Leeks Sambar | A Simple Sambar with Frozen Toor Dal

A simple sambar recipe (lentil-based stew) made in Instant Pot with leeks and with frozen cooked toor dal. A simple vegan and gluten-free sambar recipe with minimal effort. Thanks to the meal prepping & planning!

Last week, I shared how I cook and freeze my dals. And starting this week, I will share how I use frozen dal and make dishes. I am starting with this delicious and flavorful leeks sambar.

To simply put, sambar is a lentil-based vegetable stew or gravy flavored with a blend of spices and tamarind.

Sambar is the quintessential dish of South India. Idli, dosa, and sambar have become synonymous with South Indian cuisine. But there are many more dishes beyond that, and you can find a handful of South Indian vegetarian dishes on my blog.

You can make the sambar spice blend aka sambar powder from scratch every single time or make sambar powder in bulk and use the dry powder as required or use a store-bought one. For this sambar recipe, I have used my homemade dry sambar powder, and I did not make it fresh.

Having a good quality sambar powder always comes in handy for many dishes. I use sambar powder to spice up my dry curries as well.

Why leeks sambar not just sambar?

In our household, we always make sambar with just one veggie and call the dish with the veggie name like radish sambar, onion sambar, pumpkin sambar, mango sambar. You get the drift, right?

There is no harm in adding different veggies, but one vegetable is more than sufficient for sambar. Also, not all sambar recipe calls for onion, garlic, and tomatoes.

While we add garlic for kuzhambu varieties, we don’t add garlic for sambar.

It’s all about toor dal-

I have already shared two Instant Pot sambar recipes – one where I add all the veggies and toor dal and cook them all together. And the second one where I partially cook the dal and add the veggies and the spice paste and cook again. You can find the recipes below.

• Instant Pot Mixed vegetable sambar
• Instant Pot drumstick and tomato sambar with coconut

Good quality toor dal plays a significant role in the sambar. We want nice and mushy well-blended dal in sambar. With organic toor dal, I never had any issues, but by using precooked dal, you don’t need to worry about anything. The dal is well cooked, so it blends well in the sambar, and the cooking time is also drastically reduced. That’s the critical thing when it comes to weekday cooking.

With proper meal planning and prepping, it is easy to whip up dishes quickly and easily like this sambar. With 10 minutes of chopping and basic prep-work, we can put this together and let Instant Pot do its magic. You can even cook basmati rice along with sambar using the pot-in-pot method, and the meal will be ready in no time. 

Leeks-

Leeks are more like giant onions, and you can very well use them in Indian cooking. They belong to the garlic and onion family. It is the bigger version of green onions. :-) Even though it has lots of folates, Vitamin K, and Vitamin B, I guess because of its availability, it didn’t reach the mass like onions and garlic and became a local veggie.

It cannot be eaten raw like onions and garlic, but once cooked, it has a mild onion flavor with a slight hint of sweetness. It perfectly fits in sambar and a great onion replacement.

How to Use Leeks:

Buy leeks that have dark green leaves with the white bottom. Basically, like green onion, we use only the white and pale green parts. You can use green leaves when making vegetable stock. 

• Trim the bottom edge and dark layered green leaves. Wash them thoroughly as sand particles will be inside the layers. 
• Then either chop them lengthwise or in rounds.
• For this sambar, I chopped them in rounds.

Addition of coconut – Now coming to sambar, usually, we add ground coconut or use coconut milk in sambar. But in this version, I am just sautéing it along with leeks, and it turns out well. We all love the texture. I served this with rice and the beetroot curry. But this sambar goes well with idli, dosa, and other tiffin items. 

Frozen Dal – When using frozen dal, I don’t thaw them. For this recipe, I just kept it outside. When using frozen ingredients, the Instant Pot will take a longer time to build the pressure. That’s about it. But when the pressure is building, the cooking process begins, so if you are using vegetables with high-water content, don’t cook beyond three minutes or release the pressure quickly after 5 minutes. 

Watch me make the sambar in Instant Pot-

Prep-Work 

• I used my frozen toor dal for this recipe. You can find all the details about how I cook and freeze my toor dal in the meal prepping post of mine. Just keep the dal outside for 20 to 30 minutes. I did not thaw it. (Refer notes if you are using uncooked dal)
• Clean and chop the leeks, as mentioned above.
• Mix 2 tsps of tamarind paste in 1 cup of water and set it aside.

How to make sambar in Instant Pot with frozen toor dal-

• Set the Instant Pot in saute mode and add the coconut oil.
• When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, dried red chili, and the curry leaves. Saute for 20 seconds.
• Then add the chopped leeks and saute for 2 minutes.
• Now we are going to add the other ingredients one by one. Add the grated coconut, followed by tamarind water, salt, jaggery, and sambar powder.
• Gently mix and ensure the sambar powder is mixed thoroughly, and there aren’t any lumps. 
• Now place the frozen and cooked toor dal on top of the sambar mix—no need to break or mix it. 
• Turn off the Instant Pot and close the lid. Make sure the vent is in the sealing position, and the sealing ring is on. 
• Pressure cook the lentils at high pressure for 3 minutes. When the cooking is complete, let the pressure release naturally. 
• Carefully open the lid and now gently break the dal and mix it. If needed, add one more cup of water and simmer it for 5 minutes. I added hot water just before serving. Refer to recipe notes for the consistency details. 
• Now add the cilantro and serve hot with rice or any tiffin items. 

Recipe Notes-

• If you are not using frozen dal, then you can use ¼ to ½ cup of toor dal for this measure. Pressure cook the toor dal with ¾ to 1 cup of water, and once it is cooled down, mash it well and set aside. If you want to cook the dal along with sambar, then increase the cooking time to 15 to 18 minutes. 
• As always, adjust the salt and sambar powder measure according to your preference.
• As I mentioned in the video, if I make sambar well ahead, I usually add 1 cup of hot water to thin it down before serving. But you add after the cooking is complete, that is before adding cilantro. Add water as needed and simmer for 5 minutes. 
• Add water according to your consistency preference. If you feel the sambar is thin in consistency, then add rice flour slurry to thicken it. (Mix a tsp of rice flour in 1 tbsp of water and add to the sambar and bring it to a boil) 
• If you are using any other veggies, especially sturdy veggies, adjust the cooking time accordingly. For drumstick, potatoes, chayote squash, 5 minutes should be sufficient. 
• I skipped asafoetida, but you can add a fat pinch of asafoetida.
• Coconut oil adds a nice flavor, but you can use any other oil of your choice.
• Instead of toor dal, you can use masoor dal also.

PS: Follow me on Instagram or join my Facebook Group for more gardening and recipe updates. If you try this leeks sambar, please don’t forget to comment and rate this recipe. If you have any questions, please leave a comment, and I will get to it asap.  Make sure to follow me on my Pinterest for more healthy and delicious ideas!

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5 from 4 votes

Leeks Sambar | A Simple Sambar with Frozen Toor Dal

A simple sambar recipe (lentil-based stew) made in Instant Pot with leeks and with frozen cooked toor dal. A simple vegan and gluten-free sambar recipe with minimal effort. Thanks to the meal prepping & planning!

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time3 minutes mins

Pressure Cooking + Pressure Releasing Time20 minutes mins

Total Time33 minutes mins

Course: Entree, Main Course, rice accompaniment

Cuisine: South Indian

Servings: 6

Calories: 92kcal

Author: Srividhya G

Equipment

• Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

Measurement Details: 1 cup=240ml; 1tbsp=15ml; 1tsp=5ml;

• ▢ 1 tbsp coconut oil
• ▢ ½ tsp mustard seeds
• ▢ ½ tsp fenugreek seeds
• ▢ 1 dried red chili
• ▢ 5 curry leaves
• ▢ 2 cups leeks, chopped (approx 180 grams)
• ▢ 2 tbsps coconut grated, approx 30 grams
• ▢ 2 tsps tamarind paste
• ▢ 2 cups water divided
• ▢ 1.75 tsp salt or to taste
• ▢ ½ tsp jaggery optional
• ▢ 1.25 tbsp sambar powder
• ▢ 1 cup toor dal cooked (I am using my frozen toor dal that I kept it outside for 30 minutes)
• ▢ 1 tbsp cilantro finely chopped

Instructions

Prep-Work

• I used my frozen toor dal for this recipe. You can find all the details about how I cook and freeze my toor dal in the meal prepping post of mine. Just keep the dal outside for 20 to 30 minutes. I did not thaw it. (Refer notes if you are using uncooked dal)
• Clean and chop the leeks, as mentioned above.
• Mix 2 tsps of tamarind paste in 1 cup of water and set it aside.

How to make sambar in Instant Pot with frozen toor dal-

• Set the Instant Pot in saute mode and add the coconut oil.
• When the oil hot, add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, dried red chili, and the curry leaves. Saute for 20 seconds.
• Then add the chopped leeks and saute for 2 minutes.
• Now we are going to add the other ingredients one by one. Add the grated coconut, followed by tamarind water, salt, jaggery, and sambar powder.
• Gently mix and ensure the sambar powder is mixed thoroughly, and there aren't any lumps.
• Now place the frozen and cooked toor dal on top of the sambar mix—no need to break or mix it.
• Turn off the Instant Pot and close the lid. Make sure the vent is in the sealing position, and the sealing ring is on.
• Pressure cook the lentils at high pressure for 3 minutes. When the cooking is complete, let the pressure release naturally.
• Carefully open the lid and now gently break the dal and mix it. If needed, add one more cup of water and simmer it for 5 minutes. I added hot water just before serving. Refer to recipe notes for the consistency details.
• Now add the cilantro and serve hot with rice or any tiffin items.

Video

Notes

If you are not using frozen dal, then you can use ¼ to ½ cup of toor dal for this measure. Pressure cook the toor dal with ¾ to 1 cup of water, and once it is cooled down, mash it well and set aside. If you want to cook the dal along with sambar, then increase the cooking time to 15 to 18 minutes.
As always, adjust the salt and sambar powder measure according to your preference.
As I mentioned in the video, if I make sambar well ahead, I usually add 1 cup of hot water to thin it down before serving. But you add after the cooking is complete, that is before adding cilantro. Add water as needed and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add water according to your consistency preference. If you feel the sambar is thin in consistency, then add rice flour slurry to thicken it. (Mix a tsp of rice flour in 1 tbsp of water and add to the sambar and bring it to a boil)
If you are using any other veggies, especially sturdy veggies, adjust the cooking time accordingly. For drumstick, potatoes, chayote squash, 5 minutes should be sufficient.
I skipped asafoetida, but you can add a fat pinch of asafoetida.
Coconut oil adds a nice flavor, but you can use any other oil of your choice.
Instead of toor dal, you can use masoor dal also.

Nutrition

Calories: 92kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 718mg | Potassium: 217mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 1020IU | Vitamin C: 21mg | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 2mg

I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.

Tried this recipe?Mention @vidhyasvegetariankitchen or tag #vidhyasvegkitchen

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Update Notes: This recipe was originally posted in 2016 but now updated with new pics, Instant Pot version, and with frozen toor dal.