Slow Cooker Red Radish Sambhar

After trying out the dhal with slow cooker, I thought why not try our Tamil Nadu delicacies? So the next recipe is the day -today sambhar or as we say kuzhambu.Kuzhambu or sambhar is one among best rice accompaniment. I usually make any one type of kuzhambu most of the days .  Be it vathal kuzhambu or mandi or this kind of sambhar without coconut they go well with rice. The traditional araichuvitta sambhar is reserved for weekend. :-) During weekdays I usually try pressure cooker sambhar. I thought why not try the same with slow cooker. In my pressure cooker sambhar recipe I used masoor dhal as it cooks comparatively faster and also its light. But for this slow cooker sambhar I went with toor dhal itself. For sambhar I use only one veggie, either with or without onion so you get the taste of that veggie completely in the sambhar.

Here is the red radish sambhar.

Ingredients:

• Toor dhal – 1 cup
• Half of medium onion chopped
• Red Radish – 1 bunch chopped in to halves.
• Tamarind paste – 1 tsp or 1 cup of juice extracted from small gooseberry sized tamarind
• Cilantro chopped – 1 tbsp
• Curry leaves – 1 strand
• Jaggery – 1 tsp
• Sambhar powder – 1 tbsp (heaped)
• Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
• Salt – 1.5 tsp (as per taste)
• Water – 3 cups + 3 tbsps (if required)
• Rice flour – 2 tsps (optional)

For tempering,

• Oil – 1 tbsp
• Hing – 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
• Methi seeds – 2 tsps

Steps:

• Wash the toor dhal and chop the veggies.

• Now add the radish, onion, washed toor dhal, sambhar powder, turmeric powder, tamarind paste,salt, jaggery, cilantro, curry leaves along with 3 cups of water.

• Set it in low mode for 7 hours. (5 hrs should be enough if in high mode). I tried in low mode.
• Remove the pot from the cooker and mix well.

• Heat the kadai or pan and add oil.
• Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, hing and methi seeds.
• As they start to splutter add the cooked sambhar mix.
• (Reheating the cooked sambhar mix is for thickening it.)

• If you feel it’s too thick, add water to required consistency and let it boil for a 5 minutes. If it’s too thin, add 2 tsps of rice flour in 3tbsps cup of water and add it and let it boil so that sambhar becomes thick.

That’s it. Yummy sambhar is ready. On a busy weekday set this up in the morning or in the previous night. Once its cooked all you need is 5 minutes for the tadka and mixing it up. Loving this slow cooker.

More South Indian recipes to come.. :-)