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Arachuvitta sambar recipe, Sambar with fresh ground masala

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South Indian sambar recipe with fresh ground spices to make it smell divinely. South Indian sambar smells and tastes amazing when used fresh ground spices like coriander seeds, chilli, asafoetida, cumin, fenugreek seeds.

Ingredients like chana dal, urad dal are added in traces to thicken the sambar.
This is my version of arachuvitta sambar. In this updated pic the vegetable I used was poosanikai/ ash gourd.
My choice of arachuvitta sambar veggies are radish, drumstick, potato, yellow pumpkin, chow chow, mixed – (drumstick, potato, carrot, ladies finger, brinjal, chow chow, yellow pumpkin, radish)
arachuvitta sambar recipe

arachuvitta-sambar
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5 from 2 votes

Arachuvitta sambar

South Indian sambar recipe with fresh ground spices to make it smell divinely. South Indian sambar smells and tastes amazing when used fresh ground spices
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Indian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Soaking tie 15 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 4
Cup measurements

Ingredients

  • Toor dal - 1/2 cup
  • Tamarind - small gooseberry sized
  • Small onion - 12
  • Green chillies - 2
  • Tomato - 1
  • Curry leaves - 2 sprig
  • Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp chopped
  • Salt as you need
  • Jaggery -1/4 tsp
  • Vegetable of your choice

TO ROAST AND GRIND

  • Chana dal - 1 tbsp
  • Urad dal - 1 tsp
  • Red chillies - 5
  • Dry coriander seeds - 2 tsp
  • Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
  • Mustard - 1/2 tsp optional

TO TEMPER

  • Ghee - 2 tsp
  • Mustard - 3/4 tsp
  • Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
  • Hing/asafoetida - 1/8 tsp
  • Jeera/ cumin seeds -1 tsp

Instructions

  • Pressure cook toor dal with 2 cups water for 4 whistles in medium flame.
  • For fresh sambar powder, fry all the ingredients well in kadai with little oil. Grind little coarsely and keep aside. 
  • While grinding, you can add little coriander seeds raw without roasting to get a restaurant touch. That is half the amount roasted, half not roasted.
  • Take care not to burn any spices as it will spoil the whole sambar. Everything should be done in medium flame with constant stirring to ensure even roasting. 
  • Soak tamarind and take tamarind extract . Peel onions and slit green chillies,slice tomatoes.
  • Heat a kadai with ghee and add the tempering items in order. After mustard and jeera splutters add onion,green chillies,half of the curry leaves and saute till onion turns transparent and lastly add tomatoes, saute for a minute.
  • Add the tamarind extract ,turmeric powder to it and after it starts to boil nicely,add the vegetable,remaining curry leaves,coriander leaves,jaggery and salt.
  • Let the vegetables get cooked and then add cooked dal and bring to boil. Adjust water consistency.
  • Lastly add the ground masala powder and let it boil for 3-4 minutes or till the sambar gets thick enough

Method

    1. Pressure cook toor dal with 2 cups water for 4 whistles in medium flame.
    2. For fresh sambar powder, fry all the ingredients well in kadai with little oil. Grind little coarsely and keep aside.
    3. Take care not to burn any spices as it will spoil the whole sambar. Everything should be done in medium flame with constant stirring to ensure even roasting.
    4. While grinding, you can add little coriander seeds raw without roasting to get a restaurant touch. That is half the amount roasted, half not roasted.south indian arachuvitta sambar 1south indian arachuvitta sambar 2
    5. Soak tamarind and take tamarind extract . Peel onions and slit green chillies,slice tomatoes.
    6. Heat a kadai with ghee and add the tempering items in order. After mustard and jeera splutters add onion,green chillies,half of the curry leaves and saute till onion turns transparent and lastly add tomatoes, saute for a minute.south indian arachuvitta sambar 3
    7. Add the tamarind extract ,turmeric powder to it and after it starts to boil nicely,add the vegetable,remaining curry leaves,coriander leaves,jaggery and salt.
    8. Let the vegetables get cooked and then add cooked dal and bring to boil. Adjust water consistency.south indian arachuvitta sambar 4
    9. Lastly add the ground masala powder and let it boil for 3-4 minutes or till the sambar gets thick enough.south indian arachuvitta sambar 5

Enjoy with hot steamed rice with a dash of ghee.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  20. Sambar looks yummy Raks..For arachuvitta sambar we used to add coconut..if we add coconut does it taste more good..will that be like Restaurant sambar..let me know..

    Reply

  22. I have tried making that version,but sadly never clicked for me. but i have tasted that version, its more flavorful for sure. But this too will be just like hotel sambar, trust me 🙂

    Reply

  28. Hi.. ur site is awesome.. u have a gallant spread of recipies thats very helpful for beginners like me..ur "recipies for occasions" like modakam are going to be of gr8 help for many of us who are going to try for the first time..

    Reply

  32. Love your site…good collections of recipes…Your sambar recipe is too delicious…taste is out of the world….I like the smell of sambar too…my husband loved it…your photo's are great…photography is too good….by the way what camera you use to take pic…

    Reply

  34. Hi Raks, awesome recipe!! On the homepage u have mentioned the ingredients for sambhar. Do I need to dry roast them before grinding them to a coarse powder or simply grind them? Also, does coriander seeds have to be added without roasting for the flavor? Please do let me know. Thanks. Pallavi.

    Reply

  36. Hi,

    If you are ginding on bulk no need to roast them. Just sun dry till crisp lite and grind in mill. If you are doing that in mixer, then you can just roast them for a while, not that we should roast golden. Just roast to make it crisp for easy powdering…Hope this helps.

    Reply

  44. I tried your sambar it came out well we all in our family loved it. My sambar will be very bad as compared before. Thanks for relieving me from this problem. Do you know to make molaga killi sambar it will be without veggies but tempered with dry chilles.

    Reply

  48. I tried this sambar and it is tasting excellent. Some slight changes.
    I added 2 tsps of dessicated coconut and 3-4 curry leaves (fried this along with the masala frying). Also I used 'byadagi' chillies which is slightly milder in heat and gives excellent color to the dish. Result, I have an attractive looking sambar. I am still awaiting my home critic's (my hubby of course) appraisal of the dish.

    Thank you for painstaking effort in adding pics and diligent write-up.

    Looking forward to trying more of your recipes.

    Meena

    Reply

  52. Sunday Evening so i tried this recipe with cabbage poriyal. First time I am trying this sambar. It came out very well. But not the same way my wife makes it. I used butternut squash as a vegetable and that veggie took the whole taste of the sambar. Why would you put tamarind and then add veggie? isn't veggies cooked and then tamarind?

    Reply

  54. Some veggies takes a lot of time to cook, for such veggies, you can cook first and then add tamarind, some gets cooked so easily, those can be added together, no harm.

    Reply

  76. Tiffin sambar is mildly spiced with less tamarind and mostly made with specific vegetables like potato, yellow pumpkin. Tiffin sambar if you mix with rice will be very very bland while this is not 🙂

    Reply

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