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    Home » Recipes » Snacks

    Sambar vadai recipe (With hotel sambar recipe)

    September 22, 2015 by Raks Anand 13 Comments / Jump to Recipe

    Sambar vadai recipe - urad dal vadai, soft that just melts in your mouth soaked in mild and flavorful sambar that you can drink like soup.

    sambar vadai recipe
    Sambar vadai

    Make it for special occasions, or for guests meals, this is truly a winner. You can make it with leftover vada as well.

    Check out my thayir vadai recipe and rasam vadai recipe in this website.

    Jump to:
    • Step by step photos
    • Recipe card

    I recently only developed taste for sambar vada, especially the one from Murugan idli shop.

    After their chutneys, I like their sambar vada. I have it often but the best sambar vada here in Singapore is from Nalan restaurant near Funan IT mall.

    Their sambar is the best and love their sambar vada a lot. Both these restaurants inspire me to try sambar vada at home.

    Mostly I am lazy to make sambar for sambar vadai 😛.

    These days I soak only less urad dal and grind for festivals as it always goes for waste.

    We cook lot of things and it will be heavy to eat vadai too on top of it. This time for Ganesh Chaturthi I soaked more and ground in wet grinder especially to try sambar vada.

    Co incidentally, I saw the same in Vj TV show Samayal samyal. I have heard about making sambar by cooking raw onions instead of sauteeing and adding to it. But never tried as I thought it won’t smell good.

    When I saw in cooking show, I thought why not give it a try and to my surprise it turned out really good. And I learnt it is the secret to hotel sambar.

    I adapted the recipe but only changed the method of making here and there to my convenience.

    And I know I am  going to make this often here after until I get bored of this.

    You can either make vadas especially for making sambar vada or recylce the vadais already made too 😁. Just soak in hot water, make sambar and soak the vada in it.

    Step by step photos

    Make vadai

    1. For making vada, soak urad dal for 2 to 3 hours. For best results, I keep inside fridge after 2 hours for an hour minimum before grinding. This gives fluffy batter.
    2. Drain water completely and grind to a smooth paste by adding little ice cold water or ice cubes at a time.
    3. Once smooth transfer to a mixing bowl.
    1-batter

    4. Heat oil, grease your hands with water and make a small ball out of vadai batter.

    Move the ball to fingers and make a hole in the center with your thumb.

    2-shape

    5. Drop in hot oil by inverting your hands over oil and gently moving your fingers.

    Cook in medium flame both sides until golden and crisp. Maintain oil temperature by regulating the heat, otherwise it will drink oil.

    3-fry

    6. Drain in paper towel. Soak the vada in hot water. Add little salt in the water. Let it get soaked.

    4-soak

    Prepare sambar

    1. For sambar, pressure cook toor dal with 1 & ½ cups of water for 4 whistles in medium flame.

    Once done, mash it well. Add turmeric, red chilli, finely chopped tomato, peeled small onion, slit green chillies, curry leaves, tamarind extract.

    Soak tamarind in hot water for ½ hour and extract juice with a cup of water.

    cook dal

    2. Pressure cook for a whistle. In a kadai, splutter mustard and lower the flame. Add sambar powder and quickly give it a stir.

    Temper

    3. Add the pressure cooked dal mixture to it.Mix well and adjust water consistency.

    You may have to add 1 & ½ cups water to 2 cups approximately.

    Bring to boil and add coriander leaves, asafoetida powder, jaggery or sugar and top with ghee. Switch off the flame.

    boil sambar

    Assembling

    1. Now gently squeeze the excess water in the soaked vada, without changing its shape and arrange in the serving bowl.

    Add hot sambar over it. Garnish with finely chopped onions before serving.

    Sambar vadai ready

    Always serve hot! Add raw onions just before serving. We all  loved it and for the first time Aj too  ate it.

    sambar vadai recipe

    Recipe card

    sambar vadai recipe
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    Sambar vadai recipe

    Sambar vadai is urad dal vadai, soaked in mild and flavourful sambar. I recently only developed taste for sambar vada, especially the one from Murugan idli shop.
    Course Snack
    Cuisine Indian
    Prep Time 30 minutes
    Cook Time 30 minutes
    Soak time 2 hours
    Servings 6 people
    Cup measurements

    Ingredients

    Ingredients for sambar

    • ½ cup Toor dal
    • ½ cup Small onion
    • 1 Tomato
    • 2 Green chilli
    • 1 teaspoon Tamarind tightly packed
    • 3 teaspoon Sambar powder heaped
    • 1 teaspoon Red chilli powder
    • ¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder
    • ¼ teaspoon Asafoetida powder
    • 2 tablespoon Coriander leaves chopped
    • 1 sprig Curry leaves
    • ½ teaspoon Jaggery or sugar
    • 1 teaspoon Ghee
    • 1 tablespoon Oil
    • ½ teaspoon Mustard
    • Salt

    For vadai

    • ½ cup Urad dal – ½ cup
    • 1 teaspoon Black pepper powdered coarsely, do not use fine powder
    • 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
    • Salt
    • ⅛ teaspoon Asafoetida
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    Make vadai

    • For making vada, soak urad dal for 2 to 3 hours. For best results, I keep inside fridge after 2 hours for an hour minimum before grinding. This gives fluffy batter.
    • Drain water completely and grind to a smooth paste by adding little ice cold water or ice cubes at a time.
    • Once smooth transfer to a mixing bowl.
    • Mix salt and asafoetida.
    • Heat oil, grease your hands with water and make a small ball out of vadai batter.
    • Move the ball to fingers and make a hole in the center with your thumb.
    • Drop in hot oil by inverting your hands over oil and gently moving your fingers.
    • Cook in medium flame both sides until golden and crisp. Maintain oil temperature by regulating the heat, otherwise it will drink oil.
    • Drain in paper towel.
    • Soak the vada in hot water. Add little salt in the water. Let it get soaked.

    Prepare sambar

    • For sambar, pressure cook toor dal with 1 & ½ cups of water for 4 whistles in medium flame. If your dal is hard to cook, recommend to soak ½ hour prior cooking.
    • Soak tamarind in hot water meanwhile for minimum 15 minutes. Extract tamarind juice with 1cup water.
    • Once dal is done, mash it well. Add turmeric, red chilli, finely chopped tomato, peeled small onion, slit green chillies, curry leaves, tamarind extract.
    • Pressure cook for a whistle.
    • In a kadai, splutter mustard and lower the flame or better switch off. Add sambar powder in the heat itself and quickly give it a stir.
    • Add the pressure cooked dal mixture to it immediately. Mix well and adjust water consistency.
    • You may have to add 1 & ½ cups water to 2 cups approximately.
    • Bring to boil and add coriander leaves, asafoetida powder, jaggery or sugar and top with ghee. Switch off the flame.
    • Now gently squeeze the excess water in the soaked vada, without changing its shape and arrange in the serving bowl.
    • Add hot sambar over it. Garnish with finely chopped onions before serving.

    Video

    Notes

    • The sambar amount given here may give more than needed for sambar vadai.
    • Number of vadais depend on urad dal quality, if you grind in grinder or mixer.
    • Salt and tamarind should be less in this sambar so that the sambar is drinkable.
    • Adding ghee is optional.
    • Take care not to burn the sambar powder. Otherwise the whole taste will be spoiled.
    • Since we fry the sambar powder in oil, it won’t be that much spicy, so if you want to add spice increase red chilli powder and green chilli.
    • The urad dal can be slightly on coarse side. This will give you firm vadai.
    • The sambar gets thickened as it cools, so make sure the consistency is according to that.
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Unknown

      September 22, 2015 at 1:54 am

      Thanks for the recipe..will try soon 🙂 looks yummm

      Reply
    2. jeyashri suresh

      September 22, 2015 at 1:54 am

      The moment I hear the word sambar vada it brings back lot of memories. It reminds me of my childhood days spent with my dad. Wish one day I should get a courage and control my emotions to make this and blog it . Very beautiful post. Thanks for sharing

      Reply
    3. Rekharamesh

      September 22, 2015 at 2:29 am

      Yummy while seeing pics & video .. Soon I will make try !!! Thku raje

      Reply
    4. Gayathri Ramanan

      September 22, 2015 at 2:38 am

      Love sambar vadai. Last picture looks tempting with raw onion on top

      Reply
    5. Aksh

      September 22, 2015 at 5:31 pm

      What sambhar is this? I saw only onions in the video

      Reply
    6. Aksh

      September 22, 2015 at 5:31 pm

      What sambhar is this? I saw only onions in the video

      Reply
    7. Traditionally Modern Food

      September 22, 2015 at 8:21 pm

      My absolute favorite:-) only for vetha kuzhambu I cook dbar Powder like this.. Should try sambar this way.. Sambar Vadai looks perfect Raji

      Reply
    8. ARC

      September 23, 2015 at 10:30 pm

      Yummy!! Tempting,,,Video Version Too good

      Reply
    9. Akila Dilip

      January 12, 2016 at 3:12 am

      Mouth watering recipe this reminds me of school days I use to go Saravana Bhavan yo have this sambar vadai

      Reply
    10. Gurleen Kaur

      December 24, 2020 at 10:19 am

      Hello, I am a big fan of your recipes! I am going to prepare these Vada in afternoon for a dinner get together for which I need to take them over to a friends house. How can I warm them up before serving, would it be possible in a microwave and if so how long ?

      Reply
      • Raks Anand

        December 24, 2020 at 2:16 pm

        Microwaving could make it slightly hard outer layer if it's over done. So you have to carefully reheat. Some might get heated fast and get overdone while some might remain soft. So make sure to reheat in 30 seconds first and later increase 10 secs at a time changing the vada position each time. Hope this helps.
        I can also suggest to plan something like sambar vada, curd vada or rasam vada for such occasions so that it will be easy to manage.

        Reply
    11. Gurleen Kaur

      December 24, 2020 at 2:58 pm

      Hello Raks,
      Thanks for your prompt reply!
      I am going to serve with Sambar and coconut chutney. But just can’t serve straight after cooking that’s all! So I will microwave few vada at a time just for 20-30 seconds as you suggested! I might even do a trial at home to see if it works.

      Wishing you a merry Christmas and happy New Years! Cheers

      Reply
      • Raks Anand

        December 25, 2020 at 12:00 am

        That's great. Happy New year to you too!

        Reply

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    Raks anand

    Hi, I'm Rajeswari Vijayanand! I am the person behind Rakskitchen, sharing recipes with pictures & videos.

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