The sambar, like avial, is packed with taste and goodness; and like the avial, it uses a lot of vegetables. The basic difference is that the sambar is a dal-based curry for pouring into the rice while the avial is a coconut-based side dish.

Ingredients
Toor dal - 1 cup
Drumstick (1 inch pieces, sliced) - 4
Lady's finger (1 inch cubes) - 6
Brinjal (1 inch cubes) - 4
Snake gourd (1 inch piece) - 4
Tomato (1 inch piece) - 4
Broad beans (1 inch piece) - 3
Edible Yam (small ones) - 4
Cucumber (1 inch cubes) - 4
Shallots - 5
Coriander leaf
Curry leaf
Green chilli - 2
Water - 4 cups
Sugar - a pinch
Salt
Oil
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - i inch piece
Red Chilli - 10
Coriander seeds - 2 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tbsp
Tamarind Thick juice - 3 tbsp
Ground powder - 5 tbsp
Asafoetida powder - 1 tsp

For seasoning
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Red chilli (broken) - 2
Curry leaves

Method of Preparation
Cook toor dal well in pressure cooker. Put the cooked dal in a pan, add water and mix well. Add small yam, shallots, broad beans and cook till half done. Add pieces of drumstick, snake gourd, cucumber, brinjal, turmeric powder, stir and cook till half done. Now add pieces of lady's finger, tomatoes, green chillies, curry leaves and cook for 5 minutes. To prepare the sambar powder, take a pan, pour little oil, add asafoetida piece and fry for a minute. Add red chillies, coriander seeds and roast till it starts turning dark. Add fenugreek seeds curry leaves and roast for a minute. Let it cool, powder it semi coarsely and keep aside. To the cooked vegetables add tamarind juice and salt. Stir well and let boil. Add the ground powder, close pan and boil again for 5 minutes. In another pan, heat oil, put mustard seeds, let splutter, add broken red chilies and curry leaves. Pour this into the curry, add sugar and mix well.