Homemade Sambar Powder

While growing up, I always used to see my mother take the effect to dry the ingredients for sambar powder in the sun and then grind it to make the homemade sambar powder. It would be an effort but the end result is that delicious sambar that no other brand masalas can offer.

And the peace of mind that you get to have homemade product because you very well know what went into it and are not worried of the impurities that are present in the store bought ones. Oh, and that smell that gets filled in your home is just pure divine.


Here is the recipe for the homemade sambar powder if you would like to make it at home.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup of coriander seeds
2. 8 tbsp of toor dal
3. 2 tbsp of chana dal
4. 1 1/2 tsp of fenugreek seeds
5. 1 tsp of cumin seeds
6. 2 tsp of black pepper
7. 1 tsp of turmeric powder
8. 1/4 tsp of asafoetida powder
9. 3 sprig of curry leaves
10. 1 1/2 cup of whole dry red chillies
11. A tsp of oil

Method

• Keep the cleaned dal/seeds in the sun for about 7-8 hours.
• Dry roast the coriander seeds, toor dal, chana dal, fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds, one after the other, separately, untill a nice aroma is released and they start turning golden brown in colour.
• Now roast the black pepper and curry leaves for about 3 minutes.
• Add the oil in the pan and add the red chillies. dry roast it untill every chilly gets coated with oil. This shouldn't take time.
• Remove everything and spread it out on a tray. Let it cool down.
• Once cooled, take all the ingredients in a grinder along with turmeric powder and asafoetida powder. Grind it into fine powder. Store it in dry and air tight container.

Tips

1. Make sure that the ingredients are all cooled down before you grind it. Else the sambar powder wouldn't store well for long.
2. Add or reduce the amount of red chillies as per your taste. I usually make it with the above mentioned quantity and then add red chilly powder to the sambar as required.