Tomato juice rasam recipe, a simple juice rasam recipe using tomatoes without tamarind.
My MIL is a fabulous cook and she has what seems like an unlimited supply of rasam recipes that she can make on request or whim. What I particularly find fascinating with her cooking is, all her dishes are super quick and easy ones. They are simple, mostly with only 5-6 ingredients and get done in less than half an hour each, at the most. In fact, when I visit my in laws, most of MIL’s cooking is done by the time I wake up (which I should admit is not very early!) and usually there’s some type of rasam boiling in the eeya chombu, a unique tamil brahmin practice of making rasam in pots that are alloys of many metals including lead. Although there are many schools of thought regarding the harmful effects of lead in food, she continues to use it for rasam. The taste difference is said to be significant if you don’t use an eeya chombu for your rasam!
One of my favourites of all the rasam recipes she had shared with me over the years is this juice rasam or tomato juice rasam recipe. It uses no tamarind, and since my FIL’s mom doesn’t take onion or garlic, this version doesn’t contain garlic either. So that makes this a very tasty and easy recipe that can either be taken like soup, or poured on steaming white rice for a nice and hearty lunch.
Tomato Juice Rasam Recipe
Ingredients
- 5-6 ripe tomatoes
- 1/2 cup cooked mashed toor dal (about 1/4 cup uncooked)
- 1 heaping teaspoon rasam powder
- A generous pinch of hing / asafoetida / perungaayam
- A pinch of turmeric
- 1/2 tsp jeera / cumin seeds pounded in a pestle and mortar or coarsely ground in a spice grinder
- 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Pressure cook the toor dal with enough water until soft and mushy. Mash further with a potato masher to remove any lumps. Set aside.
- Chop the tomatoes in small pieces, place in the pan, and add enough water to cover it by an inch.
- Add turmeric, sambar powder, hing, and salt and boil for about 15-20 mins until the tomatoes turn soft.
- Then, take out the chunky pieces and blend to a smooth paste and return it to the rest of the cooked tomato mixture along with the dal.
- Add about 1 to 2 cups more water until rasam reaches the right consistency (not too watery but more soup-like).
- Add pepper and cumin powder, bring to boil, and remove from heat.
- Garnish with chopped coriander leaves (or you can add curry leaves when you add dal).
- Note that my MIL does not temper this rasam but if you'd like to, heat some ghee / oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds and they pop, dunk into the rasam at the final stage.
You won't believe, I was talking to this very close friend of mine (in New York now & she is Telugu) and she was making Rasam. I asked her how she made it as I wanted to make it too. And that same day I saw your recipe!!!
I love Rasam (No I don't cook :)) for it reminds me of the hostel days wherein they used to serve it on alternate days 🙂
ooh ! that looks soooo tasty and comforting… evem I prefer Rasam without Tamarind !! 🙂 first time here, although eons have been dedicated to your food photography skills and your recipes.. Just dropped in and loved your space .. happy to follow you too 🙂
Cheers
Kalyani
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Delicious Tomato juice rasam..yumm!!!
http://vegetarianmedley.blogspot.com/
wow, that sounds interesting and delicious 🙂
very nice blog and informative.
Lovely!:-) We make it at home, but my mother adds the tomatoes to the dal and cooks it with the dal and mashes everything together and then adds the powders and coriander leaves. I sometimes make a puree of the tomatoes and mix to the mashed dal and boil together with the powders etc. We too avoid tempering, but sometimes add coriander leaves just before serving after tempering too! ~Shreya
Oh, it looks so tasty. The words "super quick", "5-6 ingredients" and "less than half an hour" jumped out to me. I'm so sad that I'm unable to read tamil. Is there no way I can decipher your MIL's recipes using some sort of software? If you have any suggestions, do tell!
Loved the pics. Rasam is a must in my house too. My little one likes it so much, that she wants it daily with rice.
lovely recipe & lovely fotos (by Appa's grace 🙂 )…you should have also clicked one foto of Eeya Chombu…would have loved to see how it is!! 🙂