Tomato Rasam (My style)

Cooking Time: 45 mins                                                   Servings: 6
Preparation Time: 20 mins                                             Category: Indian Soups, Veg


Rasam or Saaru, is a famous south Indian soup, traditionally prepared using tamarind juice as a base, with the addition of tomato, and chili pepper, pepper, cumin and other spices as seasonings. Steamed lentils are added along with any preferred vegetables. Nowadays all the seasonings required are combined and ground beforehand into a rasam powder, which is available commercially.
It is eaten with rice or separately as soup. In a traditional meal, it is preceded by a sambar rice course and is followed by curd rice. Rasam has a distinct taste in comparison to the sambar due to its own seasoning ingredients and is usually fluid in consistency.

There are different kinds of rasam, varying by ingredient and region. Some of the common varieties are 

Thakkali Rasam - with tomato puree as main ingredient.
Poondu Rasam - a healthy rasam made with Garlic.
Inji Rasam - a healthy rasam made with Ginger.
Mudakathan Rasam - a healthy green leaf rasam made with Balloon Vine.
Lemon Rasam - a sour soup made with lemon juice.
Parupu Rasam  - common variant made with pulses and tomato stock.
Kollu Rasam or Ulava Saaru - a healthy rasam made with horse-gram.
Mysore Rasam - a fragrant soup made with fried grams/dals.

The recipe am sharing now is a mix of thakkali, poondu and parupu rasam with tamarind juice as base in my own style. So here it goes:-

Ingredients:

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Tomatoes - 4

Tomato Rasam

Toor dal - 1 cup

Hing/Asafoedtida  - 1/2 tsp

Sliced Onions (optional) - 1

Tamarind pulp/paste - 2 to 3 Tbsps

Crushed Black Pepper corns - 8 to 10

Salt - per taste

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Jeera powder - 1 tsp

Slit green chillies - 4

Curry leaves - 6-8 

MTR rasam powder - 2 Tbsp

Ghee - 1 Tbsp

Crushed garlic cloves - 6

Water - as required and per consistency

Preparation Method:

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• Pressure cook tomatoes and dal in separate vessels in a cooker. Once done, peel off the skin of tomatoes, mash them to a pulp and keep it aside along with the dal.
• Heat ghee in vessel and add crushed pepper corns, crushed garlic and saute them for couple of mins
• Now add sliced oninons, green chillies, curry leaves, hing and saute them too for another couple of mins.
• Add tomatoes, dal, turmeric powder and simmer them for 10 mins.
• Now add jeera, chilli powder, salt and mix it well and cook for 5 mins.
• Add tamarind pulp/paste and let the dish come to a boil. Now simmer the stove and add water as required.
• When this comes to a boil, add the MTR rasam powder and let it boil for 15 mins. Turn of the stove and serve hot with plain rice, idly etc

PS: Before turning the stove off, you can add another tsp of ghee and garnish it with finely chopped coriander. If dal is not being used, increase the count of tomatoes as required.

If you don't want to use ready made MTR rasam powder, you can prepare it at home too. Here is the recipe for the same:-

Ingredients

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Coriander seeds - 1 cup 

Red chillies - 12 

Split black gram dal - 2 tbsps 

Cumin seeds - 2 tbsps 

Fenugreek seeds - 2 tsps 

Mustard seeds - 2 tsps 

Sesame seeds - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp

Preparation

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• Dry roast mustard fenugreek seeds on low flame and when they start to  splutter remove them on to a dry plate. 
• Similarly roast cumin seeds till you get a pleasant aroma and remove it into the same plate. 
• Heat oil in the same pan and add coriander seeds, black gram dal and red chillies. 
• Roast them together till the ingredients emanate a pleasant aroma and the chillies become crisp. 
• Remove the roasted ingredients on to a plate and allow to cool. 
• Grind them together into a slightly coarse powder and store in an air tight container