Rasam - Saaru ( A South Indian Speciality ) - Tomato & Lentil Soup

Rasam
 

Well this was a certainly a long time in coming...why is it that when we learn new dishes and recipes - some of the old ones fall by the wayside...at least it seems to happen to me. According to T - each of the different places that we have lived in had a totally new set of items on our regular menu...:-) .

I think maybe I do agree with him - cause there is no excuse for me not making one of my and all in our family's favourite dishes ...the absolutely mouth-watering  rasam ....more often. When we were kids - my sister used to love lunch when it was aloo ka subzi, rice, and rasam - the most simple and yummy fare...and when she was down or not too well and wanted to feel pampered Mom had to prepare this ...nothing else would do...we call it saar or saaru...and the recipe has undergone slight changes over the years...

Here's how I made it today...though this is one dish which could do with a lot of different additions or subtractions...and tastes best with plain steamed rice. It can also be had with vadas, in fact when in US whenever we went to a South Indian restaurant - we would start off with vada rasam, then move on to the rest of our meal...they would make it pretty spicy...the version given below is not as much...but that is something that can be upped if required...entirely as per your requirements. This can be had as a soup - a very tasty and spicy tomato & lentil soup.



Ingredients:
1/4 cup tuvar dal
3-4 tomatoes
1 onion chopped
5-6 garlic pieces chopped
2 green chilly chopped
1/4 tsp whole pepper
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 lemon sized ball of tamarind
1Tblspn rasam powder masala ( or as per taste )
salt to taste
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
a pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp udad dal
8-10 curry leaves
1 whole red chili

Method :
1) Pressure cook the dal and tomatoes (cut in halves) in two separate vessels till done.
2) When done - remove the skin from the tomatoes and cut into small pieces.
3) Chop the onions, half the garlic about 3 pieces, and green chilly.
4) Grind the whole pepper, cumin seeds together - then add the remaining garlic and grind till it forms into a paste.
5) Soak the tamarind in hot water for about half an hour and then squeeze the juice out.
6) Take a non stick vessel, add the cooked tomatoes, onions, garlic, chilly and 2 cups of water and boil, after it comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10-15 mins.
7) Add the cooked dal, tamarind juice, rasam powder, and salt as per your taste. Simmer for another 10 minutes.
8) Take a seasoning pan, add 2 tsp ghee and heat, add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, and udad dal, red chili - once it starts to splutter, add the asafoetida, curry leaves, and paste of whole pepper, cumin seeds, garlic which was prepared earlier.
9) Bring it to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for just a minute or so - then rasam is ready to be served.
Enjoy !!!

Note: Some add a spoon of sugar to balance all the tastes - but somehow I am not too fond of sugar in my rasam or sambhar so I tend to skip this...and as I said there are a lot of variations to the sambhar, Mom likes to add some coriander-cumin powder, and sometimes she does not use rasam powder but adds all the ingredients separately, but as this masala is so readily available now, it tends to make life simpler just to add this as per your tastes.

Note: As mentioned earlier some like it spicier, this can be done with increased either green chilly, whole peppers used in the paste, or addition of red chili powder ....

I plan to take some of this over to Mom's tomorrow so that she can taste it and give her feedback, maybe will post this tomorrow so as to update this with any changes she recommends...also need to load the picture I have taken of the dish...
Anyways hope you all get to try this out...and give any feedback too...have fun.