I love spring. Period. Its that time of the year when barren brown trees are suddenly bursting with miniscule green buds everywhere, shrubs are already full of lovely colourful flowers and you actually hear chirping birds. From white gray roads, you see miles and miles of lush green grass everywhere. Spring in many places also brings with it showers and thunderstorms. Today was one such day. When I saw the morning sky was laden with dark clouds I immediately yearned for piping soup sprinkled liberally with garlic croutons. Rasam is one such comfort food for me – and I remembered Jeyashri`s post that I had bookmarked for a “rainy” day, and I knew that I had had had to make it right away! I loved it mixed with rice and a dollop of ghee, with chips and subji on the side. The best thing about this rasam is that it does not need Rasam Powder or tamarind!!!!
INGREDIENTS:
1 Medium/ 2 Small Tomatoes.
1/4 Cup Cooked Toor Dhal.
1 1/2 Cups Water.
1 Tsp Ghee.
1 Tsp Mustard Seeds.
Curry leaves.
1/4 Tsp Turmeric Powder.
A pinch of hing.
Cilantro to garnish.
ROAST IN GHEE & GRIND:
1 Tbsp Toor Dhal.
1 Tsp Black Peppercorns.
1/4 Tsp Dhania Seeds.
1/4 Tsp Jeera.
1-2 red Chillies.
PREPARATION:
- Chop the tomatoes finely and reserving a handful, grind the rest with a little water to a smooth puree and transfer to a vessel. Switch on the flame.
- Set aside the reserved chopped tomatoes.
- Roast the toor dhal, pepper, dhania seeds and red chillies in a tsp of ghee on a medium low flame. At the last minute add the jeera and switch off the flame.
- When cooled, grind with a little water to a smooth paste.
- Add the ground paste. salt, turmeric, hing and curry leaves and allow it to boil until the raw smell is gone. This should take about 10-12 minutes.
- Now mash the cooked toor dhal, dilute it with the 1 1/2 cups of water and add it to the boiling tomato mix.
- Give it a quick stir and allow it to just start boiling. When this happens switch off the flame, add the chopped tomatoes and cilantro.
- Season with mustard seeds and close the container with a plate.
- This is one of the most important steps as it locks in all the aromas and flavours until its ready to the served.
HINTS:
- I should be trying this version with dilute tamarind water soon to see if that enhances the flavour. I have also seen versions using dilute tamarind water,.
- Its imperative that the jeera is not added initially as it brings out a bitter burnt aftertaste in the rasam.
- Some people also add a small piece of jaggery to the boiled rasam.
Do you have a favourite version of rasam that you enjoy???? Please let us know and we`ll try it out soon!
Anubhavati -Tastes from my kitchen 
looks so comforting
You may use bengal gram dhall ( kadalai paruppu) instead of toor dhal fo fry and grind that gives an excellent taste and flavour..
-sri
my favourite!!!:):) the ULTIMATE comfort food for me:D
AAh , thats looks superb, thanks for trying out. clicks are fantastic.
I still don’t know why my blog doesn’t allow word press comments. May be becoz of the registered users setting
Beautiful lighting and loved the rustic background too! Wonderful job!
@raks,
thanks for the lovely comments….I m happy and I really give a lot of thought in to the pic.
Shobha
@ Srilakshmi,
Are you saying I have to substitute toor dhal for bengal gram? I should try out that version soon!
Shobha
@ Jyo,
It was amazingly slurpy!!! We all literally drank rasam that day!!!
Shobha
Even i bookmarked at Jeyshri’s space, beautiful comforting rasam definitely.
Yum!! It’s chilly here and I would so love a cup of this rasam!!
Lovely recipe
Hot Rasam, Rice n Appalam,i will be @ heaven!!!! I too made this rasam the same day jeyashri posted, enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for stopping by @ Enveetu Kitchen.
I love rasam in any form. I’m not good at making it though!
Hi Shoba
Thanks for visiting my blog 😀
I come from Malaysia… we have rasam too, but ours was simple. My mom used to cook rassam often, and she’d crack eggs in the gurgling boiling broth.
My family loved Rassam… perhaps I’ll put it up one day 🙂
nice recipee to try on holiday cooking
thank u for popping by to my blog the other day, and I must say your Rasam looks so delicious! I would love to try it with garlic croutons, perfect.
@ Jehanne,
Thanks for the lovely comments..
Shobha
@ Chandrasekharan,
Its an amazing recipe to try on a sunday. Along with sutta appalam or vazhakkai fry its pretty amazing!
Shobha
@ Lisa,
Lovely comments. thanks a ton!
Shobha
@ Sra,
i love rasam as its amazing comfort food. Rasam cant be too bad to make. Any form of tomato broth cooked and then diluted with dal water has to be good. 🙂
SHobha
@ Priya,
thanks for the comments. When I saw Jeyashri`s post I knew I couldnt wait to make it asap!
Shobha
@ cumin,
Thanks for the comments.
Shobha
Good and great recipe. I sometimes use the readymade powder but nothing like the home made version. Pretty amazing ingredients and love the outcome, that delicious looking and tempting rasam.
@ Mrs Krishnan,
It was a very amazingly tasty rasam. i could have had it all day!
Shobha
Good one Shobs. I make the same thing but I add both tamarind water and tomatoes. It does come out well. Also I had hing powder along with seasoning and that adds to the aroma. One more variation is adding a little bit of copra (copparai) when grinding pepper, dhaniya et al. Enzzoy!!
hey Subha,
never seen you commenting on teh blog…thanks! I am gonna try next time with the tamarind water. Adding copra is almost like the mysore rasam, but I guess I can make do without all that extra fat!
Shobha
Beautiful clicks, looks awesome..
I love rasams and yours looks so mouth watering. I love that first click of yours, its beautiful!
@ Mallika,
Thanks so much for the lovely thoughts.
Shobha
Looks so delicious. Nice pictures. Please visit my space too.
http://www.mykitchenstove.com
@ Mykitchenstove,
Thanks for the comments.
Shobha