We make sambar with just about any vegetable and each has its own flavor . While the sambar is typically a gravy like dish with its own blend of spices which remains more or less the same for almost any vegetable, there are some varieties which you need to add some unique ingredients to make the sambar stand out.

Mango sambar is somehting that takes the sambar to a diffrent level yet there are people who do not like the taste of ripe mangoes cooked in sambar. There nare also recipes that use raw mangoes and that gives entirely different flavour . These are traditional heirloom recipes from Tamil Cuisine and probably some variations exist in other cuisines as well .

At home it is a favourite while it is in season .Mambazha puliseri and Mango sambar are prepared every week till the last fruit of the season!

Ingredients:

1 medium sized ripe mango

• 1 lime sized ball of tamrind or 1 1/2 tbsp of tamrind paste.

• 2 dry red chillies

• 1 tsp mustard seeds

• 1 tsp methi/fenugreek seeds

• 2 tsp oil for tempering.

• salt to taste

• 1 tsp turmeric powder/haldi

• 2 tbsp of sambar powder. Reduce the quantity if using a spicier sambar powder.

• pinch of asafoetida/hing.

• 1/2 cup of cooked toor dal

Ingredients to roast and grind:

• 2 tsp of dhania seeds/coriander seeds

• 1 tsp methi/fenugreek seeds

• pinch of asafoetida/hing

• 2 red chillies

• 2 tsp chana dal/bengal gram dal

• 1 tsp oil

• 3 tbsp coconut grated(optional) but definitely adds to taste.

On a medium flame keep a small pan and with 1 or 2 tsp of oil roast all the above except coconut.Let this cool .

Scrape a fresh coconut and use around 3 tbsp of grated coconut and grind all the ingredients that we roasted and get a little coarse paste.

Method:

Squeeze out the tamrind pulp and in a thick bottomed pan splutter the mustard seeds,methi and two dry red chillies and when it is done pour the tamrind extract into the pan .You can add little water too.

Then add the sambar powder,turmeric powder,salt,asafoetida,curry leaves.

Take a medium sized mango,wash and cut into big pieces with peel on.Add into the tamrind water which is boiling and let the sambar boil.

The sambar has to boil with the cut mango pieces till it gets cooked and raw smell of tamrind goes.

Take around 1/2 cup of cooked toor dal and mix it with the ground paste.Add little water and then add the groundpaste,dal mixture into the sambar.

The mango pieces would have already become soft.The sambar should not boil too much after this step.

Keep on low flame and when it shows thickening you can remove from the stove. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

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