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Rasam is a South Indian soup cooked with spices, lentil and tamarind or lemon juice.
Cooking Time: 10 min

Preparation Time: 5 min

Serves: 3

Ingredients

Tamarind - 1 small lemon size ball.
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp or to taste
Garlic - 8 cloves
Curry leaves

Oil/ Ghee - 1/2 tsp

To Grid (Rasam Masala)

Red Chilli – 1 (or to taste)
Black pepper - 1tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 3/4 stalks
Ginger – 1 inch piece
Ghee – ½ tsp

Tempering

Ghee – ½ tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Method

1) Soak tamarind in warm water for a while and once soaked squeeze the juice thoroughly and filter and keep it.
2) Heat the ghee and roast Black Pepper, Jeera, Red Chilly and curry leaves and set them aside.
5) Chop the tomato and keep it aside, crush the garlic slightly without making them to pieces.
6) Now heat 1/2 tsp oil and add the crushed garlic and saute till they turn golden.
7) Add the tamarind juice, salt, asafoetida and tomato pieces and boil for till the tomato and garlic is cooked.
8) Mix the cooked horse gram and the roasted pepper, jeera, red chilly and curry leaves into a fine paste and add it to boiling mixture.
9) If the mixture is thick add little more water and boil it for another 5 minutes till all the spices are well mixed.
10) Heat the 1/2 tsp ghee and add cumin seeds and once they splutter turn golden add it to rasam.

This dish is our contribution to RCI-Pondicherry Cuisine, hosted by Lavi as an entry from Tamil Nadu. RCI was originally started by Lakshmi.