Quick sambar... or instant sambar

Idli and sambar is a perfect combi and nobody can deny it. My hubby loves sambar and now my little one is a biiiiiiiiiigggggggg crazy fan of sambar. There are times when he would just want dosa and sambar and nothing else for dinner. There are days when I would not be in a mood or time to make sambar and he would keep insisting in making atleast a small bowl for him. He is not adamant but when he keeps putting forward a lot of please, I sometimes cant say no to him. Everybody in our family knows about his love and craze for dosa and sambar. If we are planning to visit my parents then my mom would make sure she will make sambar especially for this little one

Coming back to the recipe. My mom taught me this instant sambar one day when I did not have tuvar dal at home but had to make some. The recipe is very simple and pretty easy to make so it has been repeated often in my kitchen for Aadit
  

Serves... 4 ppl

Serve option... Hot with idli or dosa

This is what u'll need...

Gram Flour - 2 tbspn
Pearl onions - 10-15
Garlic cloves - 5-7
Sambar powder - 1 tspn
Coriander powder - 1 tspn
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn 
Tomato - 1 medium
Turmeric - 1/2 tspn
Green chilly - 1 
Curry leaves - few
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn
Broken urad dal - 1/2 tspn
Salt to taste

Here is the stir....

• Heat oil in a a wide pan. Add mustard seeds and broken dal to the hot oil

• Once mustard starts spluttering, add one slit green chilly and few curry leaves

• Peel pearl onions and garlic cloves. Slice the garlic cloves lengthwise. Add this to the oil. Fry for a couple of minutes until onions and garlic turn a little soft

• Add salt to taste followed by sambar powder, coriander powder and red chilli powder. Fry all this for couple more minutes

• Add a roughly chopped tomato and cook till tomatoes turn soft

• Measure 2 tablespoons of gram flour into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup of water and whisk it till smooth

• Pour this into the pan and give it a good stir

• Add a little turmeric and give it a good mix. Pour required amount of water and let the mixture boil for 5-7 minutes

• Turn off the flame and remove the sambar to a serving bowl
• Garnish the sambar with chopped fresh coriander leaves
• Serve hot with hot idlis

Note:

• Keep stirring the mixture frequently to avoid it from sticking to the bottom of the pan
• Whisk the gramflour thoroughly before adding it to the pan
• Pearl onions taste good but if you dont have it then just go ahead and use regular onion