Samai in tamil, sama in telugu, same in kannada, kutki in hindi and chama in malayalam is the smallest of all millets . In English they are called Little millets. Millets are very good for our health, as they are rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and iron. Millets are good for diabetic people as they contain maganesium, as it regulates the secretion of glucose in body. Nowdays, I am including in my diet, I love all kind of millets like varagu, samai, thinai, sollam and ragi. I brought only few millet bags from India, so experimenting few recipes with the available millets. This is one among them, today recipe is samai sambar rice / samai sambar sadam / little millet sambar rice / samai sambar bhat / samai bisibelabath. This samai sambar sadam recipe is a healthy south Indian one pot meal with all nutrients from dal and vegetables. samai sambar rice is very similar to bisibelabath without adding bisibelabath powder, instead I added homemade sambar powder and it tasted like restaurant style sambar sadham. You can replace samai with other millets like varagu or thinai or kuthiravalli. In this sambar rice recipe, I haven’t used tamarind, instead I added more tomatoes. Try this yummy samai bisibelabath recipe in your home. Also check my other millet recipes.

How to make samai sambar rice / samai sambar sadham

Ingredients for samai sambar rice

Preparation Time: 15 mins Cooking Time: 30 mins Serves:3

1 Cup of Samai (Little Millet)
2.5 Cups of Water

To pressure cook the toor dal

1/2 cup of Toor Dal
1.5 Cups of Water
1/4 Tsp of Asafoetida
1/4 Tsp of Oil
1/2 Tsp of Turmeric Powder

To Fry Vegetables

7 -10 Small Onion ( Shallots), Whole
1 large Onion, Finely Chopped
2 Small Green Chillies
3 Large Tomatoes, Finely Chopped
2 Carrots, roughly Chopped
3/4 Cup of Chopped Beans
1/2 potato, Chopped
Handful of Lima Beans
2 brinjal, chopped
2 Tsp of Sambar powder
Handful of Curry Leaves
Salt to taste

To Temper

2 Tsp of Ghee
1 Tsp of Mustard Seeds
1/2 Tsp of Urad Dal
1 Tsp of Vadakam
2 Small Red Chillies
Few Curry Leaves
Few peanuts and cashew nuts

Method for samai sambar rice

In a pressure cooker, cook the toor dal for 3 whistles by adding all the ingredients listed under “To pressure cook list “
In another cooker, cook samai for 3 whistles by adding 3 cups of water. Keep it aside.
Heat oil in a frying pan, add both small and large onions, green chillies, saute this until it turns golden brown.
Add tomatoes, fry this until it turns soft, add all the vegetables, curry leaves, sambar powder and salt, fry well for 2 mins, cover and cook it for 7 mins.
Add toor dal and rice, mix well with all the vegetables. Turn it off.
Finally heat a pan with ghee, add red chilies, mustard seeds, urad dal, vadagam and curry leaves, after it pops up, transfer this to pan with vgetables and rice, mix well.
Hot, yummy samai sambar sadam is ready to serve with raita or chips or appalam.