Mysore Sambar Powder Recipes

 

Homemade Mysore Sambar Powder

Aromatic mysore sambar powder made with whole spices, lentils and desiccated coconut.

Prep Time   : 5 mins

Cook Time  : 10 mins

Total Time   : 15 mins

Cuisine        : Karnataka, South Indian

Servings      : 1 medium jar

Ingredients

½ cup coriander seeds or 40 grams

1 tablespoon cumin seeds or 8 grams

1 tablespoon chana dal (split & husked bengal gram) or 12 grams

½ tablespoon tuvar dal (arhar dal or pigeon pea lentils) or 4 grams

8 to 9 pieces of 1 inch cinnamon

16 cloves

2 teaspoons black pepper or 6 grams

1 tablespoon mustard seeds or 8 grams

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi dana) or 2 grams

5 spicy and hot chilies, guntur or any other variety

14 byadagi chilies or 15 grams - kashmiri red chilies can also be used

1 tablespoon poppy seeds (khus khus)

¼ cup curry leaves or 3 sprigs curry leaves

½ cup desiccated coconut or 30 grams

2 teaspoons asafoetida (hing)

Instructions

roasting spices & dals

Measure and keep all the ingredients ready. Then heat a heavy bottomed pan or kadai. Keep the flame to a low.

Add ½ cup coriander seeds and 1 tablespoon cumin seeds.

Mix and then dry roast on a low flame stirring often till you get a nice aroma of the coriander and cumin seeds.

Dry roast till aromatic and crisp. Stir often when roasting.

Remove the roasted coriander and cumin seeds in a plate.

Next in the same pan add 1 tablespoon chana dal.

On low flame, stirring often roast till the chana dal gets golden and becomes aromatic. Do not burn. Remove and keep aside in the same plate. 

Then add ½ tablespoons tuvar dal.

Stirring often roasts till the tuvar dal becomes aromatic. Do not burn. Remove and keep aside.

Now add 8 to 9 pieces of 1 inch cinnamon and 16 cloves.

Stirring often roast the spices till you get a nice aroma from them. Remove and keep aside.

Now add 2 teaspoons black pepper. Roast till you get the pungent peppery aroma. Do not burn. Remove and keep aside.

Add 1 tablespoon mustard seeds.

Let the mustard seeds pop. Do stir and when the mustard seeds are about to stop crackling, remove them and keep aside.

Add 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds. Stirring often roast till the fenugreek seeds change their color. Do not brown them too much. Remove and keep aside.

Now add 5 spicy & hot dry red chilies like guntur and 14 byadagi chilies.

Stirring often roast till the red chilies change color. They will also become crisp. Remove aside.

Add 1 tablespoon poppy seeds.

As soon as you add poppy seeds, they will begin to crackle and change their color. Stir when you are roasting poppy seeds. Once they are about to finish crackling, remove and keep aside.

Next add ¼ cup curry leaves or 3 sprigs curry leaves.

Stirring often roast till the edges become golden and the curry leaves become slightly crisp. Keep aside. 

roasting coconut

Add ½ cup desiccated coconut.

Stir non-stop after adding coconut and roast till you get a nice golden color in the coconut.

Roast till the coconut becomes golden. Remove and keep aside.

Switch off the flame. Then add 2 teaspoons asafoetida.

Stir continuously for some seconds till you get a nice aroma and the hing color changes. Remove aside. Here I have used white things which are very strong. If using yellow hing, then add 3 teaspoons of it.

 let the roasted spices cool down.

making mysore sambar powder

Then add them in a dry grinder jar.

Grind to a fine powder. A slightly semi fine powder will also do. Since coconut is added, make sure not to over do the grinding as then the coconut can release oil and make the sambar masala oily. You can grind in parts and then mix it later.

I ground it in parts and then removed it on a plate.

Then add the ground powder in a jar. Close it tightly and refrigerate as coconut is used.

This recipe gives a medium jar of mysore sambar powder. For sambar serving of 4 to 5 people, you can easily add 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of mysore sambar powder.

Notes

Tips & suggestions

Black pepper can be skipped since this is a slightly spicy masala powder.

You can also add less guntur chilies.

The spices can be roasted in oil if you want.

Desiccated coconut can be skipped. So when making mysore sambar, grind 3 to 4 tablespoons fresh coconut with water and mysore sambar powder. 

Instead of byadagi chillies, you can use kashmiri chillies

Instead of guntur chillies, you can use any variety of medium-hot to hot red chilies. 

If you do not have poppy seeds, then you can skip them.