Rasam (Peppery Tamarind Broth)

Name: Rasam (Peppery Tamarind Broth)
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: South Indian
Ingredients: 20 g Tamarind pulp; 80 g Cooked toor dal; 2 Tomatoes, chopped; 1.5 tsp Black peppercorns; 1.5 tsp Cumin seeds; 4 Garlic cloves, crushed; 12 Curry leaves; 0.5 tsp Mustard seeds; 1 Dried red chilli; 0.25 tsp Asafoetida (hing); 0.25 tsp Turmeric; 1 tsp Jaggery or brown sugar; 1.5 tbsp Ghee or oil; Coriander leaves; Salt

A thin, hot, sour broth of tamarind, tomato and crushed black pepper — drunk from a cup when you are ill, poured over rice when you are not.

Source

Recipe by Tamil home kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · South Indian (Tamil) household cooking

Traditional dish — no single author — An ownerless South Indian dish. The reference describes it as a soup-like preparation built on a sour base of tamarind or kokum with tomato and lentil stock, seasoned with cumin, black pepper, turmeric, mustard seeds, curry leaves, garlic and coriander, watery in consistency in contrast to sambar, and usually served with rice. Our proportions and method are written for a home kitchen and the prose is entirely our own.

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Watch it being made

Skinny Recipes

⏱ 30 min🍽 4 servings🔥 90 kcal🇮🇳 India🌶️🌶️

VeganVegetarianGluten-freeDairy-freeHalal

Steps

Crush the peppercorns and cumin together — a mortar or the flat of a heavy knife is fine. Leave the pieces visibly coarse.
Squeeze the soaked tamarind, strain the water into a pot and add the tomatoes, turmeric, garlic, half the curry leaves, the jaggery and salt.
Bring to a boil and cook 8 minutes, mashing the tomatoes against the side of the pot as they soften, until the raw tamarind smell is gone.
💡 Boiling the tamarind properly at this stage is the difference between rasam and sour water.
Stir in the crushed pepper and cumin, then the mashed dal loosened with 300 ml water. Season with salt.
Heat until it froths up around the edges and the surface turns cloudy — then take it off the heat immediately. Do not let it reach a rolling boil.
💡 This is the one rule of rasam. Boiling it hard drives off the fragrance and flattens the pepper — you want it frothing, never bubbling.
Heat the ghee in a small pan, pop the mustard seeds, add the dried chilli, remaining curry leaves and asafoetida, and pour it over the rasam.
Throw in the coriander, cover for 2 minutes and serve — over hot rice, or in a cup as a first course.

💡 Tips

Rasam and sambar are not the same soup at different thicknesses. Sambar is thick with dal and vegetables; rasam is watery, sharper, and pepper-led.
This is South India's cold remedy. Made with extra pepper and garlic and no dal at all, it is drunk hot from a glass.
Do not add chilli powder trying to make it hotter. More crushed black pepper is the correct answer and tastes completely different.