Vendakkai sambar recipe (Ladies finger sambar) | Basic sambar recipe

I am a big fan of vendakkai sambar. My mom makes it perfectly and she even says it is perfect for beginners in cooking as it comes out easily tasty, how ever you do small mistakes. I too feel its the easy and never fail sambar recipe. Well but I think it depends on personal taste too. I love this sambar so it comes out well every time without fail. I am a big fan of this sambar mom makes. It will be spicy and mild tangy. And gets ready soon when compared to my MIL’s version. I will post another sambar recipe using her sambar powder and method. I wanted to post basic sambar recipe here in my blog, as it would be helpful to many who are learning to cook south Indian cooking.
And also ladies finger needs special treatment before adding to sambar, so I thought I will post this basic sambar recipe using my mom’s sambar powder with vendakkai. I made this long time back and kept this in draft postponing. Today, while many of you enjoying Biryani (Eid Mubarak! 😊) here is a simple humble sambar recipe.

Vendakkai(ladies finger) sambar recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time: 15 mins    |  Cook time: 30 mins    |  Serves: 4

Ingredients

Toor dal - 1/2 cup

---

Water (for dal) - 1 cup + 1/4 cup

---

Tamarind - 1 tblsp tightly packed

---

Ladies finger - 12

---

Sesame oil - 1 tblsp

---

Water - 2 & 1/4 cup

---

Onion - 1

---

Tomato - 1

---

Green chilli - 4

---

Sambar powder - 1 tsp

---

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

---

Curry leaves - Few

---

Asafoetida - 3 generous pinches

---

Salt - As needed

---

To temper

Oil/ ghee - 2 tsp

---

Mustard - 1 tsp

---

Fenugreek seeds/ vendayam - 1/2 tsp

---

Jeera (optional) - 1 tsp

---

Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

---

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

---

Method

1. Soak tamarind in hot water. Pressure cook dal with water for 4 whistles. Clean and pat dry ladies finger with a clean kitchen towel. Cut into 1 inch pieces. Cube onion, tomato and slit green chillies.

2. Heat kadai and add the cut ladies finger and fry with sesame oil, until black spots appear over its ridges and the slimy thing disappears. Add more oil if needed. Fry in medium flame, stir occasionally in between to avoid burning.

3. Once done, keep that aside and add oil or ghee for tempering. Add mustard, after splutter, add fenugreek seeds followed by jeera. Add asafoetida and then curry leaves. Add onion, fry till transparent and then add green chilli.

4. Add tomatoes and fry for a minute. Transfer to a vessel in which you are going to prepare/ boil sambar. Mean while, you can extract tamarind juice and add water so that the tamarind juice is  2 and 1/4 cups. Bring to boil, add fried ladies finger.

5. Add turmeric, sambar powder, asafoetida and salt. Boil until the ladies finger gets cooked. Roughly mash the cooked dal with a ladle.

6. Add dal to the boiling sambar and boil for 2 minutes or until the required consistency arrives. Lastly tear some fresh curry leaves and mix.

Notes

• Using white variety tamarind (pudhu puli) is recommended for sambar as its not too tangy and has a mild sweetness.
• My mom ads a pinch of jaggery for everyday sambar, which enhances the taste.
• Adding asafoetida at two stages gives more flavour. Sambar mainly depends on the asafoetida flavour, so be generous adding it.
• Adding ghee to sambar adds more taste and flavour to the sambar.
• Sambar gets slightly thick when cooled down, so switch off the flame accordingly.
• Sesame oil is helpful to remove the slimy thing in the ladies finger also its good for health.

Ladies finger sambar ready , top with a tsp of ghee over along with hot steamed rice, perfect for your lunch!