Ingredients
For Sambar:
• 1 cup black-eyed peas (soaked overnight)
• 1 cup vegetables, roughly diced (potatoes, onions, eggplants, tomatoes)
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste
• 2 tbsps sambar powder
• Salt (as needed)
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• ½ tsp garam masala powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• 4-6 cups vegetable stock
For Tadka:
• 2 tbsps ghee (clarified butter)
• 4 dry red chillies
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds
• 2 pinch or asafoetida/hing
• 2 tsps garlic (minced)
• 12 curry leaves
Preparation
For Sambar:
• In a pressure cooker or a heavy bottomed stock pot, cook black-eyed peas in four cups of vegetable stock until soft.
• Add the chopped vegetables, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, and salt along with the remaining one cup of stock or water.
• Simmer on medium-high heat for 20 minutes.
• Add sambar, tamarind paste and add more stock if the sambar is too thick.
For Tadka:
• In a small pan, heat ghee over high-heat. Once hot, add mustard seeds.
• Next, add fenugreek seeds, garlic, red chillies, asafoetida and curry leaves.
• Fry until the garlic turns a light-brown and the red chillies change colour.
• Add the entire tadka in the steaming hot sambar. Cover with lid and let all the flavours infuse for three to five minutes.
• Serve the black-eyed peas sambar with steamed jasmine rice or idli.
