rice as it is not a one pot dish. But it does take less time than making an elaborate meal. You can also make this sambar sadam when you have guest home. This sambar rice, curd rice, some papads, Rava kesari & these mysore bonda will go well in your special menu.
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.
Similar recipes you may like to check
Veg pulao
Thakkali sadam
Tomato bath
Vangi bath
Preparation for sambar rice or sambar sadam
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. so check the drumstick & then proceed.
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.
Here are some tips that may be of help to you.
Tips to make sambar rice
- Sambar rice is usually made with short grain white rice. For a healthier option use whole grains like brown rice, millets, steel cut oats & quinoa. It is always healthy to soak the whole grains for few hours as the nutrients from soaked grains are better absorbed by our body.
- I always use 2 to 3 kinds of lentils to make any dal dish like dal fry, dal tadka, sambar or kootu. Different kinds of lentils provide different nutrients to the body so I make sure to use at least 2 kinds of lentils. For this sambar rice, I use toor dal & moong dal. You can also use only toor dal.
- To make the sambar rice I have used carrots, shallots, tomatoes & drumsticks. You can also use peas & beans. Use the veggies of your choice. If using drumstick then chop them to 1 inch sized pieces otherwise they will take lot of time to cook.
- I have also shared the recipe of sambar powder just enough for the recipe. However you can also use your own sambar powder or store bought powder. Just make sure you use a good flavorful sambar powder as this the key ingredient which is going to spice up your sambar rice.
- Tempering the spices in ghee brings in a unique aroma to the sambar rice. If you don’t eat ghee then you can also use oil.
- If you have some precooked rice & dal then you can simply transform that to sambar rice.
Related Recipes
Sambar rice or sambar sadam recipe
Sambar rice
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
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
Instructions
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 urad dal, chana dal and red chilies on a medium flame until lightly golden. Meanwhile if you see the red chilies turn crisp you can set them aside.
- Then add coriander seeds and roast till golden. Then quickly add cumin or jeera. When they smell good remove to a plate. Then add methi seeds & roast. When the methi seeds begin to smell good & turn deep golden, turn off the stove.
- Cool all of 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 together in a bowl or directly in the cooker. Then pour 2 cups of water & pressure cook them together on a medium flame. If cooking in a bowl cook for 3 whistles. If cooking in the cooker directly, then cook for 2 whistles.
- When the pressure releases naturally remove the rice & dal & slightly mash them.
- Heat ghee in a pan. Add cumin, mustard, red chilli & curry leaves. When they splutter and curry leaves turn crisp, add hing.
- Next add veggies and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Saute tomatoes along with turmeric for 3 minutes.
- Pour 1 cup water and cook the vegetables until soft.
- Take some hot water from the pan to a bowl and soak tamarind in it.
- Mash the soaked tamarind when it softens and remove the pulp. You can also filter the tamarind water.
How to make sambar rice
- Check if the vegetables are cooked especially the drumstick. When the veggies are almost cooked, pour this tamarind water, salt and sambar powder to the boiling veggies.
- Cook until it begins to smell good for about 3 to 4 minutes. Next add the mashed rice and dal.
- Stir well to blend the rice & dal in cooked veggies. Check the salt and spice
- If needed add more water to bring to consistency. When it begins to bubble turn off the stove.
- Serve sambar rice hot with papad or pickle.
Optional tempering
- If you prefer you can also do a additional tempering by heating another tbsp of ghee in a small tadka pan. Add a pinch of mustard, 1 broken chilli & curry leaves. When the leaves turn crisp, add hing & pour this to the sambar rice.
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
Gangka says
Love this recipe. First time made it and the taste was superb. Thank you Swasthi. Please bring in more recipes. Would like to request for gongura Annam recipe. Thanks again. 😊
swasthi says
Hi Gangka,
You are welcome. Thank you so much! Glad you liked it. Yes I will try to share gongura rice.
Priya Kumar says
I have tried this today. Extraordinary taste. All appreciated me for this recipe
swasthi says
Thank you so much Priya,
Glad you liked it!
Ishraque says
Tried it … loved it . Thank you!
You are my savior when my parents are out of time. I’ve always come to your recipes to fend for myself and I have always enjoyed the results !
swasthi says
Welcome Ishraque,
Glad to know your sambar rice came out good. Thank you. Happy to know the recipes are helpful.
🙂
Prasanna ganachari says
Hi Swasthi, I have tried your sambar rice recipe today and it came really well.. But in that you didn’t mention anything about adding red chilli powder.. I did it… It gave nice colour too…
swasthi says
Hello Prasanna,
Thanks for rating the recipe. Glad your sambar rice turned out good. I didn’t use chilli powder since my kids cannot eat spicy food.I will update it in the recipe.Thanks again.
🙂
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
🙂
Aishwarya says
I tried my husband says that very nice tast thanl u saraswathy
swasthi says
Welcome Aishwarya
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!
Jangy says
My goal is to learn how to cook 1 vegetarian dish per month and this one was delicious and very filling. I’ll be saving this recipe to make it during autumn or winter though. It’ll be perfect for those chilly days. Thanks so much!
swasthi says
Welcome Jangy
Thanks for trying and sharing the outcome.
Navya says
I cannot stop commenting, coz it turned out really well. Simply superb. Thanks for posting such a tasty recpie. I recommend this for beginers.
swasthi says
Welcome Navya
So glad to know you like it. Thanks for writing
Aneesa says
This is really very tasty recipe, I prepared last month my family liked it very much, everyone requesting me to prepare it again, I am going to prepare tomorrow. Thank u swasthi for such a tasty recipe..?
swasthi says
Welcome Aneesa
Glad to know your family liked it. Thanks for trying.
Have a great day!!
Shruti says
Great recipe…I tried it with broken wheat n it turned out very well….Thanks:)
swasthi says
welcome Shruti
thanks for sharing your tip of making with broken wheat. I will surely try
Tanusri sarkar says
Sooo delicious and very beautiful color it has…..
swasthi says
Thank you
Sahana says
Thank u for the recipe. It was very delicious and got family’s applause too.
swasthi says
Welcome Sahana
so glad to know you are applaused
🙂
Thank you
John B says
This sounds really delicious, thank you for sharing it.
BTW, how much turmeric did you use?
Thanks!
swasthi says
Hi John
You are welcome. YOu can use about 2 pinches of turmeric. Thanks for the mention . I will update it
Maria Nasir says
So delicious and comforting! Perfect for this changing weather 🙂
swasthi says
Thanks Maria
Nikhitha says
Just few days back tasted this in swagath grand restaurant in hyd and it is so good.
I’m planning to prepare this in my home but, don’t know how to prepare exactly now, your recipe guidelines helped me a lot. Thanks a tonne.
swasthi says
Welcome Nikhitha