Amaranth Leaves and Egg Plant Sambar Recipe (Kathirikka, Thandu Keerai Sambar)


On a typical weekday lunch in southindia one can find this amaranth leaves sambar freshly prepared and served for steam cooked rice or ragi muddle. 

Tender and mushy amaranth leaves combined with eggplant and cooked in a dhal broth is unique and taste is ultimate.

Similar sambar is prepared as prasadam, at a local village temple close to Bengaluru and served for devotees during annadhanam. 
 
Recipe Video Link

Ingredients:
1 Cup Cooked Pigeon Peas (Toovar Dhal)
150 Grams Egg Plant (White)
150 Grams Amaranth Leaves (Thandu Keerai / Dantina Soppu/ Chinese Spinach/ Fountain Spinach/ Stem Lettuce)
2 Slit Green Chilies
2 Dried Red Chilies
1/2 Inch Ginger
1 Large Onion
1 Large Tomato
3 Sprigs Curry Leaves
1 Tbsp Chilly Powder
1 1/2 Tbsp Coriander Powder
1/2 Tsp Turmeric Powder
1 Tsp Mustard Seeds
1 Tsp Black Gram Dhal
1 Tsp Cumin Seeds
1/4 Tsp Asafoetida
2 Tsp Tamarind Pulp
Salt as per taste
3 Tbsp Oil
Coriander leaves for garnish

Prep:
Separate the leaves and tender stems, discard the roots. Wash the tender  stems and leaves atleast 6 times, drain and reserve. 

If the leaves are to big chop and add to the curry. If the greens are tender and small add it as it is to the curry. Chop the stems into 1 inch pieces.

Wash and cook the dhal in a pressure cooker with 1 cup water and 1/2 tsp salt until mushy.

Remove the caps from eggplant and slice it in the middle and cut the half into quarters and place it in a pot filled with water.

Roughly chop onion, slit the green chilies, cube the tomatoes, soak a lime size tamarind in hot water, finely chop coriander and curry leaves and reserve.
 
Method:
Heat a wok with 3 tbsp oil on medium flame. Add mustard seeds, split black gram dhal and cumin allow the mustard to sputter and all ingredients to fry a bit, place on medium flame.

Once the mustard seeds stops sputtering, add dried red chilies broken in half and fry for few seconds. Add asafoetida, onion, curry leaves, slit green chilies and tomato, fry all the ingredients on medium flame.

Once the onion and tomato reduces a bit, add chilly powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder and fry all the ingredients for a minute.

Add eggplant and amaranth leaves to the tomato masala, add salt and 1 1/2 cups water stir and cover allow all the veggies to cook until tender.

Once the veggies have cooked, add mushy dhal, tamarind pulp and sambar powder stir and adjust the salt, bring the sambar to rapid boil and allow all the raw flavors to reduce.

In five minutes the sambar will reduce, garnish with coriander and lime juice and serve hot with steam cooked rice...Enjoy 😊

Recipes prepared using amaranth on Vidyascooking channel
Simple Amaranth Dhal Curry

Amaranth Garlic Stir Fry

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