Tomato Rasam is a tangy spicy daal born in Southern India. The name Rasam is a Sanskrit word which literally means juice / sap.. it is a spicy daal based South Indian recipe with the tanginess of tomato and spiciness of red chilly (can be adjusted to your palate 😉 ).

This one stems from my childhood memories. Mixed with rice this was and continues to be one of my comfort foods … OK OK I add also some yogurt to it .. but hey my comfort food ..
Alternately we drank it as a soup.. especially when we attended the traditional south Indian marriages. A marriage ceremony like most was always followed by the traditional “pankthi” based food eating. And among the plethora of yummy food options, there was always the rasam and most of them held the glass to fill it as a drinking soup.. simply yum!

Additionally rasam is something you can have for every occasion, be it cold outside OR you have a runny nose OR you just would like to comfy, healthy food a kick of spice.  

Though there are some variants of the rasam my favourite is the Tomato rasam. Maybe because I like the combination of tang and spice 

So this time when I got the chance, I got my mum to share the recipe. In fact she also agreed to be filmed while making her tasty rasam. You can check the video below in the Video section. Therefore though I write this recipe, its credit goes to my mom.. Hence she is the author of this recipe 😉

Of course this recipe is synced and available on the grobit app and you can directly download the ingredients and add it to your shopping list from within the app. If you do not have the app you can find the download links on this website. Check the home page!

Enough said.. Now lets jump directly into the recipe..!

Tomato Rasam

Recipe by Leela Hegde

5.0 from 1 vote

A tangy & spice South-Indian style lentil with juicy tomatoes

Course: MainCuisine: IndianDifficulty: Medium

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Servings

8

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

215

kcal

Ingredients

• For cooking the daal

• 1 cups Yellow tur daal (Split pigeon peas)

• 1 tsp Turmeric

• 1 tsp Oil

• For the Rasam Paste

• 2 pcs Tamarind

• 1 cup Grated Coconut

• 1 tbsp Oil

• 2 tsp Coriander seeds

• 5-6 nos Curry leaves

• 5 nos Dried red chillies (Bedgi Mirchi)

• 0.5 tsp Fenugreek seeds(Methi)

• 0.5 tsp Asafoetida

• 1 tsp Cumin seeds

• Rest ingredients

• 2 tsp Salt (adjust as per taste)

• 2 tsp Jaggery

• 2 tsp Turmeric Powder

• 0.5 tsp Asafoetida

• 1 large Tomato

• 5-6 stalks Coriander leaves

• 5-6 nos Curry leaves

• 1 tsp Cumin seeds

• 1 tsp Mustard seeds

• 3 tbsp Oil

Directions

• Cooking the daal
• Mix 1 cup of tur daal with 2 cups of water in a utensil for pressure cooker
• Add 1 tsp of turmeric powder and 1 tsp oil
• Cover the pressure cooker lid and cook for 3-4 whistles
• Remove the cooked daal and mash it with a big spoon till you have a paste
• Add 1-2 more cups of water to make paste watery
• Making the Rasam paste
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in the pan
• Once hot, add 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp coriander seeds, 5-6 curry leaves, 1/2 tsp asafoetida and 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds and shallow fry
• Now take the mixture and add it to a cup of grated coconut
  (Best if you have freshly grated coconut, however frozen grated coconut will also do fine)
• Add 2-3 pcs of tamarind depending on how sour your want the taste.
  (Do not add too much as the rasam will also have tanginess/tart from the tomato)
• Grind them all with a little water to make a fine paste
• Cooking the Rasam base
• Take 3 tbsp oil in deep cooking vessel (wok OR deep pan)
• When hot, add mustard seeds, remaining cumin seeds & curry leaves to it
• Add 2 tbsp of turmeric powder
• Dice the large tomato and add it to the mix and cook for 1-2 minutes
• Final assembly
• Add the watery daal paste to rasam base in above step and continue cooking
• Add little salt at this stage and 2 tsp of jaggery
• After 1 minute, add the rasam paste and 1-2 cups of water and mix to get a soupy texture
• Add some coriander leaves (sans the stalks) and add the remaining salt (adjust as per your taste) and mix
• Bring to boil until you see the bubbles
• Serving
• Serve hot as a soup OR with rice

Equipment

• Pressure Cooker
• Mixer/Grinder

Recipe Video

Notes

• To optimize the prep and cook time, prepare the rasam paste and base while the daal is cooking 😉
• To adjust the spice vary the number of dried red chillies you add. The combination in current recipe makes it medium spicy.
• Storage Tips
  Let it cool down . Once cool keep it in airtight container and refrigerate it.
  It can be consumed over the next 4-5 days.
• If refrigerated and stored, heat ONLY the quantity you would like to consume as constant heating and cool may hamper the shelf life and taste of rasam

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