Then my rasam became okay.
That was before I devised this recipe. I stripped down all rasam recipes and came up with this uber simple recipe that really cannot go wrong. (TH actually makes better rasam but he has to add tomatoes to it). And Dal? What dal? I never add dal to rasam unless I am making this version which I call parippu rasam.
So in a nutshell, this rasam recipe goes against most Brahmin rules of making rasam:
– no toor dal / tuvaram paruppu (gasp)
– addition of garlic / poondu (double gasp)
– use of readymade rasam powder
Maybe I should rename the recipe mulagutawney like those fancy restaurants. Anyway.. If you don’t want to add dal to your rasam, make it without dal. Go ahead, dare yourself 😉
Garlic Rasam / Poondu Rasam Recipe
Preparation time: 20 mins
Serves: 2What I Used:
A small lime-sized ball tamarind
8 pods garlic, chopped (use as much or as little as you want)
1 ripe tomato
1 tbsp rasam powder (mine has chilly powder so if yours doesn’t, add chilly powder to taste)
A generoud pinch of hing / asafoetida
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp jaggery or sugar
Salt to tasteFor tempering:
2 tsp ghee / clarified butter (or oil)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
A few curry leavesHow to make Garlic Rasam:
1. Soak the tamarind in 1 cup warm water for 10 mins. Extract juice and discard pulp. Add another cup of water to the tamarind juice.
2. Chop the tomato and mash it well with your finger tips.
3. Place the tamarind juice, tomatoes, turmeric powder, salt, hing, rasam powder and the garlic pods in a pan and bring to boil. Once it boils, lower fire and let it simmmer, keeping the pan open.
4. Once the mixture has simmered for about 15 mins, add sugar and adjust salt. Remove from fire.
5. Heat the ghee and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. Once the seeds start to pop, add to the boiled tamarind mixture. Mix well.
Serve piping hot with steamed white rice and paruppu usili or drink straight from a glass.
tried it today and it was excellent
Hi Nags,
Thanks for this recipe, it was really easy to make and turned out really well, although mine was a bit on the thicker side, guess i let it simmer a bit too much! Any ways keep up the awesome work 🙂
its 5.50am & am sitting arnd browsing for a simple recipe for rasam? hahaha that shows what a hopeless cook i am. thanks to nags, i hv to say this is the easiest rasam recipe i found in d net.
p/s : am married to a chef wrking at a 5star hotel in spore so the pressure to cook well is so stressful !!!
u really suck at making rasam!!
wow! i hope that made your day better, to let that out.
yes, i already said that in the post, it's my first line. however, this was posted 3 years back and i am much better now. don't claim to be perfect but definitely better. also, quite a few people who made this liked it so if you tried it and it didn't come out well, maybe i am not the only one who SUCKS, eh?
Hi Nags, we tried out Pundu rasam and it came out well. Thanks for the recipe!
~Ana
super glad the garlic rasam recipe came out well 🙂
Rasam looks very delicious.thanks for sharing.
that's right, 8-10 cloves.
That is 8-10 garlic cloves and not pods correct!
Thank You so much !!!! ..I suck at making rasam …ur recipe was just awesome …njoying hot rice with rasm rt now 🙂
so glad the garlic rasam recipe was useful 🙂
Nandini – I'm from an interior TN brahmin family (Tiruchi). We do make poondu rasam (and sometimes fry garlic in ghee), but it's definitely not something that the more orthodox members of my family would eat. It's also not something that we'd make on religious occasions, or serve to guests.
Thanks for sharing anon (although next time I wish you'd also share your name!). The family I married into is similar. The paattis and thathas don't take garlic or onion in their food but my in laws don't mind for the large part.
the glass container is so cute. love it… and the rasam looks so good. i add 2 tsp of cooked thur dhal to rasam.
this is the kind of rasam that has worked for me as well. I add less garlic and have to have cilantro leaves!!
It's a good-looking rasam 🙂 I add dal when I think it's too light and when I want a thicker version. Otherwise prefer this kind.
Looks great! I add a pinch or two of pepper and jeera powder for added flavor. It helps when I have a sore throat or cold :-).
For my garlic rasam I add cumin/pepper powder instead of the usual rasam powder. Have you tried mixing this hot rasam with hot oatmeal (of course plain oatmeal cooked in hot water and salt). It tastes divine. Healthier than the usual rasam sadam.
Lovely rasam! I love to drink this rather than mix with rice esp after a heavy sadya/meal!
anon – glad the poondu rasam recipe helped.. in some small way 🙂
Hmm…actually garlic is very interior TN Brahmin thingy, so I've heard. When I got married to A, he kept talking of Poondu rasam. I don't care much for rasam except for pepper and lemon rasam. But I love garlic and never ever tasted this rasam before I got married. After hearing so much, I checked wiht my mom about his obsession. Surprising coz his family is quite traditional about Brahminism jazz. Turns out that interior TN Brahmins use a lot of garlic. They fry garlic in ghee and eat it 😛 something I love too. Now 😉
this is do-able! I am taking print outs of every thing do-able here… that should help me survive 🙂
Rasam is delicious particularly the tomato one! Makes a fantastic soup eaten with warm toast on a cold winter's evening.We would sit in front of the fireplace and tuck in.Do try these variations of kootu with toast and moong dal with toast.Very filling yet light.But do make sure the stuff is piping hot.Happy eating! Sheeloo Rajaram
I started doing this steps with more confusion as you mentioned your rasam sucks normally ;). I was so hungry yesterday and i've no time to try things this away. ;). However, it came out to very good. I like it. I'm going to bookmark this page. Thanks for sharing. Btw, I didnt add "sugar" at the end. I dont like sweet + spice mixup in one receipe ;).
anon – glad the poondu rasam recipe helped.. in some small way 🙂
Anon – hehe 😀 i can relate to you, totally. but i love tam brahm cooking! its the most balanced, especially cuz u have protein and carbs and fat (ghee.. wonderful wonderful ghee) all in one.
rasam doesn't like me, unfortunately.. 😀
was googling for a rasam recipe sans dal and came across this.
yr style of writing had me in splits,so kudos to u for that!(i am a north indian married to a tam brahm and found it v v funny!)
shall be trying it tomo itself,coz toor dal gives me bad migriane.
thx much!
Loved the first shot! And I love this rasam too…cant do without Garlic!
really it taste good
For my garlic rasam I add cumin/pepper powder instead of the usual rasam powder. Have you tried mixing this hot rasam with hot oatmeal (of course plain oatmeal cooked in hot water and salt). It tastes divine. Healthier than the usual rasam sadam.
the rasam looks really good! I love to drink rasam from the glass than adding it to the rice 🙂
lol…the first sentence appplies to me too.
Could have a couple of glasses of that easily. Delicious recipes.
wow! i just love to drink this kind of rasam …lovely recipe ..Thanks for sharing 🙂
Nothing to beat Amma`s rasam. Though the recipe is simple, making good rasam takes some time…the right ingredients at the right time. Miss one ingredient and it goes wrong. Looks great.
looks so yum rasam is the one i make every day perfect comfort food with hot steamed rice yum.
and oooh, the piece of garlic staring out of the glass in the second pic makes me smile 😀 yeah, I'm probably weird.
Rasam falls into my comfort zone and I can have it every day 🙂 I make a similar poondu rasam, but with jeeragam and freshly ground milagu instead of rasam powder. perfect to drive out the winter blues or a stubborn cold.
Hey looks spicy and good … we north Indians don't make this …. but so many rasam recipes are tempting me to make 🙂
Most days I like the daal based rasam the best made using Rasam powder,but then on the other days I love the garlic rasam. Loved your mulagutawney version 🙂
I also make a very similar version of this rasam, but haven't tried adding sugar. Looks awesome, Nags! 🙂
O! ya u r right, I have almost stopped using garlic after my FIL has come down, without his knowledge when i cook some gravies i do add them!, my hubby loves garlic, i too make garlic rasam but with dal and i just crush peel the skin and add it, that's the way he likes it!…, anyway garlic is so good for health…, and this way it is quite good if you are having cold & cough !, the glass looks very good with rasam in it.., as usual ur photos are great !…
Sakshi – what??? and get thrashed by SJ?! And anyway, my intention when I joined FF was to click non-food pics, which sadly is not happening 🙁
Lovely rasam! I love to drink this rather than mix with rice esp after a heavy sadya/meal!
Loved your rasam in a glass…..May be you should give it a fancy name!!Rasam sounds too traditional for such a modern look..
wow this sounds grt!!
Although i am not big fan of rasam this looks yummy!!
And garlic is also an interesting addition!!
I'll take it piping hot … and from the glass. 🙂 I always thought rasam was made from dal water.
Hmm…actually garlic is very interior TN Brahmin thingy, so I've heard. When I got married to A, he kept talking of Poondu rasam. I don't care much for rasam except for pepper and lemon rasam. But I love garlic and never ever tasted this rasam before I got married. After hearing so much, I checked wiht my mom about his obsession. Surprising coz his family is quite traditional about Brahminism jazz. Turns out that interior TN Brahmins use a lot of garlic. They fry garlic in ghee and eat it 😛 something I love too. Now 😉
That's rasam?? Looks more like an exotic drink in that glass…You broke one more brahmin rule by serving it that way…Me likes rasam very much and I have no idea what is it that I make all the time…
Awesome click :)Send it to Photo Friday Noisy no??
Looks great! I add a pinch or two of pepper and jeera powder for added flavor. It helps when I have a sore throat or cold :-).
Sounds great Nags. & presentation makes it look like an exotic chilled drink.. guess what I like my rasam in cold sips..:)
yummy delicious rasam
Where is the straw? I had trouble with rasam -still do it never comes out like my mom's :(Nice snaps!!!
It's a good-looking rasam 🙂 I add dal when I think it's too light and when I want a thicker version. Otherwise prefer this kind.
Rasam is such a comfort drink, i make it when i m really tired and want some simple and satifying meal!
I took a long time to perfect my Rasam .. I mostly depends on the kind of Rasam powder one uses & surprisingly, for how long you boil it .. My dad boils it a lil longer than the usual time & he makes killer rasam .. I have never made Garlic rasam, I wud just gulp this down as a soup
this is the kind of rasam that has worked for me as well. I add less garlic and have to have cilantro leaves!!
Love garlic rasam much and ur presentation is too good Nags…
Loved the way u served it in the glass..I love any kind of rasam..my comfort food with rice..
the glass container is so cute. love it… and the rasam looks so good. i add 2 tsp of cooked thur dhal to rasam.
Looks very nice,I too love rasam with garlic than without…I never make rasam if i dont hav garlic & coriander leaves!! I add crushed garlic,that too with skin..no peeling business 😀