Rasam

Rasam is a South Indian soup-like dish that can be served in a number of ways – as a component of a more elaborate meal served with rice, as a soup with breads, or as a small dish served with rice. Here, it's served it as a soup with pappadams. Rasam was the inspiration for the British Raj soup of mulligatawny.

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Series. Cooking. Rated PG.

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The Cook Up with Adam Liaw

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Ingredients

• ¼ tsp ground turmeric
• 3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp tamarind puree
• 2 tsp ghee
• ½ tsp yellow mustard seeds
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1 large dried red chilli, broken
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp salt, to season
• 2 tbsp rasam powder
• ½ tsp roughly chopped palm sugar (jaggery)
• 1 tbsp roughly chopped coriander leaves
• Pappadams, to serve

For the rasam powder

• 2 tbsp channa dal
• 2 tbsp toor dal
• ½ cup coriander seeds
• 5 large dried red chillies
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 2 tbsp cumin seeds
• 10 curry leaves
• ¼ tsp asafoetida powder (hing)

Instructions

1. To make the rasam powder, heat a medium saucepan over medium heat and dry roast the dals until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Remove from the saucepan. Add the coriander seeds, chillies and peppercorns to the pan and roast until fragrant and the chillies are brittle, about 3 minutes. Remove from the saucepan. Add the fenugreek and cumin seeds to the pan and roast until the cumin seeds are fragrant and start to pop, about 2-4 minutes. Remove from the pan. Lastly, roast the curry leaves until brittle, 1-2 minutes, then remove from the pan. Allow everything to cool completely, add asafoetida and then grind the rasam powder ingredients in a spice grinder to a very fine powder. If you grind the spices when they are warm, the natural oils in the spices will turn the powder into a paste.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the ground turmeric, tomatoes and tamarind and squeeze with your hands to mash together.
3. Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the ghee. Add the mustard seeds, curry leaves, chilli and cumin and temper until fragrant. Add the tomato mixture, salt, about 1 litre of water and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes, then stir in the rasam powder and sugar and cook for 2 minutes. Stir through the coriander leaves and serve with pappadams.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.