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Curry, Diabetic friendly, easy, Easy Indian Cooking, Glutenfree, Lentils, Pressure Cooker Recipes, Tamil Brahmin Recipes, Vegan, Vegetables, VegProtein

Beetroot Sambar – Beets and lentils

February 17, 2018

beetroot sambar
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Recipe for beetroot sambar – a South Indian dish prepared using yellow lentils and beets, to be had with plain steamed rice or any other cooked grains like millet or quinoa.

beetroot sambar Indian beetroot recipe

Types of sambar

Sambar is the staple food in any Tamilian household. [read: how to make the perfect sambar] It’s a balance of protein from lentils, vitamins from the vegetables, calcium and potassium from tamarind. It is usually served with rice and a dry vegetable curry.

If you thought there is only one kind of sambar, the one served with idlis and dosas in a hotel, you are sadly mistaken 😛

Vegetables that can be used in a Sambar are Madras onions, carrots, Bhindi / okra, Pumpkin, Radish, Sweet Potato, Drumstick etc. But that doesn’t restrict you from using any vegetable that you have on hand, or even any green leafy vegetables that are in season.

Cooking with beetroots

As a kid, I would love messing my hands with the peel when my grandmom used to be busy chopping beets up for beetroot sambar. I would also love the natural red blush-on effect when the peel was rubbed on the cheeks. I can call myself a visionary for discovering organic make up even before the world had thought of it. LOL, right?

I’m not too fond of the sweet, almost metallic taste in the beetroots.

There are only two ways I can eat this vegetable. One is to grate some parts of it into a spicy curry, to which it imparts a brilliant colour, like this healthy pav bhaji.

beetroot sambar

The other is in a beetroot sambar, like this one. The flavours from the tamarind and sambar powder pretty much mask the weirdly sweet flavour of beets.

How to make beetroot sambar

You can easily prepare the beetroot sambar or beet and lentil stew in an Instant Pot, because diced beets and yellow lentils have a similar cooking time of around 8-10 minutes in full pressure. In my method, I use the tiered vessels in a regular pressure cooker. Lentils (tur dal) is in one compartment and quartered beets in the other. Peel and dice the cooked beets and add to the cooked lentils, along with tamarind puree and sambar powder to prepare this beetroot sambar.

More sambar recipes:

Pumpkin Sambar – made using freshly ground spices

Pumpkin Sambar – instant method 

beetroot sambar

Beetroot Sambar - South Indian Beetroot and Lentils

Recipe for beetroot sambar - a South Indian curry with yellow lentils and beets, best served with plain steamed rice and a dollop of ghee.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 15 minutes mins
Total Time 55 minutes mins
Servings: 4 helping
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: south indian
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 3/4 cup toor dal (yellow lentils)
  • 2 beetroots medium sized
  • 2 tsp sunflower oil
  • 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
  • 2 sprigs curry leaves
  • 1 pinch asafoetida
  • tamarind lemon sized ball soaked in water & pulp extracted
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp sambar powder readymade masala

Method
 

  1. To prepare beetroot sambar, we need to first cook the beets and lentils. Pressure cook the dal with a pinch of turmeric. If you don't have a pressure cooker, then soak dal for 30 minutes and boil with 3 cups of water for 30-40 minutes until mushy.
  2. Pressure cook the beetroot. If you are using a pressure cooker, use the separators and cook dal in one compartment and beets in the other to save time. Cooking time is similar for both tur dal and beetroot.
  3. Tug off the skins from the cooked beetroot and cut into thick slices and dice.
  4. Heat the oil in a pot. Add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves. Once the mustard seeds pop, add a pinch of asafoetida and give it a quick stir.
  5. Add the cooked chopped beets, stir for around for 2 minutes. Add the tamarind extract to this and bring to a simmer.
  6. Slake the sambar powder in 1/4 cup water and add it to the pot. Bring to a simmer.
  7. Put the cooked dal, salt and boil for 2 minutes.
  8. Serve with steamed rice and ghee.

Notes

Notes:
The same sambar recipe can be prepared using radish, carrot, turnip or sweet potato. In case of carrot or sweet potato, the vegetable can be sliced and added raw, allowing it to cook by simmering in tamarind water. Beetroot takes a long time to cook, hence better to use pre-cooked beets.
Check this recipe for a delicious Beetroot Halwa that is my aunt's specialty!
How To Make Beetroot Halwa || Saffron Trail Kitchen
And these healthy beetroot chips made in the airfryer
airfyer beetroot chips
How to make Beetroot Chips in airfryer

Originally published on May 20, 2006. Updated with new photos and text.

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beet beetroot lentils
by Nandita Iyer 
14 Comments

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Comments

  1. Kalyn says: May 20, 2006 at 2:44 pm

    I love learning about new dishes like this and Sambhar is something I didn’t know about. I’m guessing I would like this a lot because I love the taste of tamarind.

    Reply
  2. starry nights says: May 20, 2006 at 4:42 pm

    Never had Beetroot in sambar before. going to try it. thanks for sharing and the pics are just beautiful

    Reply
  3. Vaishali says: May 21, 2006 at 11:12 am

    Nandita,Beetroot in Sambar? Never ever heard of it. All the more reason for me to try it out. 🙂 I anyway like experimenting with beetroot. I have bookmarked this one for me now.

    Reply
  4. nandita says: May 21, 2006 at 11:20 am

    Hey Kalyn- I’m sure you will love this, the tartness of tamarind is perfectly complimented by the sweetness of the beets-adding lentils just makes it so much wholesomeSN & Vaishali- Let me know how you found it !!

    Reply
  5. Anonymous says: May 22, 2006 at 4:45 am

    Love beetroot sambhar, my all time favorite! Goes well with rice and podi :)Which cook books are those in the pictures?

    Reply
  6. Anonymous says: May 22, 2006 at 4:47 am

    Is sambhar same as parappu? If not, how do they differ?

    Reply
  7. nandita says: May 22, 2006 at 8:55 am

    The cookbooks are ‘samaithu paar’ by meenakshi ammal- which is translated in english to Cook and See. The recipe is not from that book though, but kept it around as those books teach authentic tamil cuisineSambhar HAS paruppu in it- but is not the same as paruppu, paruppu means just dal and sambhar has many more ingredients in it than just dal!

    Reply
  8. Inji Pennu says: May 22, 2006 at 12:39 pm

    Whats vengala chatti?

    Reply
  9. nandita says: May 22, 2006 at 12:48 pm

    it’s an Iron pot- cooking in it is supposed to enhance iron content of food- food like keerai masiyal ( mashed spinach), sambhar etc are made in this traditional vessel

    Reply
  10. nandita says: May 31, 2006 at 9:44 pm

    You could be right there Ramya! But this pot is iron and not brass 🙂

    Reply
  11. Asha says: August 7, 2006 at 3:10 pm

    Beet sambar!! Never tried this before.I have some bottled beets in vinegar in my fridge.May be it will work.I will let you know.

    Reply
  12. Anonymous says: July 28, 2009 at 10:08 pm

    Hi folks! Vengalam is bronze (Sanskrit/Tamil), and utensils made of bronze are awesome if you want the heat to spread uniformly. Due to heavy construction (it is difficult to make into thin shapes) it has a high thermal mass.

    Reply
  13. Dido says: January 21, 2018 at 3:46 am

    Hi Nandita: What is the cup quantity of Toor Dal that features in your list of ingredients? Instead of a number I am seeing “xbe?” — Thanks, Dido.

    Reply
    • Nandita Iyer says: February 8, 2018 at 8:26 am

      that’s a silly error that’s happened when I migrated to wordpress. let me check this – sorry about the late response.

      Reply

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