Rasam

Broccoli Tomato Rasam | South Indian Broccoli Soup

February 22, 2014 By

Winter calls for lots of soup to be served before the meal and most loved dish to comfort you in a chilly weather . Soups are always loved in our home and mainly the south indian rasam is always loved with some potato stir fry. It may be a cold or cough rasam is the only food which soothes our body and makes us feel better for recovery. Rasam is an south indian fav soup normally made tomatoes and tamarind to make it tangy and there are N varieties of rasam made . My mom used to make rasam very well , but as a kid we didn’t enjoy them a lot. My mom had to make our fav side dish so that we ( me & bro) will finish the rasam rice in no time , so she used make either potato stir fry or chenai kizhangu/ suran stir fry these were are most fav stir fries.

Now as days went and we grew up we started liking rasam a lot and we drink them as a soup . My daughter is a fan of rasam rice and she lovely spicy food a lot . To make the traditional rasam rice even more interesting I added Broccoli to it and they taste very delicious. My H loved the addition of veggie to rasam and he enjoyed them. Here to the normal tomato rasam I have added broccoli and they tasted yumm . Now over to the recipe

Ingredients

Broccoli florets – 1 cup or from a medium Broccoli crown remove the florets
Tomato – 2 No ( Medium size)
Tamarind extract – 1/4 cup ( from a lemon sized tamarind soaked in warm water)
Whole red chilli – 2 No
Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Coriander leaves – 1/4 cup ( Chopped)
Garlic – 2-3 pod ( Minced)
Pepper pd – 1/2 tsp
Rasam pd – 1 tbsp
Turmeric pd – 1/4 tsp
Olive oil / ghee – 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method

Blanch the whole tomatoes in enough water till they are immersed .
Remove the skin and mash the tomatoes with hands ( It tastes good if you mash them using hands).
Add turmeric pd, cumin pd, rasam pd , salt, tamarind extract, pepper pd to the tomato water.
In a sauce pan heat oil/ ghee add mustard seeds, cumin seeds after they pop add curry leaves, Whole red chilli and saute .
Now add minced garlic and saute till it leaves out an aroma.
Add broccoli florets and saute them till they are done . Don’t over cook them just half cook them so that it will taste good.
Add the Tomato water mixter and simmer the flame.
After they boil switch off the flame . Rasam will taste good if you allow them to cook only till the first boil and switching the flame off.
Garnish with chopped coriander Leaves.
Serve them hot with steamed rice and any vegetable fry like Urulai kizhangu vadhakal/ Potato Stir fry.

Tips

You can even blanch the broccoli and add to the rasam.
You can also add mashed toor dal to the rasam and make paruppu broccoli rasam

Raw mango rasam

April 22, 2013 By

Am back with a tangy tasty rasam / south Indian soup variety . Rasam is my favorite when its cold out and love to serve this warm soup for my family so that they are attacked by any cold and flu. Rasam is a south India favorite which is present in every south Indian meal. This is another variation of rasam which i experimented and turned out yumm 🙂 lets move on to the delicious variety of Rasam ..

Ingredients

Raw ripe mango – 1
Tamarind – small lemon size ( soaked in warm water for 10 min and strain the tamarind juice)
Cumin seeds- 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds -1/2 tsp
Cumin Pd- 1 tsp
Rasam Powder -1 tsp (or adjust to your taste)
Pepper pd- 1/4 tsp
Red chilli -3
Grated jaggery – 1 tsp (optional)
Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp
Oil – 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
A pinch of hing
Chopped fresh coriander leaves

Method

Wash, peel and cut the mango into medium size pieces. Put the mango pieces, turmeric and half cup of water in a pressure cooker or you can use a microwave too to cook the mango pieces .
Cook till 3 whistles. Turn off the flame and wait until the pressure go off. Then remove the mango pieces from the cooker. When it cools down, mash the mango pieces with fingers (don’t mash them all leave little bits ).
Put the mango pulp, salt, rasam powder, grated jaggery (optional), tamarind water, chopped coriander leaves and 2-3 cups water in a bowl .
Now heat half teaspoon of oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, when they start to splutter add hing and red chilli and stir for few seconds and add the liquid mixture.
Let it cook for 10 to 15 minutes a medium flame or till it boils and remove from the heat and don’t over boil it . Turn off the flame . Mix well and serve hot with steamed rice .

Tips

I used raw ripe mango for a little sweet taste so didn’t add jaggery.
If you are using raw mango then for balancing the tanginess of tamarind and mango you can add jaggery or sugar.
You can also make dal mango rasam / paruppu raw mango rasam by adding toor dal to this recipe.

Sending to virundhu unna vaanga

Orange rasam

March 14, 2013 By

Rasam is an south Indian favorite dish which is served in all south indian home’s before having curd rice. Rasam traditionally is prepared using tomatoes, tamarind extract and freshly ground spices are added to it. Rasam are served with hot rice and also had as a soup. Here is a variation in rasam where instead of tamarind extract i have added orange with the tomatoes base and spice stired in it bring out a flavorsome Rasam . They tasted really yummy:) lets move on to the recipe..

Ingredients

Orange juice – 1 cup
Red chilies – 2
Water – 3 cups
Rasam powder – 1 ½ tsp.
Turmeric powder – 2 pinches
Tomato – 2 (big)
Asafoetida – 1 pinch
Cumin pd- 1 tbsp
Pepper pd – 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves – 2 tbsp.
Salt (to taste)
Oil/ ghee- 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp.
Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp.

Method:

Blanch the tomatoes in water . Remove the skin and when they cool down and crush the tomatoes with your hand or ladle till all the juice in the tomato comes out. Now strain the tomato juice .

Add turmeric powder, 2 cups of water, cumin pd, pepper pd , rasam pd, and salt. Mix well.
Heat oil/ghee in a pan and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida .
When mustard seeds splutter, add the red chilies
Add the rasam/tomato water and boil it.
When the bubbles appear on top of the rasam, remove from heat and add the orange juice.

Sprinkle with coriander leaves.
Serve immediately.

Note:

You can drink the rasam like soup as it has a sweeter taste.
You can add some garlic cloves even to make them more flavorful

Variation:

Pineapple rasam

You can make pineapple rasam even. To make pineapple rasam you have to blanch the pineapples cubes first and then add them to the normal rasam and boil them till pineapple are done . In normal rasam we do add tamarind pulp even .

Lemon rasam