South Indian Sambar with Zucchini

Zucchini was only known to me as a sauteed vegetable until I experimented with it in preparing sambar, and I was pleasantly surprised by how delicious it turned out!

If you’re from South India, you might already be familiar with this recipe, as it’s a regular sambar recipe but made with zucchini. For those who are new to it, don’t worry—it’s quite simple.

First, cook the toor dal and set it aside. Then, saute mustard seeds, cumin seeds, ginger, garlic, dried red chili, curry leaves, hing, and onion until the onion turns translucent. Next, add tomatoes and zucchini along with some salt, and cook them until they are about 70% done. After that, add tamarind extract, sambar powder, and the cooked dal into the pot, along with extra salt. Cook it until the dal begins to boil and becomes frothy. I used homemade sambar powder for this recipe, but any store-bought sambar powder works well if you don’t have any homemade on hand.

Enjoy this delicious zucchini sambar with rice topped with a dollop of ghee some salad, papad, and pickles on the side. As alternatives to regular white rice, you can use brown rice, red rice, quinoa, and millets for added fiber and protein.

I hope you try this recipe and love it as much as we did!

Check out other sambar recipes here – Radish sambar , Parsnip sambar , Avarekalu huli

Ingredients

For Pressure cooking

1 cup (200g) toor dal (washed )
2 cups water

For Sambar

2 medium zucchini (chopped into 1-inch pieces)
3 tbsp cooking oil
¼ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
curry leaves
a pinch of Hing
2 dried red chilies (broken into halves)
¼ tsp minced ginger root (optional)
1 clove crushed garlic (optional)
½ medium red onion (sliced)
1 medium tomato (chopped)
1 tbsp tamarind extract
salt to taste
¼ tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp sambar powder
cilantro (finely chopped)
water (as per consistency)

Instructions

Add toor dal and water into the pressure cooker, and cook until dal soft and well-cooked. Allow the pressure to release naturally, then mash the dal and keep aside.
Heat oil in a cooking pot on medium heat. Add mustard and cumin seeds, allow them to pop and sizzle.
Add ginger, garlic, dried red chilies, curry leaves and hing.
Add onion and sauté on low-medium heat until onion translucent.
Add zucchini, tomatoes and salt and sauté for a minute. Cover and cook zucchini on low-medium heat until 70% cooked. (If you feel the zucchini needs water to cook, add about 50 ml)
On low heat, add the sambar powder and tamarind extract and mix well.
Immediately transfer cooked dal, pour water as per desired consistency and combine well.
Cover and cook the sambar on low-medium heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it starts boiling and becomes frothy.
Garnish with chopped cilantro and turn the heat off.
Serve delicious Zucchini Sambar with rice, quinoa, millets or Idly. Enjoy!