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Rasam
Thin, hot-and-sour pepper soup from South India
🔥 Intermediate🍛 Main Course🌿 Vegan🕑 40 min
Not a stew but a thin broth of tamarind, tomato and freshly crushed pepper-cumin. In South India it's poured over rice or drunk from a cup, and when you have a cold it replaces every home remedy.
🔥 Intermediate: Several things happening at once, or a dough to manage. It clicks the second time.
Prep15 min
Cook time25 min
Total40 min
ServesServes 4
Contains:
MustardSulphites
Refers to the recipe as written here. Store-bought ingredients may carry traces — please check the packet.
Ingredients
0 of 13✅ All set to cook!
Method
0 of 6🎉 All done — enjoy!
- Cook the toor dal with turmeric and 400 ml water for 25 minutes until soft, then stir smooth.
- Coarsely crush the pepper, cumin and garlic in a mortar. Coarse, not fine — the little pieces are the character.
- Strain the tamarind water, bring to a boil with the tomatoes and salt, and cook uncovered for 8 minutes until the raw sourness has cooked off.
- Stir in the crushed spices, cook for 3 minutes.
- Add the cooked dal and 300 ml water. Heat only until the first foam appears, then take off the heat immediately — rasam must never boil hard, or it turns cloudy and flat.
- Pour over a tadka of oil, mustard seeds, asafoetida, chilies and curry leaves, and add coriander.
Tips
- The moment right before it boils is the right one. As soon as foam rises: heat off.
- Freshly crushed pepper, not ground from a jar. The difference is the entire reason to make rasam.
- Very thin is correct. If it looks like soup instead of broth, it's too thick.
Shop the Ingredients
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