Vengaya sambar recipe, chinna vengaya sambar

Vengaya sambar is one of the most desirable dishes in Tamil cuisine. Made with just small onions (shallots/ chinna vengayam) and fresh ground sambar powder. Full video and step by step pictures recipe.

Whenever I remember vengaya sambar, I remember the song my mom sings, but I could not find such song online. I don’t even know if it’s really there or made up my herself, still I keep singing those two lines… vengaya sambaru…vegadha soru…😁

Speciality

Though I make everyday sambar with small onions when I have stock or the tiffin sambar with potato and small onion, never thought of posting vengaya sambar in my blog.

Vengaya sambar and potato curry is a classic combo.

For people who make sambar without onion all the times, vengaya sambar is a big deal. It’s like a special menu.

But we always make sambar with onion, so only small onions is special, that too, I use small onions whenever I have stock as Vj likes his sambar with small onions.

Only that I make with some vegetables along with small onions, so add just a hand full. Make vengaya sambar with lots of small onion (chinna vengayam) and avoid any vegetable. Also freshly ground sambar powder is best for this sambar.

My review

So when S. S. Pandian & Sons, a leading manufacturer of asafoetida or hing/perungayam in India sent two of their asafoetida to try and if I liked, asked me for a honest review of their asafoetida.

Disclaimer: This is a paid post but the review is not influenced, it’s my honest review about the product.

First thing as a south Indian I remembered was sambar. I love asafoetida flavor a lot. My mom uses generously in sambar and says perungayam is one of the key ingredients in sambar for being flavourful.

Without even knowing the medicinal values in it, we consume everyday. Though I have a few recipes in my sambar collections, I decided to try in my vengaya sambar.

It turned out really flavorful and liked the flavor a lot. You will know the moment when you open the pack, how flavorful it is. The highlight of the product is, SSP hing does not have any gum arabic in it. 

So the flavor is more strong comparatively. And hence the quality and price is above par in market and they have established themselves a strong trustable brand in Karnataka.

Varieties

They have a wide range of asafoetida available for sale, It’s available online in Amazon. I was sent SSP Ultra powder Asafoetida (New launch on market) and SSP powder asafoetida.

There are also other forms they sell such as SSP crystal asafoetida and semi paste form too. Below are the links to buy them online: (Available in both Amazon and in their website)

SSP Powder Asafoetida
Crystal asafoetida
SSP Ultra powder Asafoetida

For Singapore friends, you can buy SSP asafoetida in little India Saravana stores. Do try it out to see the difference.

Top tip

How to make a perfect sambar?

• For a perfect textured sambar, the dal should be cooked soft and mashed creamy. This plays an important role in looks and color. If dal is under cooked, it wont get mashed and this will give a grainy texture as well as the color wont be as good as a creamy cooked dal.
• Taste should be balanced. Most common mistake as far as I have seen, over do with tamarind. If it is more, the sambar wont be tasty, probably tangy.
• Next is salt, if not seasoned properly, beginners won’t even be able to figure out what is wrong. You will feel something’s missing but not sure what it is!
• If your sambar is too spicy and no other taste is evident, then you are adding less tamarind and salt. Salt can sometime fix the spiciness and balance the taste.
• Make sure the onion is sauteed well to almost cook it softly. Otherwise it will not be blending well in the sambar.

Recipe card

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4.25 from 4 votes

Vengaya sambar recipe | Onion sambar

Vengaya sambar is one of the most desirable dishes in Tamil cuisine. Made with just small onions (shallots/ chinna vengayam) and fresh ground sambar powder. Full video and step by step pictures recipe.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian, South Indian

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Servings 4 People

1x2x3x

Cup measurements

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup Toor dal Thuvaram paruppu
• 1 cup Small onion
• 1 teaspoon Tamarind packed
• ½ Sambar powder or red chilli powder
• ¼ teaspoon Turmeric
• ½ teaspoon Jaggery
• Salt -as needed
• 2 tablespoon Coriander leaves chopped

Roast & powder

• 1 teaspoon Ghee/ oil
• 4 Red chilli
• 1.5 teaspoon Chana dal –
• 1.5 teaspoon Coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon Urad dal
• ¼ teaspoon Fenugreek seeds/ methi
• ⅛ teaspoon Asafoetida SSP Powder

To temper

• 2 teaspoon Ghee
• ½ teaspoon Mustard
• Asafoetida – a pinch
• Curry leaves – A sprig

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Instructions

• First pressure cook toor dal with a cup of water for 4 whistles in medium flame. Soak tamarind in hot water to extract pulp. I just keep in the cooker itself for easy extraction.
• Meanwhile, peel onion. Eliminate the hard white part on the top  and peel the skin off. Use a paring knife for easy peeling. Once dal is cooked, mash it well and keep aside. Extract tamarind juice in a cup of water.
• In a kadai or heavy bottomed pan, heat a teaspoon of oil and add red chilli, coriander seeds, chana dal, urad dal and fenugreek seeds.
• Roast until golden and lastly add SSP powder asafoetida and give it a roast. Remove the roasted items in a plate for cooking.
• In the same kadai, add ghee and splutter mustard. Add asafoetida and curry leaves. Add peeled onions.
• Fry for a minute in medium flame or until the onion turns translucent and browned here and there.Transfer to a vessel,
• Add tamarind extract, one more cup of water, red chilli powder, turmeric, salt and bring to boil.
• Meanwhile grind the roasted spices to a coarse powder.
• Continue boiling for 4 minutes until the onions are soft and tender. Add cooked, mashed dal. Adjust water consistency and once it starts to boil again, add jaggery.
• Add powdered fresh ground masala in a sprinkled way, little by little as you stir. Once again bring to boil. When the sambar thickens (hardly takes 2 mins), switch off the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Video

Notes

• Make sure of not burning the spices while roasting as it is the main thing for sambar flavor.
• While adding the sambar powder, add in sprinkled way little by little, mixing in by stirring. Otherwise it might end up as lumps.
• Red chilli powder or sambar powder adds nice flavor to the sambar in addition to the fresh ground sambar powder.
• You can skip it and increase the red chilli while roasting or even add 3 slit green chillies along small onion.
• After adding fresh ground sambar powder, the sambar will thicken soon. So make sure to adjust the consistency. This sambar is meant to be slightly thick.

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Stepwise photos

1. First pressure cook toor dal with a cup of water for 4 whistles in medium flame. Soak tamarind in hot water to extract pulp. I just keep in the cooker itself for easy extraction.

2. Meanwhile, peel onion. Eliminate the hard white part on the top  and peel the skin off. Use a paring knife for easy peeling. Once dal is cooked, mash it well and keep aside. Extract tamarind juice in a cup of water.

3. In a kadai or heavy bottomed pan, heat a teaspoon of oil and add red chilli, coriander seeds, chana dal, urad dal and fenugreek seeds. 

4. Roast until golden and lastly add SSP powder asafoetida and give it a roast. Remove the roasted items in a plate for cooking.

5. In the same kadai, add ghee and splutter mustard. Add asafoetida and curry leaves. Add peeled onions.

6. Fry for a minute in medium flame or until the onion turns translucent and browned here and there. Transfer to the vessel.

7. Add tamarind extract, one more cup of water, red chilli powder, turmeric, salt and bring to boil.

8. Meanwhile grind the roasted spices to a coarse powder. 

9. Continue boiling for 4 minutes until the onions are soft and tender. Then add cooked, mashed dal. Adjust water consistency and once it starts to boil again, add jaggery.

10. Add powdered fresh ground masala in a sprinkled way, little by little as you stir. Once again bring to boil. When the sambar thickens (hardly takes 2 mins), switch off the flame. Finally garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve with hot steamed rice and potato curry the best.