Vepampoo Rasam is a traditional South Indian Rasam Variety made with dried or fresh neem flowers for the auspicious Tamil New Year or Puthandu Festival.
Vepampoo Rasam made with dried neem flower. It tastes sour and bitter at the same time. It is extremely healthy and made for Tamil Puthandu (New Year / Vishu) and served with rice and ghee.
Neem has antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties. Dried Neem Flower is a superfood. There are many health benefits of consuming vepampoo. It is excellent for detox, combats seasonal change, cures stomach related ailments.
Rasam, for the uninitiated, is South Indian broth or soup that is flavored with fresh herbs, seasonal fruits, vegetables and spices. In this case, the dried neem flowers are used for making rasam.
This rasam can be made with fresh and/or dried neem flowers. Dried flowers are easily available and can be stored (in freezer) to use throughout the year.
Rasam recipes are similar yet unique. The veppampoo recipe I share today includes tamarind, tomatoes and cooked lentils (Toor Dal). It has basic spices and Home Made Rasam Powder.
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Importance of Neem flower for Tamil New Year
Tamil New Year, Vishu or Puthandu is celebrated in the second week of April. Like every Indian festival, cooking is done using seasonal ingredients and traditional recipes.
For Tamil New Year or Varushapirappu, we begin the day with a bath. We add neem leaves to the bathing water as it helps cleanse the body and prepares us for the seasonal change. Neem has antibacterial properties.
For New Year, we include different elements as part of our food that signifies seasonal change.
Using neem flower, we make Pachadi with ingredients like jaggery, chilli, salt, neem leaves or flowers and tamarind.
The elements are basically sweet, spicy, salt, bitter and sour. Very similar to how life is - It keeps changing, has various elements to it and one should savor all the experiences - good or bad with a positive mindset.
The Vepampoo or Neem Flower blooms during this time of the year and smells sweetly like the jasmine flower. It is white in color and very tiny or tender.
If you don't have access to fresh flower, the dried flower is easily available online and local stores. It stays fresh when kept in the freezer.
Since neem is used in Ayurvedic medicines, you can source dried flowers in Ayurvedic shops or drug stores that sell country medicines (nattu marundhu).
I sun dry fresh neem flower and store in freezer. It lasts me upto 1 year (depending on use). We consume Neem Flower Rasam atleast once a month. Including bitter foods as part of diet is important.
Pro Tip - Roast the flowers (both fresh or dry) in ghee for best results. Ghee brings out the taste and aroma.
How to Make Vepampoo Rasam
Rinse and soak Toor Dal for 15 minutes. Drain the water, rinse and pressure cook dal until soft and mushy.
Soak the tamarind in hot water for 10 minutes. Squeeze out the liquid and keep aside. measure and keep aside neem flower.
Prep Ingredients - roughly chop tomatoes, herbs (coriander and curry leaves)
Heat a pan, add sesame oil, mustard seeds and cumin. Next add, asafoetida or hing.
Once mustard crackles, add chopped tomatoes and curry leaves. Saute on medium to low heat until tomatoes are mushy.
Add tamarind water (extracted from soaking the tamarind in hot water) to the mushy tomatoes along with turmeric powder and rasam powder.
Mix and let it simmer until raw smell of tamarind disappers.
Next, add the cooked lentils, mix and adjust consistency of rasam by adding water. Add salt and taste. At this point reduce the heat and let rasam simmer.
Once rasam froths (bubbles will appear), switch off heat, add fresh coriander.
In a small pan, add ghee and roast the dried neem flower on low heat. It will appear almost black after roasting.
Add the roasted dried neem flowers to the hot rasam. Add Jaggery to taste. Mix and cover the pan with a lid and let the flavors infuse for 10-15 mins. Serve.
Tips
- If using fresh neem flower, roast the flower in ghee until it appears dark brown. Ensure the heat is low to avoid burning.
- Do not consume Vepampoo rasam immediately. Allow the flavors to infuse. It helps balance heat, sourness and bitterness.
- You can adjust the quantity of neem flower added. This rasam will (should) taste bitter.
- You can adjust the quantity of jaggery to reduce bitterness.
- For any rasam recipe, use good quality hing or asafoetida. Skip this ingredient if you are gluten sensitive.
- Avoid re-heating rasam more than once. It affects taste and flavors.
- Feel free to adjust the quantity of lentils. We prefer rasam with extra lentils.
Serving Suggestion
Poriyal (Dry veggie side) - Cabbage Poriyal, Vazhakkai Podimas and Beetroot Thoran.
Kootu (Side with vegetables and lentils) - Murungai Keerai Kootu (Drumstick leaves), Peerkangai Kootu (ridge gourd) and Pudalangai Kootu (snake gourd)
Types of Rasam
Pudina Rasam (Mint)
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Vepampoo Rasam | Dried Neem Flower Rasam
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup Tuvar Dal or Arhar Dal
- 1 Tomato large, roughly chopped
- 1 Tamarind Gooseberry size tamarind ball
- 1 ¼ tablespoon Vepampoo or Dried Neem Flour Check notes (1 tbsp is 15 ml measurement)
- 1 tablespoon Ghee or clarified butter
- 1 teaspoon Sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon Mustard Seeds
- ¼ teaspoon Jeera or Cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon Rasam Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- ¼ teaspoon Asafoetida or hing
- 1 tablespoon Jaggery
- finely chopped coriander leaves as required
- few sprigs of curry leaves as required
- salt to taste
- Water (1/2 cup to soak the tamarind + Extra as required to adjust rasam consistency, pressure cook dal etc)
Instructions
- Rinse and soak Toor Dal for 15 minutes. Drain the water, rinse and pressure cook dal until soft and mushy.
- Soak the tamarind in hot water for 10 minutes. Squeeze out / Extract the liquid and keep aside.
- Heat a pan, add sesame oil, mustard seeds and cumin. Next add, asafoetida or hing.
- Once mustard crackles, add chopped tomatoes and curry leaves. Saute on medium to low heat until tomatoes are mushy.
- Add tamarind water (extracted from soaking the tamarind in hot water) to the mushy tomatoes along with turmeric powder and rasam powder.
- Mix and let it simmer until raw smell of tamarind disappers.
- Next, add the cooked lentils, mix and adjust consistency of rasam by adding water. Add salt and taste. At this point reduce the heat and let rasam simmer.
- Once rasam froths (bubbles will appear), switch off heat, add fresh coriander.
- In a small pan, add ghee and roast the dried neem flower on low heat. It will appear almost black after roasting.
- Add the roasted dried neem flowers to the hot rasam. Add Jaggery to taste. Mix and cover the pan with a lid and let the flavors infuse for 10-15 mins. Serve.
Notes
-
- If using fresh neem flower, roast the flower in ghee until it appears dark brown. Ensure the heat is low to avoid burning.
-
- Do not consume Vepampoo rasam immediately. Allow the flavors to infuse. It helps balance heat, sourness and bitterness.
-
- You can adjust the quantity of neem flower added. This rasam will (should) taste bitter.
-
- You can adjust the quantity of jaggery to reduce bitterness.
-
- For any rasam recipe, use good quality hing or asafoetida. Skip this ingredient if you are gluten sensitive.
-
- Avoid re-heating rasam more than once. It affects taste and flavors.
-
- Feel free to adjust the quantity of lentils. We prefer rasam with extra lentils.
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We will be back again with yet another exciting recipe .. Until then, stay healthy and happy!
Vidya Narayan
I am fan of your recipies and have tried many. This one is absolutely different and difficult to accept also truely speaking. But will definitely try and will share
Hi Samana, thank you for your feedback and glad you love my recipes. This Rasam is a traditional preparation made especially during early April (just before Tamil New Year) when fresh neem flowers are widely available. They are dried and used throughout the year. I don't have to stress on the fact that neem is a superfood and even though its extremely bitter in taste, the rasam makes it easy to consume. We also make a chutney (recipe on blog) with it. Hope you try them. The dried neem flowers are easily available online, if you are unable to source the fresh ones.