This recipe is the fourth in our series of Mysore style Rasam, and this one uses tomatoes and lime juice for the sour tang that is ubiquitous in South Indian food. We already have a couple of different Mysore Rasam recipes. The recipes that use lime juice for the souring agent, rather than tamarind, have a lightness of taste, different to the deep earthy flavours of tamarind.

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 Lime Rasam with Green Chillies, Tomato Rasam with Lime Juice, Mysore Rasam, Cumin Seeds and Pepper Rasam, and Coriander Seed Rasam.

Browse 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 Tomatoes and Lime Juice

ingredients

0.5 cup toor dal

1 lime, juiced

1.5 tspn salt

a pinch asafoetida

5 – 6 curry leaves

2 tomatoes, pureed or chopped finely

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, channa dal and dried red chillies in 2 tspn ghee until golden brown. Grind them to a paste with the peppercorns. 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, tomatoes, 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.