Instant Pot Millet Sambar Rice Recipe

Instant pot is great for making easy One pot recipes and this Instant pot Sambar sadham is an all time favorite at home. This millet sambar rice is a recipe you want to make when you want to eat something comforting, spicy and effortless. They are great for lunch boxes and go perfectly with some potato fry, papad or raita. This popular dish from Tamil Nadu is not only delicious, but also healthy because you get a good serving of veggies and fiber from millets.

A lot of people confuse sambar sadham (sadham – meaning rice in Tamil) with Bisi bela bath.

No, they are not the same!

While they both look similar, bisi bela bath has slight sweetness and uses extra exotic Indian spices like cinammon, poppy seeds, nutmeg etc which is not required in this simpler version (ie) sambar sadham. But both these recipes use tamarind, lentils (toor dal) and spices like coriander, fenugreek, curry leaves. Bisi Bela bath is from karnataka while sambar sadham is from Tamil Nadu (different states)

You go to any South Indian restaurant in Tamil Nadu, you will find sambar sadam rice in the menu for lunch! It is something that I grew up eating. Sometimes, it would be a one pot meal like this one and other times, mom would make sambar and rice separately.  Just the sambar alone for lunch with rice and again use the same sambar with idlis/ dosas at night. That was the routine back then. Since it is something I ate (and still eat) almost everyday, the flavors from this dish – the scent of the fragrant curry leaves, the sweetness from chinna vengayam (pearl onions), aroma of the roasted coriander seeds is just so close to my heart. I can never get bored of eating this anytime of the day.

I have used some freshly ground sambar powder along with mom’s sambar powder in this Instant pot millet sadam rice recipe. Freshly ground spices gives an amazing fragrance to the dish, and mom’s spice powder to remind you of home. For people who are used to cooking Indian food on an every day basis, most of these ingredients would be easy to find. But if you don’t, I would suggest using store bought sambar powder. But I have to tell you, there’s nothing like making some fresh spice mix and using it in this dish!

The ingredients list is not too long, so it should be easy to find them in most Indian grocery stores.

Points to note before making this recipe –

• You could substitute the millets with quinoa, or rice, or even oats.
• If you end up using brown rice, I would recommend cooking it for a longer time, because the dish is supposed to be mushy and creamy (with a little texture). So the settings given in the recipe might not work for brown rice.
• Substitute the freshly ground powder with 11/2 tsp of store bought sambar powder.
• You can use veggies of your choice to make this recipe. Good options would be carrots, drumstick, pearl onions, green peppers, potatoes, white pumpkin, squash.

If you would like to try similar Rice / millet recipes specific to Southern part of India, then check out Rasam sadham (another favorite recipe of mine) Puliyodharai, Kovakkai rice , Green apple rice

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