Tirunelveli Sambhar – Nellai Sambhar
This Tirunelveli Sambhar is famous in the Nellai/Tirunelveli region of Tamil Nadu and hence also called Nellai Sambhar. This brings in a unique taste from that region and is a good side for rice as part of the South Indian meal.
For the last day of this week's blogging marathon, I decided to make a specialty from Tirunelveli district, Nellai Sambhar. The minute I hear the name Tirunelveli, the first thing that comes to my mind is halwa.
Tirunelveli is very famous for its halwa, and no other halwa can even come close to it.
When I came across this dish on the internet, I was wondering what could be so different about a sambhar. It turns out that this sambhar is indeed very unique in its flavor and something that I have never tasted before.
My first experience with the Nellai cuisine was when I made Maapillai Sodhi and puli inji. The sodhi was an entirely new dish to me that I had never heard before and fell in love with as soon as I tasted it.
This time, when exploring a different recipe from the region, I knew what to expect flavor-wise, and the dish kept up to the expectation. I referred to a few recipes, online and offline, for reference to make this dish.
Preparation time - 10 minutes
Cooking time - 40 minutes
Difficulty level - easy
Ingredients to make Tirunelveli Sambhar - Serves 4-6
- Tamarind - Lemon-sized ball
- Tuvaram paruppu / Toor dal - ½ cup
- Onion - 1 medium (chopped)
- Tomato (optional) - 1 (I did not use it)
- Any vegetable of your choice - 1 ½ cups (chopped, I used okra)
- Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
- Asafetida - a pinch
- Salt - to taste
To Temper -
- Oil - 2 tsp
- Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
- Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
- Urad dal/Ullutham paruppu - 2 tsp
- Methi seeds / Fenugreek - 1 tsp
- Curry leaves - few
Grind into a paste -
- Onion - ½ of a small one
- Red chilies - 4 or 5
- Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
- Coconut - ¼ cup
Procedure to make Tirunelveli Sambhar
- Soak the tamarind in 1 cup of hot water for a few minutes and extract the pulp. Again, add ½ cup of water to the tamarind and extract the remaining water. Keep aside.
- Wash the toor dal well and add enough water and turmeric powder. Cook it in a pressure cooker until soft and mushy. Keep aside.
- Grind the ingredients mentioned under grind to a paste. Do not fry any of the ingredients. They are ground raw. Keep it aside.
- In a pot, heat the oil and add the ingredients mentioned under the 'to temper' list. Let it fry for a minute and then add the onions. Fry the onions until translucent, and then add the vegetable of your choice. Fry it for 2-3 minutes and then add the extracted tamarind water and salt needed.
- Let the mixture boil for 10-12 minutes, until the raw smell from the tamarind disappears and the vegetables cooks.
- Serve hot with rice!
Other Sambhar Recipes
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Recipe
Tirunelveli Sambhar - Nellai Sambhar
Equipment
- Kadai
- Pot
- spatula
- Grinder
Ingredients
- Tamarind Lemon sized ball
- ½ Tuvaram paruppu / Toor dal
- 1 medium Onion chopped
- 1 Tomato optional
- 1 ½ cups Any vegetable of your choice chopped, I used okra
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- a pinch Asafetida
- to taste Salt
To Temper -
- 2 teaspoon Oil
- 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 2 teaspoon Urad dal/Ullutham paruppu
- 1 teaspoon Methi seeds / Fenugreek
- few Curry leaves
Grind into paste -
- ½ small one Onion
- 4-5 Red chilies
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- ¼ cup Coconut
Instructions
- Soak the tamarind in 1 cup of hot water for few minutes and extract the pulp. Again add ½ cup of water to the tamarind and extract the remaining water. Keep aside.
- Wash the toor dal well and add enough water and turmeric powder. Cook it in a pressure cooker until soft and mushy. Keep aside.
- Grind the ingredients mentioned under grind to paste. Do not fry any of the ingredients. They are ground raw. Keep it aside.
- In a pot, heat the oil and add the ingredients mentioned under 'to temper' list. Let it fry for a minute and then add the onions. Fry the onions until translucent and then add the vegetable of your choice. Fry it for 2-3 minutes and then add the extracted tamarind water and salt needed.
- Let the mixture boil for 10-12 minutes, until the raw smell from the tamarind disappears and the vegetable cooks.
- Now add the ground paste and the cooked toor dal and mix well. Adjust the consistency of the sambhar and let it come to a boil. Simmer it for about- 10-12 minutes until aromatic.
- Serve hot with rice!
