As soon as we hear the word 'rasam', we imagine enjoying rainy or wintery evenings, while sipping on a warm bowl of this tangy and delicious delight. The South Indian dish rasam doubles up as a warming beverage that can be enjoyed with or without vadas. Also known as chaaru or saaru, rasam is a thin spicy and sour lentil curry that is prepared using traditional Indian souring agents tamarind or kokum. It is spiced using curry leaves, turmeric, cumin, chillies and pepper and may contain a range of your favourite vegetables. The consistency of rasam is like that of a clear soup and it has a beautiful reddish bronze hue, dotted with roasted cumin seeds.
Rasam is traditionally enjoyed with idli, papad, vada or even plain rice. Rasam means juice and the name is indicative of the thin consistency of the delicious sweet and sour drink. You can make rasam easily at home and enjoy it as a warming evening snack for your in-between hunger pangs. You can either make rasam from scratch or you can make the special rasam powder and store it in an air-tight container for further use in making rasam curry.
Also Read: Rasam Papad Is The Perfect Comfort Food This Monsoon
YouTube chef Vaishali Polke of the channel Being Marathi teaches us how to prepare both - rasam powder and the much-loved South Indian delight Rasam Vada:
Rasam And Rasam Powder Recipes
1. Rasam Powder Recipe
Rasam powder is incredibly easy to prepare. The recipe starts with roasting toor dal, followed by roasting an assortment of spices, including fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds and peppercorns. Dried red chillies are then roasted and then curry leaves are shallow-fried. All the ingredients are put into a grinder until a fine powder is formed.
Also Read: Mulligatawny Soup: How Soup Met Rasam and Became a Favourite Anglo Indian Dish
Watch the full recipe for rasam powder here:
2. Rasam Vada Recipe
Rasam is prepared using chopped tomatoes, fresh coriander leaves, water from boiled dal, salt and rasam powder. The curry is spiced with garlic, turmeric, asafoetida (or hing) and dried red chillies. The finished product is used to dunk crispy vadas in and is enjoyed piping hot.
Also Read: Slurp Alert: 5 Benefits Of Rasam That'll Make You Love The Tamarind-Based Soup Even More
Watch the full recipe video for rasam vada here:
Happy Cooking!