Prep: 5 mins · Cook: 20 mins · Serves: 3–4
Rasam is one of those dishes that South Indian grandmothers made without measuring anything.
Thin as soup, peppery, sour from tamarind, with a warmth that builds slowly. It is what gets made when someone is unwell, when rice is all that will be eaten, when the evening is cold and nothing else sounds right.
Tulsi goes into rasam like it was always supposed to be there. In many homes, it was — added with the curry leaves during tempering, or crushed in at the end. This is that version.
Rasam is not a sauce. It is a medicine that learned to taste like a meal.
What You Need
- 2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 3 cups water
- 1 tsp Krishna Tulsi Ki Patti (Sendriya Life)
- Small ball of tamarind (or 1 tsp tamarind paste)
- 1 tsp black pepper, coarsely ground
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 4–5 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp ghee
- A sprig of curry leaves
- ¼ tsp mustard seeds
- Salt to taste
- Fresh coriander to finish
How to Make It
- Soak tamarind in ½ cup warm water. Squeeze and extract the liquid. Discard pulp.
- In a pot, combine tomatoes, water, pepper, cumin and garlic. Boil for 10 minutes until tomatoes are soft. Mash gently.
- Add tamarind water. Simmer another 5 minutes.
- Stir in tulsi. Simmer 3 minutes more. Adjust salt.
- In a small pan, heat ghee. Add mustard seeds and curry leaves. Let splutter. Pour over rasam.
- Finish with fresh coriander. Serve with hot rice.
Drinking it as a soup
Many people drink rasam straight from a cup before eating. There is nothing wrong with this. It is, in many ways, the most honest way to eat it — no rice, no distraction, just the rasam doing what it does.
