Rasam
The everyday soup of Tamil Nadu, drunk from a tumbler or poured over rice, and a home remedy for warming up during a cold. It is deliberately as thin as broth, building its flavour on three pillars: tamarind sourness, black pepper heat and the aroma of tadka — spices bloomed in fat and poured over the top. The key rule: rasam is not boiled long. After the spices go in it should only froth — boiled hard, it loses its aroma and turns slightly bitter.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Lentils 25 min
- Spice paste 5 min
- Cooking the rasam 12 min
- Tadka 3 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneCook the lentils smooth
Cook the lentils with the turmeric in 400 ml water for 20–25 minutes, until they collapse completely, and whisk smooth. There are few lentils on purpose — they give the soup a gentle body without turning it into dal.
Ingredients: 60 g red lentils · 30 g tamarind · 2 pcs tomatoes · 1200 ml water · ½ tsp turmeric · 1½ tsp salt
Extract the tamarind pulp
Cover the tamarind with 200 ml warm water for 10 minutes, work it with your fingers and strain, squeezing the pulp from the fibres and seeds. The resulting liquid is the source of all the rasam's sourness.
Ingredients: 60 g red lentils · 30 g tamarind · 2 pcs tomatoes · 1200 ml water · ½ tsp turmeric · 1½ tsp salt
Worked by hand and strained — all the rasam's sourness.Crush the spices coarsely
Pound the pepper, cumin, coriander and garlic in a mortar to a coarse paste, not a powder. Coarsely crushed spices give a clear, fresh aroma and keep the soup clear; ground to dust, they cloud the rasam.
Ingredients: 1½ tsp black peppercorns · 1 tsp cumin · 5 cloves garlic · 1 tsp coriander
Coarse, not powder — or the rasam turns cloudy.Boil the tamarind with tomatoes
In a pot bring the tamarind water to a boil with the remaining water, the tomatoes crushed by hand and the salt, and cook 8 minutes, until the raw tamarind smell has gone. This is the only time rasam truly boils.
Ingredients: 60 g red lentils · 30 g tamarind · 2 pcs tomatoes · 1200 ml water · ½ tsp turmeric · 1½ tsp salt
Add the lentils and spice paste
Pour in the whisked lentils, add the spice paste and heat over medium until the soup froths on the surface. Then take it off the heat at once. Rasam that boils after the pepper goes in loses its aroma and turns slightly bitter.
Ingredients: 1½ tsp black peppercorns · 1 tsp cumin · 5 cloves garlic · 1 tsp coriander
Make the tadka in a small pan
Heat the ghee in a small pan, add the mustard seeds and wait until they pop, then add the chillies and curry leaves for 10 seconds. The leaves sizzle and curl — then the tadka is ready.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp ghee · 1 tsp black mustard seeds · 12 pcs curry leaves · 2 pcs dried chillies · 3 tbsp fresh coriander
The mustard must pop — only then the curry leaves.Pour the tadka into the rasam and cover
Pour the sizzling tadka into the pot and immediately cover with a lid for 2 minutes. The lid keeps the spice aroma in the soup — without it much of the curry leaf scent escapes with the steam.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp ghee · 1 tsp black mustard seeds · 12 pcs curry leaves · 2 pcs dried chillies · 3 tbsp fresh coriander
Scatter with coriander and serve
Scatter with chopped coriander and serve hot, in tumblers to drink or poured over rice. In a South Indian meal rasam with rice usually follows rice with sambar, but it is just as good sipped on its own.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp ghee · 1 tsp black mustard seeds · 12 pcs curry leaves · 2 pcs dried chillies · 3 tbsp fresh coriander
Before you start
Curry leaves are not curry
Curry leaves come from the Murraya koenigii tree and smell citrusy and nutty; they have nothing to do with curry powder. Buy them fresh in Indian shops; frozen work well, dried have a fraction of the aroma.
Rasam for a cold
In southern India rasam with double the pepper and garlic is served during a cold as a warming home remedy. That version is milagu rasam, pepper rasam — hotter, clearer and usually without tomatoes.
Two days, never boiled
Rasam keeps for two days in the fridge and tastes even more pronounced on the second. Reheat only until frothing, never to a boil, and add fresh coriander — yesterday's darkens.
