Recipe for millet sambar sadam made with thinai – foxtail millet. Healthy South Indian Tamil style sambar sadam made with millets and toor dal. With step by step pictures.
Thinai or Foxtail millet is one of the oldest and widely used millet throughout Asia for centuries. There is an old saying in Tamil. வினை விதைத்தவன் வினை அறுப்பான், தினை வினைத்தவன் தினை அறுப்பான். This is the English equivalent of “As you sow, so shall you reap”. Foxtail millet is one of the oldest millet to have been recorded since the sangam period. Foxtail millet is supposed to have been served to Lord Muruga.
Here is how to do easy sambar rice using foxtail millet – thinai and toor dal.
Boil millet and dal:
Soak the dal and millet in water for one hour. Drain the water. I have used half a cup each of toor dal and millet. Add 3 cups of water. I like to cook the millets and dal mixture in a pressure cooker using the pot in pot method. Add a cup of water to the cooker. Place the pot with millet-dal-water inside the cooker. Cook for 6-7 whistles. Cooking directly causes a lot of spewing and mess in the kitchen. This is easily avoided by using the pot in pot method. I always cook dal and rice / millet using pot in pot method only. After cooking for 6-7 whistles, remove from heat and wait for the pressure to settle. Set aside.
Putting the sambar together:
Take a 3 or 4 litre pressure cooker and add in the chopped onion and tomato. Top the veggies with home made tamarind paste, salt, turmeric powder and sambar powder. Add in the cooked dal and millet mixture.
Cook for 2 whistles. Remove from heat and wait for the pressure to settle. Set aside.
Note: We did not add any water at this stage. If using a bigger cooker, add half a cup of more water to avoid burning at the bottom.
Open the cooker and mix everything well to combine.
Tempering:
Heat ghee in a pan and add in mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds. Let the mustard seeds splutter. Add in the asafoetida and curry leaves. Once the curry leaves are crisp, add the tempering to the sambar rice. Serve hot!
- ½ cup thinai arisi - foxtail millet
- ½ cup toor dal
- 3 cups water
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 2 teaspoon sambar powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1½ tablespoon tamarind paste
- 2 teaspoon ghee
- ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 5 fenugreek seeds
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- ¼ teaspoon asafoetida (perungayam - hing)
- Soak the dal and millet in water for one hour. Drain the water. Add 3 cups of water and cook for 6-7 whistles. After cooking for 6-7 whistles, remove from heat and wait for the pressure to settle. Set aside.
- Take a 3 or 4 litre pressure cooker and add in the chopped onion and tomato. Top the veggies with home made tamarind paste, salt, turmeric powder and sambar powder. Add in the cooked dal and millet mixture. Cook for 2 whistles. Remove from heat and wait for the pressure to settle. Set aside. Open the cooker and mix everything well to combine.
- Heat ghee in a pan and add in mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds. Let the mustard seeds splutter. Add in the asafoetida and curry leaves. Once the curry leaves are crisp, add the tempering to the sambar rice.
- Serve hot!
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