Cabbage Sambar Recipe – Muttaikose Sambar For Rice

• Toor Dal – 1/4 cup
• Water – 2 cups
• Cabbage – 1 cup ( thinly sliced)
• Small onions or big onion – 10 nos / 1no ( Optional)
• Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
• Curry leaves – Few
• Cooking oil – Few drops

• Sambar powder – 1/2 tsp
• Hing / asafetida – a pinch
  
• Jaggery – 2 pinches
• Tamarind – Big gooseberry size

To saute and grind

• Cooking oil – 2 tsp
• Coriander seeds / Dhania – 1.5 tsp
• Chana dal – 1.5 tsp
• Urad dal – 1 tsp
• Methi seeds / fenugreek seeds – 1/8 tsp
• Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Red chilli – 3 to 4 nos ( use 6 nos for spicy sambar)
• Grated coconut – 2 tsp
• Water – to grind to paste

To Temper

• Ghee – 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves – Few
• Red chilli – 1 no
  
• Coriander leaves – to garnish

• Soak tamarind in warm water. Take 1 cup of tamarind extract and set aside. Wash and chop cabbage into thin or thick slices as you like. Peel and Chop onions.
•  In a pressure cooker base, take toor dal, chopped cabbage, chopped onion (optional), turmeric powder, few drops of cooking oil and few torn curry leaves. Add 2 cups of water. Pressure cook in low flame for 2 whistles. Mash the dal with a ladle after steam is released. Set aside.
  
• Heat oil in a kadai. Roast all the ingredients given under “to saute and grind” in medium flame without burning it. Lastly add the coconut, switch off the flame and mix well. No need to roast the coconut. Just mix with other roasted spices. Let it cool. Grind to smooth paste adding water.
  
• Add 1 cup of tamarind extract to the cooked dal in pressure cooker. Add the ground masala paste, sambar powder, salt, hing and jaggery. Mix well and roll boil the sambar for few minutes till nice aroma arises. You can add some water if sambar is too thick.
  
• Heat ghee in a small tempering pan. Add mustard seeds, red chilli, curry leaves and let mustard start to splutter in low flame. Add this to the sambar. Mix well and garnish with coriander leaves. If possible, rest this sambar for 2 to 3 hours before serving for all the flavors to infuse well. At the time of serving, you can reheat it or serve it with plain hot rice drizzled with ghee.
• Enjoy this cabbage sambar with any poriyal and papad/ appalam.

• Adjust the quantity of red chillies as per the taste.
• Tempering in ghee adds a nice flavor to this sambar. Do not skip it.
• Do the tempering only at the end.
• Tomato is not necessary for this sambar.If you want to add, saute in oil and then add to cooked dal.