Rheea's Coconut Sambhar (It's Weird, But Good & Vegan)

What's up Piglets?


So I have south-indian food complex. My formative years ( ages10-18) were in Bangalore, so even though my parents were raised in Calcutta, my food obsession was all about the South. I like the saarus, the sambhars, the rasam, and the poriyals. I could never really master the the intricacies of Bangalore south indian favorites like the kannadiga sambhar, bisebele baath, and the like. I cooked without coconut with a heavy reliance of onion garlic and tomatoes. But of late I've been using coconut, mustard seeds, and jaggery in my food, and I am getting there.

The cool thing about these foods are they are usually default vegan. Many people use ghee to temper, but barring that one thing, it's all vegan. So skip the ghee lovers!

So anyway, I have been youtubing a lot. One thing I really like is the lima bean Averake (lima bean) saaru/huli/sambhar.

I only had toor daal at home, so I did something kind of weird. I guess you can say it's inspired by Averake Huli. It's a bit of a mish-mash. Just go with me here, because it tasted pretty good.

What you Need

1 cup toor daal

1 cup chopped drumsticks

1.5 cups chopped fresh coconut

1 cup chopped carrots

5 garlic cloves chopped/mashed

1 small onion chopped

1 small tomato

5-6 green chilies

6-7 curry leaves

small bunch of cilantro (dhanya) chopped

 3 tablespoons sambhar masala

1.5 teaspoons Turmeric

2 tablespoons coriander seeds (or powder)

1.5 teaspoons mustard seed

1.5 teaspoons poppy seeds (optional, but this recipe is weird, so everything is optional)

1 teaspoon chili powder

3 tablespoons salt

3 tablespoons oil

2-3 inches of jaggery

lime-sized tamarind pulp (or tamarind powder)



How to Make

In a pressure cooker add your daal, turmeric, drumsticks, and carrots. Dump water over them till they are covered. Let it go for about 2 whistles.

Them babies with turmeric +water in the pressure cooker

Meanwhile, in a pan heat up some oil. Add mustard seeds, poppy seeds (khus-khus), fresh coconut pieces, 4-5 chilies, mustard seeds, tamarind, and some coriander seeds. Let it fry for about 3-4 minutes.

Dump the hot mixture into a blender with some water and blend. You should have a nice coconutty-paste now.

Right after you blend your fried spices +coconut

Right before adding your coconut mix +sambhar masala

Once your veggies and daal mixture is cooked open the pressure cooker. Add fresh tomatoes, sambhar masala, 2 extra green chiles (cut lengthwise), salt, chili powder, and fresh cilantro. Now add your coconut-spice mixture. Add 2-3 cups of water to get it a consistency you'd like. Add your small lump of jaggery. Now let that baby boil for about 8-10 minutes on low flame. Do a salt check and add some more if you need to.

Serve with hot rice and salad.

What do you think? Did I commit sacrilege? Has this been done before? Will you judge me?

Happy long weekend folks! Till then, keep it kind and keep it real!