Sambar Powder Substitutes, Ranked by the Job the Blend Is Doing

Out of sambar powder? Make your own if you can. It’s the only fix that brings back both the roasted dals and the curry leaves, and those are what make the blend hard to replace. Of the store-bought options, rasam powder is the closest relative, and the only one built on roasted dal. Madras curry powder with a pinch of asafoetida gets you most of the spices. Whatever you use, start low and taste: sambar powders vary a lot in strength.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

There’s another reason to start low and taste: sambar powders vary in strength, and two published recipes show it. Dassana Amit uses about 2 to 3 teaspoons of her sambar powder for four servings,¹ while Swasthi Shreekanth uses 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of hers for a four-serving sambar.² That’s roughly two to three times as much. Saveur’s version is salted, with 3 tablespoons of kosher salt in the batch.³ So “the same amount” depends on which sambar powder your recipe had in mind.

If sambar powder is seasoning a pot of sambar

1. Make your own

This is the only route that gets the roasted dals and curry leaves back in. Our sambar powder page lines up three published recipes, from Saveur, Tarla Dalal and Dassana Amit. All three roast the ingredients before grinding.³⁴¹ Dassana Amit’s is typical. Coriander seed is by far the biggest ingredient, followed by a generous amount of dried red chiles, then cumin, black pepper, chana and urad dal and curry leaves, with smaller amounts of fenugreek, mustard seed, asafoetida and turmeric. She says you can skip the urad dal and the powder will still turn out well. Answering a reader, she adds that ground coriander can go in at the same quantity as the seeds.¹

Amount: Use your homemade powder in the amount your recipe gives, then taste. Dassana Amit’s own guide is 2 to 3 teaspoons for four servings.¹

2. A quick mix of ground spices

No dals or curry leaves? You can still build the spice side of the blend from jars.

A basic quick sambar-style mix, makes about 3 tablespoons:

Without the dals and curry leaves, it’ll taste flatter than a roasted homemade powder. If you can, warm the mix in a dry pan over low heat just until it smells fragrant, and pull it before it darkens. Use it in the amount your recipe gives for sambar powder, then taste.

Why it works: coriander is the biggest ingredient in all three sambar recipes. Katzer compares asafoetida’s fried aroma to (not altogether fresh) garlic.⁵ What’s missing is the nutty depth of the roasted dals.

If you want South Indian lentil flavor from a related blend

Rasam powder

Rasam powder is the closest relative on the shelf. It’s also a roasted South Indian blend of coriander, chiles and dal. Dassana Amit’s version roasts coriander, chana dal, toor dal, black pepper, cumin and dried red chiles, with optional turmeric.⁶ Swasthi Shreekanth calls rasam powder a traditional South Indian spice mix made with roasted lentils.⁷ It’s meant for rasam, a thin South Indian soup; TASTE’s recipe sours it with tomatoes and tamarind pulp.⁸

Swasthi Shreekanth’s note on her sambar powder shows how close the two are. She says you can make rasam with it too if you add some pepper powder toward the end.² Going the other way, then, use a lighter hand, since rasam leans on black pepper.

Where it falls short: Dassana Amit’s rasam powder has no fenugreek, curry leaves or asafoetida,⁶ and all three show up in every sambar recipe on our sambar powder page. Add a pinch of asafoetida and ground fenugreek if you have them.

Ratio (Method): Start with about three quarters of the sambar powder amount, taste, and add more.

If you need coriander, chile and fenugreek and have no South Indian blend

1. Madras curry powder

Madras curry powder is curry powder with chile added. As Dan Toombs puts it, it’s a blend like any curry powder that also has dried chiles in it.⁹ World Spice Merchants’ Madras blend leads with coriander, brown mustard seed, turmeric, cumin, fenugreek and black pepper,¹⁰ which covers most of the spices in Dassana Amit’s sambar powder. Historically, Madras curry powder was often sold as spicier than the Bengal and Bombay styles.¹¹

Where it falls short: no dals, no curry leaves, no asafoetida. And the turmeric will turn the dish yellow.

Ratio (Method): Start with about two-thirds of the sambar powder amount, add a pinch of asafoetida, taste, and add more.

2. Plain curry powder, plus heat

The USDA’s purchasing specification says curry powder should include turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, ginger and cardamom.¹² That gets you coriander and fenugreek, but no chile. The cinnamon and cardamom also bring a sweet warmth that sambar recipes don’t call for.

Ratio (Method): Start with about two-thirds of the sambar powder amount, add a pinch of cayenne and a pinch of asafoetida, then taste.

3. Vindaloo curry powder, only if you want heat

Vindaloo blends share chiles, cumin and black pepper with sambar powder, and Savory Spice’s blend also lists coriander and fenugreek. Blends vary. America’s Test Kitchen describes fiery, complex heat in its recipe,¹³ while Savory Spice says its own is closer to medium and not as hot as typical vindaloo.¹⁴

Ratio (Method): Start with half the sambar powder amount and taste for heat before adding more.

A swap we don’t recommend: chaat masala

Chaat masala is a finishing blend, not a cooking base. Tarla Dalal says amchur (dried mango powder) gives it its tang and black salt its classic smell,¹⁵ and Gulf News’s recipe uses a tablespoon each of amchur and black salt.¹⁶ Neither recipe has any coriander, the biggest ingredient in sambar powder, and the black salt adds salt. None of the three sambar powder recipes on our sambar powder page includes tamarind, so any tamarind sourness in a sambar comes from tamarind added to the pot. If your sambar tastes flat, add more tamarind before you reach for chaat masala.

Safety: asafoetida and gluten

If you add asafoetida to any substitute, check the label. India’s food regulator lets compounded asafoetida contain gum arabic, edible starches or edible cereal flour,¹⁷ and Katzer describes the common compounded powder as more than 50 percent rice flour and gum arabic.⁵ If you’re avoiding wheat or gluten, look for a powder that names its flour.

What isn’t known

• How much sambar powder to use depends on the recipe. The two published usage figures we found differ two to threefold.¹²

Related

• Sambar powder and rasam powder
• Madras curry powder, Madras curry powder substitutes and curry powder
• Vindaloo curry powder and vindaloo vs. Madras curry powder
• Chaat masala and too much tamarind
• Coriander, cumin, fenugreek, asafoetida, curry leaves, black pepper, turmeric and black mustard seeds
• Indian spices and the master list of herbs and spices

Footnotes

1. Dassana Amit, “Sambar Powder Recipe (Homemade Sambar Masala)”, Dassana’s Veg Recipes, 2026. vegrecipesofindia.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. Swasthi Shreekanth, “Sambar Powder Recipe (Sambar Masala)”, Swasthi’s Recipes, 2023. indianhealthyrecipes.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. “Sambar Masala”, Saveur, 2014. saveur.com · Publication ↩ ↩²

4. Tarla Dalal, “Sambhar Masala Powder”, TarlaDalal.com. tarladalal.com · Publication ↩

5. Gernot Katzer, “Asafetida (Ferula assa-foetida)”, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²

6. Dassana Amit, “Rasam Powder Recipe”, Dassana’s Veg Recipes. vegrecipesofindia.com · Publication ↩ ↩²

7. Swasthi Shreekanth, “Rasam Powder | Rasam Podi Recipe”, Swasthi’s Recipes, 2022. indianhealthyrecipes.com · Publication ↩

8. Nikhita Venugopal, “Rasam Is Southern India’s Peppery Comfort Food”, TASTE, 2017. tastecooking.com · Publication ↩

9. Dan Toombs, “Take your curries to the next level with homemade hot Madras curry powder”, Great Curry Recipes, 2015. greatcurryrecipes.net · Publication ↩

10. “Madras South Indian Curry”, World Spice Merchants (product page). worldspice.com · Merchant ↩

11. Julia Fine, “From Delhi to Durban: The Many Homes of Madras Curry Powder”, Diaspora Co., 2022. diasporaco.com · Merchant ↩

12. Commercial Item Description A-A-20001C, Spices and Spice Blends, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, 2023. ams.usda.gov · Regulator ↩

13. Leah Colins, “Vindaloo Curry Powder”, America’s Test Kitchen, 2020. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

14. “Vindaloo”, Savory Spice (product page). savoryspiceshop.com · Merchant ↩

15. Tarla Dalal, “Chaat Masala”, TarlaDalal.com. cdn.tarladalal.com · Publication ↩

16. Anupa Kurian, “Homemade Indian chaat masala”, Gulf News, 2022. gulfnews.com · Publication ↩

17. “FAQ: standards for asafoetida and compounded asafoetida”, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. fssai.gov.in · Regulator ↩

Also drawn on

• Turmeric: Usefulness and Safety (last updated April 2025), National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH). nccih.nih.gov