Jain Sambhar

The day we had a jain variety of ‘Masala Dosa’ at some restaurant, we decided to see if we can have delicious jain (no onion – no garlic) food for 5-6 days in series :) And yes, even when I went to get some veggies at super-market, I didn’t bring a bag of brown onions so that I don’t get tempted to use them all :P

Not to ponder much over it… I thought of making yummy food all days! 1st day, I made ‘kale chane ki subzi’ along with ‘masala thepla’! This is the 2nd day n I’m making ‘Masala Dosa’ only… Enjoying dosa without onion-garlic is fine, as I don’t add onions in masala ever… But making sambhar was a dilemma! I wasn’t sure if we would like the taste same way…

Yet gave it a try… n it definitely was yummy! Who says you can’t have taste n flavors without onions-garlic??!!! :) It’s always great to have a change…

Serves: 2

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup Tuver Dal
2 tbsp Diced Tomatoes
1 tbsp Sambhar Masala
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/2 tsp Red Chilly Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Lemon Juice (or Tamarind Paste)
1 tsp Urad Dal
1 tbsp Cooking Oil
1/4 tsp Cumin Seeds
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
A pinch of Hing
3-4 Curry Leaves
Salt, to taste
Coriander Leaves, for garnish
STEPS TO FOLLOW:

1. Soak tuver dal in plenty of water for 1-2 hours. Pressure-cook it for 4 whistles.
2. Grind it coarsely and transfer it to a deep vessel to cook more.
3. Add diced tomatoes and all spices in it and mix well. Bring it to boil on low flame.
4. Heat oil in tadka pan and add mustard seeds.
5. Once they stop spluttering, add urad dal in it. Once it starts changing color to golden brown, add cumin seeds, curry leaves and hing.
6. On crackling, add this tempering to boiled sambhar.
7. Cover it immediately to retain aroma of this tadka.
8. After turning off the heat, pour lemon juice and mix well.
9. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot!

SJ’s NOTE:

• Will post a recipe to make a regular (non-jain) version of sambhar soon along with quick uttapam.
• I usually add chopped onions while cooking dal along with spices and garlic paste in tempering process.