Instant Tomato Rasam Recipe - South Indian Style Tomato Rasam

Rasam is an integral part of South Indian meals. It is a kind of South Indian soup, traditionally prepared with tomato, pepper, cumin and other spices as seasonings. In some cases lentils are added as a base to this soup. Sourness is brought into this soup with the help of either tamarind or lemon.

Monsoons are still here for some time and it’s comforting and warm to have a bowl of rasam during a raining day. There many kinds of rasam, like pepper rasam, lemon rasam, parupu rasam etc, one of my favourite is tomato rasam.

Being a South Indian, rasam has become a staple diet at our house. This version of tomato rasam is a very simple rasam recipe prepared with tomatoes, black pepper and cumin seeds. It does not require tamarind.  Serve it with hot rice

Ingredients:

Ripe tomatoes, whole - 2 to 3 Nos

Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder / Jeera powder- 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Water – 2 cups

Lemon extract – 1 to 1 ½ tbsp.

Ginger, cubes – 1 tsp

Garlic, cubes – 1 tsp

Green chillies, chopped – 1 big

For the seasoning 
Ghee / Cooking oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds -1 tsp
Curry leaves – a few

For Garnishing:

Coriander leaves – a few

Preparation: 

In a mixer, grind tomatoes with garlic, ginger, green chillies to a fine paste. Heat a shallow pan and pour the ground tomato paste and add 1/2 cups of water. Add salt and allow it to boil for about 5 minutes in low heat. By now the colour of the tomato will be changed from pinkish to reddish.

Now reduce the heat and add turmeric powder, cumin powder and pepper powder, let it boil for a minute. Now add the remaining 1 ½ cups of water and allow it to boil in high heat. Turn off the heat once froth starts forming.

Heat ghee in a small pan, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add curry leaves and pour it over the rasam. Finally add lemon extract and mix well; check for seasoning and add salt if required.

Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.