Hotel Style Sambar is a tasty, flavourful gravy made by cooking dal, veggies & spices that mimics the famous hotel chain sambar in Tamil Nadu. Saravana Bhavan Hotel Style Sambar is a great side for Idli, Dosa, Uttappam & Upma that could be easily reciprocated at home with this recipe. 
I am not a big fan of Saravana Bhavan Sambar, but when I was searching for hotel sambar recipes, this recipe caught my attention so bookmarked and kept.Finally a day has come for me to try this sambar tagged as ‘Saravana Bhavan Style Hotel Sambar’.I cannot say that this tastes exactly the same as Saravana Bhavan Sambar but sure comes very closer to it,so worth the try.This sambar is thick and flavourful making it ideal to serve for any breakfast dishes like idli,dosa,vadai pongal etc.
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📖 Recipe Card
Saravana Bhavan Hotel Style Sambar
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup toor dal
- 1/2 medium tomato roughly chopped
- 1 carrot roughly chopped
- 1 brinjal roughly chopped
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 marble sized tamarind
- coriander leaves finely chopped to garnish
- 1.5 teaspoon oil
- water as required
- salt to taste
TO GRIND:
- 1 teaspoon fried gram dal
- 1/2 tablespoon coconut
- 1/2 medium tomato roughly chopped
- 1/2 heaped teaspoon sambar powder
TO TEMPER:
- 1.5 teaspoon oil
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon split urad dal
- 7 halved small onion
- 1/8 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- a pinch hing
- few curry leaves
- 1 green chilli slitted
Instructions
- To a mixer jar add all the ingredients listed under ‘to grind’ and grind to a fine paste along with little water if needed.
- Soak tamarind in water.
- Rinse dal add it along with turmeric powder, oil and water till immersing level to a pressure cooker.
- Pressure cook for 5 whistles in low medium flame or until mushy.
- Once pressure releases mash it well with a ladle, set aside.
- In a kadai heat oil, sauté the veggies along with tomato.
- Sauté for few mins until it shrinks.
- Add dal + water to veggies. Let it boil.
- Cook covered for few mins until the veggies are soft.
- Once veggies are cooked, add grinded paste. Boil until raw smell leaves.
- Add tamarind water and simmer for few mins.
- Meanwhile prepare the tadka : Heat oil in a tadka pan – add mustard seeds let it splutter, then add urad dal and fenugreek seeds, hing.
- Add curry leaves, small onions and green chilli. Sauté till transparent.
- Add this tadka to boiling sambar. Allow for a short boil.
- Finally garnish with coriander leaves, mix well and switch off.
- Sambar should be flowing so adjust the consistency.
- Serve Saravana Bhavan Hotel Style Sambar with hot idlis.
Notes
- This is tiffin sambar so should be flowing and not too thick. So adjust the consistency by adding water according to your preference.
- This sambar thickens with time so add hot water, if it becomes to thick while serving.
- Add veggies or a combination of veggies so that sambar is flavourful. I used carrots, brinjal and shallots(small onion) for making this sambar. You can even use drumstick.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder if your sambar powder is less spicy.
Saravana Bhavan Hotel Style Sambar Step by Step
- To a mixer jar add all the ingredients listed under ‘to grind’ and grind to a fine paste along with little water if needed.Soak tamarind in water.
- Rinse dal add it along with turmeric powder,oil and water till immersing level to a pressure cooker.Pressure cook for 5 whistles in low medium flame or until mushy.
- Once pressure releases mash it well with a laddle,Set aside.In a kadai heat oil, saute the veggies along with tomato.
- Saute for few mins until it shrinks.Add dal + water to veggies.Let it boil.
- Cook covered for few mins until the veggies are soft.Once veggies are cooked, add grinded paste.
- Boil until raw smell leaves.Add tamarind water and simmer for few mins.
- Meanwhile prepare the tadka : Heat oil in a tadka pan – add mustard seeds let it splutter, then add urad dal and fenugreek seeds, hing.Add curry leaves,small onions and green chilli.Saute till transparent.
- Add this tadka to boiling sambar.Allow for a short boil.Finally garnish with coriander leaves, mix well and switch off.Sambar should be flowing so adjust the consistency.
Serve with hot idlis.
Expert Tips
- This is tiffin sambar so should be flowing and not too thick.So adjust the consistency by adding water according to your preference.
- This sambar thickens with time so add hot water, if it becomes to thick while serving.
- Add veggies or a combination of veggies so that sambar is flavourful.I used carrots,brinjal and shallots(small onion) for making this sambar.You can even use drumstick.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder if your sambar powder is less spicy.
Kalaivani Dhinesh
tempting…..
Kalyani
This is sort of reverse of traditional sambar right? Like we add tamarind pulp to the cooked dal and add shallots in end. Can we also add shallots along with the veggies initially?
SHARMILEE J
Yes you can….
jeffy Thomas
What's the Malayalam of fried gram dal?? Is it kadala parippu or something else?? Confused
SHARMILEE J
I don't know in malayalam but it is called pottukadalai in tamil
Ganesh
Yes Porittha kadalai paruppu
jeffy Thomas
Made it today..for the first time..it tasted superb..thanks for the recipe ��
radha thirumani
I made this sambhar 2 times so far,my hubby and daughter loved it.thank you very much for sharing this tasty receipe.
mahendra avarma
its ok not soo good
Srivatssan
In the original recipie, you need to add about 1/5 tsp of powdered jaggery. Remember, the whole philosophy of a sambhar is to have all the six flavors derived by ayurvedha. Also, drumstick needs to be added, that will add a bit of a bitterness. But this is quite a good recipie for beginners. Good job!
sindhu
hi i followed all your recipes and i tried out many…all comes out very well…your pictorial representation is very useful for beginners like me…thanks for sharing recipes with us…keep going…….
http:// rajalaxmi.com
Hi Sharmi tried this recipe and it was tasty. Never thought coconut goes in this. Thank you for sharing this cuisine
Anjoo krishnamurthy
wow! It came out amazing, my familly loved it.
Thank you.
Remapraveen
I tried it,was very tasty .my family loved it very much.
Nivedita
It dint come out like saravanabhavan sambar . .I was eagerly waiting to try because I love that sambar but this tastes entirely different …
Manjula
Thanks for sharing this recipe. It’s simple and tasted really good along with idlis.
I added jaggery, drumstick and potatoes.