Khana Priyam: Rasam

Pepper - cumin / மிளகு - ஜீரகம் rasam is a quick and tangy South Indian soup made from tamarind, pepper-cumin and garlic. This rasam is good for digestion. A common ailment that kids and adults have during this season is cold and flu. A few home made techniques can give us a little bit of relief.

"Milagu rasam chaadham" is a very good lunch for postpartum (new moms) as it doesn't call for any spice powders. Just skip the toor dal for postpartum moms. My mom was so strict with the postpartum diet and she was not ready to include even tomatoes in my diet. Just pepper, garlic, ghee and little salt along with leafy greens and vegetables was my food for 3 to 4 months, back in 2017. Anyway, let’s move on to the recipe.

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Ingredients :

Tamarind - small lemon sized ball or Home-made Tamarind Paste

Cilantro stem. - a handful

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Hing powder - 1 tsp

Rock Salt - to taste

Whole black pepper - 1.5 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1.5 tsp

Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp

Toor dal - 1 tbsp

Garlic. - 2 to 3cloves

Ginger. - a very small piece ( 1/4 inch )

Curry leaves - 2 to 3 leaves

For tempering: (TADKA)

Ghee - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Curry Leaves - Few

Garnish : Cilantro

Serves - 2 to 3 people.

Procedure :

1. Soak pepper, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, toor dal, ginger, garlic and curry leaves for 15 minutes. Similarly soak tamarind in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes and extract the juice.

2. Grind the soaked ingredients and keep aside. Keep the extracted tamarind juice separately, measure the other ingredients and keep it ready.

3. Boil the tamarind juice. Once it starts boiling, add turmeric powder, hing, salt and the cilantro stem. Close it and let it boil for 5 minutes so that the raw smell of the ingredients goes off.

4. Finally, add the grounded paste to the boiling water and allow it to boil for a few more minutes.

5. Finally, add the tadka.

Flavorful pepper-cumin rasam is ready. Soothing for sore throat and common cold.

Serve it with hot rice and ghee and pappad! Yumm!!! :)

Rasam is a simple , easy and a quick recipe. It takes so many names - saaru in kannada, chaaru in telugu, soup in english etc..

Rasam has numerous types (with anything and everything you can make rasam - be it fruits , vegetables, grains, herbs and infact coconut water) . Each rasam tastes unique. Its just a thin soup which tastes wonderful with hot plain white ghee rice and a dry vegetable curry. I love the combination of garlic rasam and potato fry/ dry okra fry.

This rasam is a quick one and doesn’t require rasam powder. Reason to chose this specific rasam as the third post is my husband. He loves this rasam along with potato fry. I dedicate this post to him !

Garlic is very good for health. It removes bad cholesterol, improves digestion, lowers blood pressure, soothe teeth and gum pain.

Ginger is good for digestion , reduces the risk of heart disease, improves immunity and gives a strong and unique flavor. Dried ginger is called “Sukku” which is used in tea, coffee, juices etc.. Sukku rasam also tastes good. Sukku relieves headaches when just kept in mouth for a hour or so. I incorporate it in tea, juices, dry curries too for a unique flavor. Fresh ginger and Dried ginger differ in taste. This recipe uses fresh ginger.

I created this recipe. There is no specific source for this. Usually garlic rasam doesn’t require tomatoes. I use ripe tomato and reduce tamarind. I don’t use any dal for this recipe. It alters the tangy and sour taste of this rasam.

This rasam is really healthy when you are down with cold or fever. Kids will cherish this. If your kid is not a spice lover, please reduce the quantity of green chillies according to your spice level.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes
Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Ingredients :

Tamarind - small lemon sized ball or Home-made Tamarind Paste
Ripe Tomato - 1
Garlic. - 12 to 15 cloves
Ginger. - a small piece ( 1 inch )
Green Chilli. - 2 to 3
Cilantro stem. - a handful
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Stone hing. - a small piece
Gingelly oil - 1 tsp

For tempering: (TADKA)

Ghee - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Dry red chilli - 2 or 3
Curry Leaves - Few

Garnish : Cilantro

Serves - 2 to 3 people.

Before moving on to the recipe , i wanted to give a small tip :

Soak garlic in water for 10 minutes. This step is to easily peel the skin of garlic. Trust me, you will never get bored to peel the skin of garlic. You can peel it in 5 minutes. ( be generous to use 15 cloves because the garlic adds more flavor). Please do not skip this step. You will start following whenever you want to peel garlic. This recipe can have a little of garlic’s skin too. Garlic’s skin adds real flavor to the garlic rasam. Try to leave some skin.

Ginger : Do not add the skin. It’s not healthy. Peel the skin and chop it.

Green Chilli : Slit it vertically. Do not put the chilli directly as it will splash the oil.

Tamarind : I used my tamarind paste in this recipe. For those who don’t have the paste, take a lemon sized ball, soak it in hot water for 15 minutes and extract the juice from it.

Let's move on to the recipe..

In a small tadka pan, add gingelly oil. Put the peeled garlic and it’s skin (few) . Saute until raw smell goes and ensure it doesn’t get burnt. Add chopped ginger and the slit green chillies. Saute for a minute.

Now add the chopped tomato. Saute for just 2 minutes till the raw smell goes off.

Allow it cool. Blend it into a coarse paste and at the same time, make sure the ingredients are not big in size after grinding.

Now, take a vessel and put the tamarind juice , a pinch of turmeric powder , stone hing (I personally prefer stone hing instead of powdered one for more flavor and nutrition) , salt and cilantro stem ( stem adds more flavor to the rasam especially , I usually store cilantro and the stem in a different way which lasts upto 2 weeks). Allow it to come to a boil. Boil for 5 to 7 mins until raw smell of the ingredients goes away and close the vessel to retain the flavor of the rasam.