We already have a couple of different Mysore Rasam recipes, and today we are adding one of two Mysore Rasams that use lime juice for the souring agent, rather than tamarind. It provides a lightness of taste to the rasam, rather than the deep earthy flavours of tamarind, while still retaining the sour tastes so essential to South Indian food. We have a number of rasams that use lime, including the Mysore style rasam dishes.

Mysore Rasam comes from the city of Mysore in Karnataka, South India. It is one of the four dishes that are named after the city. The others are Mysorepak, Mysore Bonda and Mysore Masala Dosa. The defining features of Mysore Rasam are:

The base of the rasam is toor dal. It uses a particular mix of spices – coriander seed, dried red chillies, and pepper corns. Bengal gram is also included in its spice mix. Usually, but not always, coconut is included in the rasam. You will see that the two recipes for Mysore Rasam with Lime Juice do not contain coconut. The rasam is thicker than many of the more watery rasam varieties.

Because this rasam is based on dal, when it is being served the Sambar is usually omitted, and the rasam becomes the showpiece of the meal.

The recipe is one of Meenakshi Ammal’s from her cook books Cook and See. One of our very special projects in the kitchen is to cook through these books, as they are very traditional Tamil recipes. You can find all of Ammal’s dishes that we have made here. Most of them are from Vol 1 so far.

Similar recipes include Mysore Rasam with Tomatoes and Lime Juice, Mysore Rasam, Cumin Seeds and Pepper Rasam, and Coriander Seed Rasam.

Browse all of our Mysore Rasam recipes, all of our Lime Rasams, and all of our Rasam recipes. All of our Indian recipes are here, and our Indian Essentials are here. Or explore our Early Autumn dishes.

Mysore Rasam with Lime Juice

Source : adapted from Meenakshi Ammal’s Cook and See Part 1

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 5 mins + 40 mins to cook the dal

Cooking time: 10 mins

Serves: 4 – 6 people, depending how you use it

ingredients

0.5 cup toor dal

2 limes, juiced

1.5 tspn salt

a pinch asafoetida

5 – 6 curry leaves

a few green coriander leaves

spice paste

1.5 Tblspn coriander seeds

1 tspn Bengal gram dal (channa dal)

4 Indian dried red chillies (or to taste)

5 – 6 black pepper corns

2 tspn ghee or Indian sesame oil

tadka

2 tspn ghee

1 tspn black mustard seeds

1 – 2 green chillies, chopped

5 – 6 curry leaves

method

Cook the toor dal in plenty of water until very soft. Decant the top water and keep it aside. Make the dal up to 1.5 – 2 cups with some extra water, and blend or mash the dal so that it is quite smooth. For this, I usually use an immersion blender, pulsing it in the dal a couple of times.

To make the spice paste, saute the coriander seeds, peppercorns, channa dal and dried red chillies in 2 tspn ghee until golden brown. Grind them to a paste. Add a little water to help make a paste, if necessary.

Mix the paste with the cooked dal in a saucepan. Add the salt, asafoetida dissolved in a little water, and 5 or 6 curry leaves too. Place the lid on the pan and bring to a strong boil.

Add the reserved dal water to the rasam and enough water to make up to 4 cups of rasam. Bring back to the boil, remove any foam, and take off the heat. Stir in the lime juice.

Make a tadka of the mustard seeds, chillies and 5 – 6 curry leaves in the ghee, and add to the rasam. Garnish with coriander leaves.