Sambar Powder: What Is in It, Where Sambar Comes From, and How to Use It

The best-known story says sambar was born in a royal kitchen in Thanjavur, when the cooks ran short of kokum and used local tamarind instead, though how much of that is history is disputed. Sambar powder (also called sambar masala or sambar podi) is the ground spice blend that seasons that lentil and vegetable stew, and Saveur calls it essential to the dish.¹ What makes it different from most spice blends: many recipes roast and grind dried split pulses (dals) along with coriander seed, dried chiles, fenugreek and curry leaves. There’s no single recipe. The mix changes by region, community and household.

At a glance

What is in it

Three published recipes show just how much sambar powder varies. All three roast the ingredients before grinding.

Sources: Saveur,¹ Tarla Dalal,² Dassana Amit.³

Saveur’s version is more than half dal by volume. It’s also the only salted one of the three, so it seasons a pot as well as spicing it. Tarla Dalal’s has no cumin or pepper and is the only one with toor dal. Dassana Amit roasts each ingredient separately and lists no oil. In Tamil Nadu alone the podi changes across regions, communities and households, and it was traditionally sun-dried, roasted and ground at home.

Flavor and the compounds behind it

Sambar powder smells toasty and savory. Coriander’s sweet-citrus note comes first, then a nutty depth from the roasted dals and a sharp, garlicky lift from asafoetida. The heat depends on which chiles go in and how many. The aroma compounds belong to the individual ingredients:

We didn’t find a published analysis of a sambar powder’s aroma as a whole.

Where sambar comes from

The best-known story puts sambar in the court of the Maratha rulers of Thanjavur, in today’s Tamil Nadu. Here’s how DNA India tells it. Shahuji Bhonsle, the second Maratha ruler of Thanjavur, who reigned from 1684 to 1712, was hosting Sambhaji, son of Shivaji. Kokum, the souring agent for the Maharashtrian lentil dish amti, wasn’t available, so the cooks used local tamarind. Moong dal was short too, so they used toor dal instead. The result was named sambar in Sambhaji’s honor.⁸

How much of that is history is disputed:

As DNA India puts it, reservations about the story are rife.⁸ Other versions of the legend get passed around, including one where the ruler cooked the dal himself while his chef was away. We found no source for that one.

How sambar powder is used

Its main job is sambar. The dish takes plenty of regional forms, and DNA India describes several:⁸

• Tamil Nadu. The podi itself changes across regions, communities and households.
• Karnataka. Tuluva cooks add white and red pumpkin, drumsticks and okra.
• Kerala. Palghat (Palakkad) Iyers, who moved to Kerala from Tamil Nadu, get credit for bringing sambar there. Their varutharacha sambar uses a paste of roasted grated coconut ground with fenugreek seeds, not just a dry powder.

Technique

The roasting happens when the powder is made, so the ground blend goes into the pot ready to go. America’s Test Kitchen notes that ground spices added straight to a dish can taste bland and musty. It recommends blooming them in fat for anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes, and watching closely, because ground spices burn fast.⁹

Beyond sambar, Dassana Amit suggests the powder for vegetable stir-fries and sautéed vegetables, and gives 2 to 3 teaspoons as a starting amount for four servings of sambar.³ You can also use it in place of curry powder in a vegetable dish, though the dals make it coarser and more savory.

Buying and quality

We didn’t find a Codex, ISO or USDA standard for sambar powder, so the ingredient list is your only guide. Check whether a blend has dals (most homemade recipes do), whether it’s salted, and how high the chile sits on the list.

Storage

Saveur says to keep its blend in an airtight container for up to 3 months.¹ Dassana Amit gives 3 to 4 months in an airtight jar somewhere cool and dry, or the fridge in hot, humid climates.³ Tarla Dalal says to store it in the fridge in an airtight container.² That’s each publisher’s advice, not a measured shelf life. The University of California Cooperative Extension lists air, light, moisture and heat as what speeds up the loss of flavor and color in spices.¹⁰ If the powder smells flat when you rub it between your fingers, it’s faded.

Safety

Asafoetida and gluten. Most sambar powders contain asafoetida, which is usually sold compounded with a filler. India’s food regulator lets compounded asafoetida contain gum arabic, edible starches or edible cereal flour without naming the cereal,¹¹ and Katzer describes the common compounded powder as more than 50% rice flour and gum arabic.¹² If you’re avoiding wheat or gluten, check the label on both the asafoetida and any store-bought sambar powder.

Sesame. Some recipes, Saveur’s included, contain sesame seeds,¹ one of the nine major food allergens in the US by the FDA’s count.¹³

Lead in spices. A New York City health department review of 1,496 spice samples from 41 countries, collected 2008 to 2017, found detectable lead in more than half. Spices bought abroad had higher average levels than those bought in the US.¹⁴ The abstract doesn’t report results for sambar powder specifically.

Health claims

No regulator or systematic review we found backs health claims for sambar powder as a blend, and we don’t make any. For its best-studied ingredient, the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says there isn’t enough evidence to conclude that turmeric or curcumin helps with any health purpose. It also notes liver damage reported in some people taking highly bioavailable curcumin supplements.⁷ For fenugreek, NCCIH says it may help lower blood sugar in type 2 diabetes, but many of the studies weren’t high quality.¹⁵ And supplement doses aren’t what’s in a pot of sambar. Claims that sambar powder treats skin disease, protects the liver or prevents cancer couldn’t be traced to any credible source.

Substitutes and related pages

For ranked stand-ins, see sambar powder substitutes. The closest blends are Madras curry powder and curry powder. The blends on those pages have no dals, so expect a less nutty, less savory result.

The main ingredients: coriander, fenugreek, curry leaves (see also cooking with curry leaves), asafoetida, cumin, turmeric, black pepper and black mustard seeds. The souring agent in the origin story: kokum. Sambar came out too sour? See too much tamarind.