Rasam is a simple spiced South Indian vegan soup or broth. It's one of my favorite accompaniments to Indian meals, though I haven't made it in some time. Emboldened by our first trip to the local Indian grocery store in 6 months, I decided to try a more substantive rasam than my previous efforts.
I turned to Saranya Mandava's Indian Cuisine cookbook, and decided to go with her "Rasam No. 2" recipe with a few modifications from my mother and utilizing the Everest rasam powder I purchased.
The final result was excellent - perfectly spiced from the mustard seeds and rasam powder; tangy from the tomatoes and lemon juice; and substantive from the mashed moong dal. I will be making this rasam recipe again and again!
And the best part? Using the Instant Pot for most of the dish, which freed up the rest of my stovetop for other dishes I was preparing at the same time.
My main recipe modifications were to cook the moong dal for 10 minutes on low pressure in the Instant Pot before mashing; using 2 tsp. of rasam powder, which I added to the rasam with the tomatoes; and omitting the grinding of the spices that had been tempered on the stovetop. I instead just added them directly to the pot after cooking them on the stovetop in a small pan.
I also added 5 curry leaves, which I ripped in half, to the tempering spices, and I omitted the fenugreek seeds to the tadka because I couldn't find them in my pantry (did I throw them away?). Finally, I used approx. juice from 1/4 lemon, which seemed to be enough.
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