Categories: saaru/Rasam

Ingredients

• 3-4 large ripe & juicy Tomatoes, thinly sliced or chopped
• 3/4 cup Toor Dal, picked and washed
• 1 tbsp Rasam Powder
• 1 large marble sized Tamarind Pulp/1/2 tbsp Tamarind Puree
• 2 Green Chillies, slit
• 1/2-1 medium Onion, thinly sliced or roughly chopped
• 1/2 inch Ginger, crushed
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 tsp Black Pepper, lightly crushed using pestle and mortar
• 1/2-1 tbsp Jaggery
• 2-3 tbsp Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
• Salt to taste
• For Tempering:
• 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
• 1/2 tsp Black Peppers
• 3-4 cloves of Garlic
• 1-2 Dry Red Chilli, broken
• Few Curry Leaves
• A big pinch of Hing/Asafoetida
• 1/2 tbsp Oil/Ghee

Directions

1. Cook toor dal with 2 cups of water, turmeric and a tsp of oil in pressure cooker for about 15-20 minutes till they are nicely cooked.

2. Release the pressure from pressure cooker before you open the lid and roughly mash the cooked dal with ladle or potato masher.

3. Soak tamarind pulp in half a cup of warm water for about 5 minutes and squeeze the pulp to release its juice. Discard the pulp once used.

4. Transfer cooked dal into heavy bottomed pan and add sliced onions, slit green chillies, crushed ginger and about 2-3 cups of water and boil it for about 5 minutes in medium flame.

5. Add sliced tomatoes, tamarind extract, rasam powder, jaggery, crushed black peppers and salt to taste and simmer the heat and cook for another 20-30 minutes on medium to low flame.

6. Add more water if you feel the rasam is thick. When rasam is reduced to ¾th of its quantity, mix in chopped coriander leaves.

7. For tempering, first crush cumin seeds and black pepper in a mortar and pestle. Also roughly crush garlic cloves and keep it aside. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, broken red chillis, crushed cumin-pepper-garlic, hing and curry leaves in that order and when mustard starts to pop and splutter transfer the tadka to rasam and mix well. Let the Rasam simmer for another 5 minutes for all the flavours to blend well.

8. Serve hot rasam with steamed rice and papad or serve in a bowl as a soup.

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