Today I am sharing a simple side dish that goes well with both hot rice and roti, made with fresh winter produce of methi leaves. Vendhaya Keerai Sambar is a delicious Tamilnadu style lentil stew made with fenugreek or methi leaves.
Sambar Recipe using Vendhaya Keerai
Sambar is like the ultimate comfort food and it is very easy to make, almost like a one pot meal to me. In our household, we make sambar with almost all vegetables and each vegetable lends a very unique flavor to the sambar. While it is best served with rice, I love it with breakfast recipes and with roti/poori too. With fresh methi leaves that are in season right now, this Vendhaya Keerai Sambar tastes the best.
Vendhaya Keerai Sambar – Ingredients
And like any other Sambar recipe, this Methi Sambar uses very basic ingredients with dal making the base of the curry. Methi Leaves/Vendhaya Keerai – is the main flavoring ingredient in this recipe. Tender methi/fenugreek leaves impart a mild bitter flavor Toor Dal – cooked plain toor dal is added to the sambar usually, but instead of toor dal moong dal can also be used. Onions & Tomatoes – are added for the texture and to mask the mild bitterness from methi leaves. Sambar Powder – sambar is not really sambar without this magical spice powder. There are also other ingredients like turmeric powder, asafoetida and other tempering ingredients. Checkout other Sambar recipes
Radish Sambar Raw Mango Sambar Arachuvitta Sambar Chinna Vengaya Sambar Tiffin Sambar
Vendhaya Keerai Sambar Recipe with Step by Step Pictures
Pressure cook ½ cup toor dal with enough water for 3-4 whistles. Let the pressure drop naturally and then, mash the dal. Set aside.
In a thick bottomed pan, heat 2 teaspoon Oil. Add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds, ½ teaspoon cumin seeds and ¼ teaspoon asafoetida. As they splutter, add dry red chilli cut in two.
Add 1 Large Onion finely chopped along with 2 Medium Tomatoes finely chopped. Cook until the onions & tomatoes are soft on low flame.
Add 1 cup Finely Chopped Methi Leaves. Cook on low flame for 3-4 mins.
Now add ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 tablespoon Sambar Powder. Cook for a couple of mins.
Add ½ cup water and as it comes to a boil, add 1 teaspoon tamarind paste.
Let it boil for a few mins.
Next add the cooked toor dal. Mix well. Add 1 cup to 1.5 cups of water as needed.
Now add salt as needed.
Bring the sambar to a slow boil and continue cooking for 7-8 mins until it is frothy. Remove from heat.
Serve hot with hot rice and a dollop of ghee on top, potato fry and sago papad on the side.
Recipe Notes
Checkout the recipe for homemade sambar powder. Adjust the amount of water as per the thickness preferred. It can also be made like dal.
Recipe Card
📖 Recipe
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