Sambar - Andhra Style

Ingredients :

1. Lentils or Yellow Dal - 2 cups
2. Salt- To Taste
3. Turmeric- 1 tsp 
4. Green Chilies- 4
5. Onions- 2
6. Tomatoes - 2
7. Tamarind Juice- 2 cups
8. Vegetables like Carrot, Okra, Radish, Brinjal etc.,
9. Sambar powder- 2tsp
10. Mustard Seeds- 1tsp
11. Cumin Seeds- 1 tsp
12. Garlic Cloves- 3
13. Curry leaves- Few
14. Red Chilies-4

Preparation method :

• Firstly before you chop any of the vegetables, pressure cook the dal with double amount of water as the amount of dal you have taken. Cook until 2 whistles.
• Also take a lemon sized ball of tamarind and soak it in a cup of Luke warm water.
• While dal is cooking, chop up the vegetables into bite size pieces, onions into thin slices, dice the tomatoes, chilies can be slit from top to bottom.
• By now the dal must have been cooked and tamarind soaked properly. So you can squeeze the tamarind in the water itself to get its juice, you can either blend it into smooth paste.
• Now take the dal out of the cooker and smash it with a ladle roughly, add onions,  tomatoes, chilies, all the chopped vegetables, salt, turmeric and the tamarind juice.
• Add sufficient water to make the required amount of sambar you want. Keep this on the stove and cook till vegetables are half cooked. Now add sambar powder and cook for another 7 minutes or until it smells great,tastes good and all vegetables are properly cooked.
• Now take a small fry pan, add oil, red chilies,mustard seeds,cumin seeds,garlic cloves,curry leaves and fry for a minute, add this to sambar.
• Thats it..your delicious sambar is ready.