South Indian Pudina Rasam or Mint Rasam made with fresh mint leaves, freshly ground spices, cooked lentils, simmered in a tamarind broth. Serve as appetizer, soup or as Main Course with steamed rice and poriyal.
Pudina Rasam or Mint Rasam - South Indian rasam recipe made with fresh mint leaves, freshly ground spices, cooked lentils, simmered in a tamarind broth. This recipe does not use rasam powder.
Rasam is also popular by the name of Charu in Andhra Pradesh and Saaru in Karnataka.
Think of rasam as South Indian soup or broth that's flavored with fresh herbs, ingredients like ginger, black pepper, cumin, turmeric etc making it perfect to consume when feeling under the weather.
Pudina rasam can be made under 30 mins. It is pure comfort food when served with rice, poriyal (stir-fry) and papad.
If you have excess mint leaves, try our Pudina thogayal. It is a delicious lentil coconut chutney that uses fresh mint leaves.
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Ingredients
Use fresh mint leaves. Use tender steams attached to the leaves. Do not use the thick stalks or stems.
Mint leaves have been steeped in the hot rasam to release flavor and aroma.
If you don't prefer chewing mint leaves, strain the rasam once the mint leaves have steeped.
You may grind pudina leaves with some water and add to simmering rasam. We find this quite over-powering.
Whole Spices - Milagu or Black Pepper and Jeera or Cumin Seeds. Dry roast and grind coarsely.
These spices are quite beneficial for blocked nose, headache or cold. Rasam is one of the age-old home remedies when feeling under the weather.
Lentils - Toor Dal (Split pigeon peas). Pressure cook and mash the dal / lentils.
Rasam is sour, tangy and spicy. The Key ingredient is Tamarind. Soak the tamarind ball in hot water and then squeeze out the thick pulp or juice. This has to be cooked or simmered with some chopped tomatoes until the raw smell of the tamarind goes off.
Jaggery is added to rasam to balance the flavors.
For a gluten free recipe, skip asafoetida or hing. Omit ghee and use oil for a vegan recipe.
How to make Pudina Rasam without rasam powder
(1) Wash and soak toor dal for 15 minutes. Drain the water and pressure cook until lentils are mushy. Keep aside.
(2) Roughly chop the tomatoes and keep aside.
(3) Soak marble size tamarind ball in hot water for atleast 10 minutes. Extract pulp or juice and keep aside.
(4) In a small tempering pan, dry roast black peppercorns and jeera or cumin seeds until they are warm and aromatic. Do not over roast.
(5) Cool this and grind it coarsely either in a mixer grinder jar or a mortar pestle.
(6) Heat a thick bottom steel pan, add tamarind pulp or extract, chopped tomatoes along with some curry leaves (roughly torn) and approximately 2 cups of water.
(7) To the above, add turmeric powder and some hing. Boil the tamarind mixture until there is no raw smell. The tomatoes would be slightly mushy.
Note - You can use 1 tablespoon Rasam powder instead of milagu-jeera powder.
(8) Add the cooked and mashed lentils or dal, coarsely ground pepper + cumin powder and salt to taste.
(9) Now add the finely chopped coriander leaves, 1/2 tsp Jaggery and mix well.
(10) Add the pudina or mint leaves and reduce the flame.
(11) Gently allow the rasam to froth and once it does, switch off the gas flame immediately.
(12) For the tempering, heat a pan, add ghee or clarified butter, jeera and mustard seeds. Once mustard crackles, add a pinch of hing and curry leaves. Pour this tempering over the piping hot rasam and cover it immediately.
(13) Allow the pudina rasam to absorb all the flavors and serve after 5 to 7 minutes with steamed rice and a poriyal of your choice.
Serving Suggestion
Traditionally, Rasam is served with rice and a poriyal. You can serve rasam with brown rice, quinoa or millets.
Poriyal / Stir-fry - Cabbage Poriyal, Vazhakkai Podimas (Raw banana curry), Potato Podimas and Koorka Mezhukkupuratti.
More Rasam recipes to try
Vepampoo Rasam - made with dried neem flowers.
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Pudina Rasam Recipe | Mint Rasam
Ingredients
- 1 cup Fresh Mint Leaves 1 cup is 250 ml
- ¼ cup Coriander leaves finely chopped with stems
- ¼ cup Toor Dal (Thuvaram Paruppu or Arhar Dal)
- 1 Marble Size Tamarind Ball
- 2 Tomatoes medium
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric Powder 1 tsp is 5 ml
- ¼ teaspoon Hing or Asafoetida
- 5 cups Water Check Notes below
- Salt to taste
- Few Curry Leaves
Ingredients for the Spice Mix
- 1 tablespoon Milagu or Black Peppercorns 1 tbsp is 15 ml measurement
- ½ tablespoon Jeera or Cumin Seeds
Ingredients for Tempering
- 1 ½ teaspoon Ghee or Clarified Butter
- ½ teaspoon Jeera or Cumin Seeds
- ¼ teaspoon Mustard Seeds, Kadagu or Rai
- Few Curry Leaves
- A pinch of Hing or Asafoetida
Instructions
- Wash and soak the toor dal for atleast 15 minutes and pressure cook it. Once cool, mash it well and keep aside.
- Roughly chop the tomatoes and keep aside.
- Soak marble size tamarind ball in hot water for atleast 10 minutes. Extract pulp or juice and keep aside.
- In a small tempering pan, dry roast black peppercorns and jeera or cumin seeds until they are warm and aromatic. Do not over roast.
- Cool this and grind it coarsely either in a mixer grinder jar or a mortar pestle.
- Heat a thick bottom steel pan, add the tamarind pulp or extract, chopped tomatoes along with some curry leaves (roughly torn) and some water to cook (approximately 2 cups).
- To the above, add turmeric powder and some hing. Allow the tamarind broth to reduce in quantity and the tomatoes to turn slightly mushy. There should be no raw tamarind smell.
- Add the cooked and mashed lentils or dal and coarsely ground pepper + cumin powder along with salt to taste.
- Now add the finely chopped coriander leaves and 1/2 tsp Jaggery and mix well. At this point adjust the consistency of your rasam by adding some water. Once you add water, remember to adjust salt.
- Add the pudina or mint leaves and reduce the flame. Gently allow the rasam to froth and once it does, switch off the gas flame immediately.
- For the tempering, heat a pan, add ghee or clarified butter, jeera and mustard seeds. Once mustard crackles, add a pinch of hing and curry leaves. Pour this tempering over the piping hot rasam and cover it immediately.
- Allow the rasam to absorb all the flavors. Serve after 5 to 7 minutes with steamed rice and a poriyal of your choice.
Notes
- The 5 cups of Water used in the recipe are for soaking tamarind, cooking the tomatoes and lentils, adjusting the consistency of the rasam. You can add more or less as required. This is a rough estimate.
- The aroma of hing or asafoetida is crucial to a good rasam. It is added at 2 stages - once when the tomatoes are simmering in tamarind broth and tempering.
- I have used only a marble size tamarind because we have added 2 tomatoes which adds enough sour taste to the rasam.
- I have used a dark variety of seedless tamarind for this recipe. Soaking it in hot water helps extract the pulp easily.
- If you prefer more paruppu (lentils) in your rasam, add more. The recipe can be easily customized.
- If you want to avoid Milagu Jeera and add Rasam powder to this recipe, add it at Step No. 7 as explained below in Instructions.
- Don't boil rasam. Just simmer it until frothy. Switch off the heat immediately.
- Rasam can be served in a traditional Eeya Chombu (Traditional Pure Tin Vessel).
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Vidya Narayan
Pudina Rasam good for digestion.
Absolutely, I agree.