Sambar is a very popular lentil dish from South India. Sambar which is usually made at home is slightly different than the sambar served in Hotels. However much I love homemade food, still I sometimes cannot resist the craving for a hot plate of Idli sambar from the hotel or maybe sambar vada or just plain Hoel sambar just like soup. You can also make Sambar Rice. Jump to:How to make Sambar (Video)Recipe Notes - Hotel Sambar Recipe📖 Recipe That reminds me how do you like my yesterday’s Sambar rice recipe? Having sambar, dosa and chutney from an authentic south Indian restaurant is almost like a comfort food for me. Having said that it is neither feasible nor advisable to eat hotel food every day, so why not bring the hotel at home!
How to make Sambar (Video)
Well! All the ingredients are simple and easily available in your kitchen. The proportions of spices and veggies make the difference. The secret of any good south Indian sambar recipe is sambar masala. I did a few trial and error sessions but finally fine-tuned my recipe of Hotel sambar to taste quite similar to Sarvana Bhawan sambar. Now I am not saying that there is a queue waiting outside my house, but this sambhar came out to be as great as the popular hotels.
I love south Indian cuisine because of their ample use of spices and vegetables. I had talked to you about 5 spices that every south Indian kitchen must stock earlier. It is A pinch of one spice can either make your dish ‘wow!’ or ‘what?’. There are some unique local spices which make all the difference in a dish. Sambar is essentially dal, made with lots of vegetables and a blend of spices generally found in the southern part of India. For the ones who don’t know, the word sambhar covers a lot of recipes which are cooked with the combination of dal-vegetables-spices. There are different recipes for each, breakfast sambar, lunch sambar, tiffin sambar etc and special occasions. A spice mix paste is prepared which is added in the sambhar that is prepared at Hotels or for special occasions. That is the key to make that aromatic hotel style sambar. The base for all toor dal or archer dal, also known as pigeon peas. Most of the times I have cooked toor dal in the fridge. It is quite helpful if you are into meal prep like me. Cook a double batch of dal and you can make Punjabi Yellow dal fry or Gujarati Khatti dal and then there is always Rasam or sambar recipe. South Indian cuisine is truly one of my favourites because it is really healthy and lite. I love making a variety of idlis like chana dal idli, Kanchipuram idli, fried podi idli, ghee fried idli and ragi idli for breakfast, most of these are incomplete without sambar. Can you ever imagine eating vada or Idli without sambar 😀 And, Did I tell you I am one of those people who eat Coconut rice with Sambar 😛 So next time, whenever you are in the mood for a plate of Idli sambar make this hotel sambar recipe.
Recipe Notes - Hotel Sambar Recipe
You can add many more vegetables like bhindi( okra), baingan (eggplant), mooli (radish) or any other beans. The bright colour of a hotel sambar is because of the Kashmiri red chilli powder used in it so do not replace it with normal red chilli powder. If you have cooked dal ready in the fridge, all it takes is less than 20minutes. It is a good idea to make the sambar powder for 4-5 times and store it in an airtight jar in a dry place. You can freeze the sambar, but it will turn thick in some time so add water as required when you reheat it.
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📖 Recipe
