Rasam - South Indian tamarind soup

Popular South Indian sour and spicy soup made with tamarind juice. Usually eat with rice or as a soup. You can serve it hot or cold. Its one of the curry served in traditional Kerala Onam sadya(feast). This recipe is usually having a watery consistency. 

My mom used to prepare different verities of this curry. Here I am explaining the recipe of a simple plain rasam. I have not used tomatoes and ready made rasam powder for this recipe. I used to prepare it when I get throat infection or flue.

Let see the list of ingredients and preparation steps with pictures

Ingredients

1. Water - 2 cups
2. Tamarind - a small ball sized
3. Green Chilli - 3 (sliced lengthwise)
4. Corriander seeds - 15
5. Black pepper - 10
6. Fenugreek powder - 1/4 tablesppon
7. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tablespoon
8. Asafetida - a pinch
9. Red chilli - apinch
10. Coriander leafs - to garnish
11. Salt to taste

Instructions

• Soak tamarind in 2 cups of water and 1/2 tablespoon of salt. Keep it for 15-20 mins and then extract the juice. The advantage of adding salt is to get all juice of tamarind ball added.

• Slice garlic into small pieces and take ingredients listed from 3-5, clean it well and keep aside

• Heat oil in a pan and add chopped garlic. Saute until the row aroma goes away

• Add coriander seeds and black pepper. Saute it for 1-2 minutes. 

• Now add turmeric juice, green chillies, turmeric powder, fenugreek powder and asafetida to the pan. Let the soup boil for 5-6 minutes.

• Tasty tamarind soup is ready. Service it with hot rice. You can even drink this soup as it is.

Note:
You can make different verities of this soup by varying the spice powders you add. I have added recipe for plain pepper garlic tamarind soup. You can add sliced tomatoes, onions, fried red chilli powder and coriander powder for more rich and thicker version.