Soak tamarind in warm water and extract the juice. Add rasam powder, salt, asafoetida, and a few curry leaves to the tamarind juice.

Boil the mixture till the raw smell disappears. Now add the ground tur dal, cumin and curry leaf paste to the rasam, and immediately add 4 cups of water.

Let the rasam stay on low flame till it forms a lot of froth on top. Remove from flame when it is just about to boil.

(Note: Do not actually boil the rasam, as this spoils the aroma) Heat ghee and add mustard seeds. When it splutters add the dry neem flowers and fry.

Pour the seasoning on the rasam and cover with a lid immediately. Recipe courtesy: Chitra Amma's Kitchen RELATED RECIPES Milagu rasam Tengapal Rasam Rasam powder Quick jeera chicken Aloo Jeera Raita Ingredients: 1 - tamarind, small lemon size 1/4 tsp - asafoetida 1&1/2 tsp - salt 1 tsp - rasam powder (I use my omni potent sambar powder as usual) 1 small cup - curry leaves 2 tbsp - red gram dal (tur dal) 1 tbsp - cumin seeds 1/4 tsp - mustard seeds 1 tsp - dried neem flowers 2 tsp - ghee (less)

Soak tamarind in warm water and extract the juice. Add rasam powder, salt, asafoetida, and a few curry leaves to the tamarind juice.

Boil the mixture till the raw smell disappears. Now add the ground tur dal, cumin and curry leaf paste to the rasam, and immediately add 4 cups of water.

Let the rasam stay on low flame till it forms a lot of froth on top. Remove from flame when it is just about to boil.

(Note: Do not actually boil the rasam, as this spoils the aroma) Heat ghee and add mustard seeds. When it splutters add the dry neem flowers and fry.

Pour the seasoning on the rasam and cover with a lid immediately. Recipe courtesy: Chitra Amma's Kitchen RELATED RECIPES Milagu rasam Tengapal Rasam Rasam powder Quick jeera chicken Aloo Jeera Raita Ingredients: 1 - tamarind, small lemon size 1/4 tsp - asafoetida 1&1/2 tsp - salt 1 tsp - rasam powder (I use my omni potent sambar powder as usual) 1 small cup - curry leaves 2 tbsp - red gram dal (tur dal) 1 tbsp - cumin seeds 1/4 tsp - mustard seeds 1 tsp - dried neem flowers 2 tsp - ghee (less)

Add all other ingredients. Blend till smooth.

Chill well before serving. Or add crushed ice if desired.

Making Time : 10 minutes Makes : 2 servings RELATED RECIPES Mango rasam Mango and bengal gram pickle Pachrange achar Mango Burfi Mango chamandi Ingredients: 1 ripe mango 2 cups fresh curds chilled 1/4 cup water 1/4 tsp. cardamom powder 3 tbsp.

sugar 2-3 ice crushed (less)

Then add the tamarind pulp, salt, turmeric powder, curry leaves and jaggery and let it boil till raw smell is gone. In the mean time, grind the coconut, green chillies and mustard seeds (2 tbsp) with water to make a smooth paste.

Once the okra is fully cooked in the tamarind pulp, add the ground paste and cook for 5-6 mins. Do not add excess water at any point during the cooking as the pachadi should not be too watery.

Then heat some oil, add the fenugreek seeds and the leftover mustard seeds. Allow to splutter and add to pachadi.

Garnish with finely chopped cilantro. RELATED RECIPES Mangai Pachadi Plantain stem pachadi Pulikachal Peerkankai Pachadi Pavakka Pachadi Ingredients: 200g - okra/bhindi Tamarind, lime sized (made into pulp as in the case of rasam) 4 tbsp - coconut 5-6 - green chillies 3 tsp - mustard seeds 2 tbsp - oil Salt, as required Turmeric powder, a pinch 2-3 tsp - jaggery 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds Curry leaves, a few Cilantro, a few sprigs (less)

Heat 3 tbsp oil, add all the ingredients for seasoning. When mustard seeds splutter, add the peanuts.

When the daals and peanuts turns golden, add the remaining grated mango. Cook for a few minutes on a medium heat till the mango is done.

Add ground masala and cook till the raw smell disappears. Remove from heat and set aside.

In the meantime, to the cool rice, stir in this cooked masala little by little, till the masala blends with the rice. Garnish the mango rice with the finely chopped coriander leaves and it's ready to serve.

RELATED RECIPES Tur dal rice Kuska biryani Mango rasam Flax masala rice Mango and bengal gram pickle Ingredients: 1.5 cup long grained rice 1.

5 cups grated raw mango 4 tbsp peanuts Salt to taste For Masala : 1.5 tsp mustard seeds 1/2 tsp asafoetida powder 4 red chillies 1 green chilly 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 cup grated coconut For Seasoning : 3 tbsp oil 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp urad dhal 1 tsp channa dhal 1 red chilli (cut into 4 pieces) A few curry leaves For Garnish : 1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves (less)

Add more water if required during this process. When the lentils are a little softer add the cut carrots to it and cook both carrots and moong until soft but not mushy.

( I did this process in the microwave this time and it worked out well. I placed the moong lentils along with water in a large glass dish and placed in the microwave and cooked in one minute intervals adding water as required and stirring regularly until the lentils were semi cooked.

Then I added carrots to it, sprinkled a little water and cooked in one minute increments until the carrots and moong were both cooked and soft but not mushy) In a small pan heat oil. When hot add mustard seeds to it, when the mustard seeds start to splutter and split black gram lentil and stir a couple of times.

When the split black gram lentil starts to turn reddish, add the green chillies and red chillies. When the chillies start to change color slightly, pour the entire oil + mustard seeds + lentils + chillies on the cooked lentils and carrot.

Add salt to the curry and mix well. Heat this curry for another minute or two for the flavors to blend (either in the microwave or stove top) Garnish with grated coconut and cilantro and mix well and serve hot along with rice and dhal/ sambar/ rasam or with roti's/ chappathis Suggested variations You can use 5-6 curry leaves in the seasoning too, just add it after the green chillies and continue with the rest of the recipe as mentioned Notes The reason that salt is added in the end for this recipe is because I have heard that adding salt when cooking lentils impacts the cooking process such that the lentils do not cook fully, so the salt is added after they are completely cooked.

This does not impact the taste of the final curry at all. Courtesy: http://veginspirations.

blogspot.com/ RELATED RECIPES Raw banana kofta curry Instant mango pickle with moong dal Soya chunks vegetable curry Kadala curry with puttu Fish in roasted moong dal gravy Ingredients: 1/2 cup - split yellow moong lentil (moong dhal) 5 - large carrots (cut into 1/2 inch pieces) (yielded about 3 cups of cut carrots) Seasoning 1 - serrano green pepper (or Thai or Indian variety green chillies according to taste) (cut fine) 2 - dry red chillies (broken into small pieces) ( or according to taste) 2 tsp - coconut oil (or any other oil) 1 tsp - mustard seeds 1 tsp - split black gram lentil (udad dhal) salt to taste optional garnish 4 tbsp - grated fresh or frozen coconut handful cilantro (coriander leaves) cut fine (less)

Let it boil for some time until it reduces to half its quantity. Add some dal water or plain water and wait till a froth forms.

Do not boil after adding water. Add the curry leaves.

Now fry the veppampoo in some oil and add to the rasam while still hot. There will be sizzling when you drop them.

Serve with hot rice and ghee. Traditionally, this dish is prepared on Tamil New Year`s Day RELATED RECIPES Pineapple rasam Vepampoo rasam Instant Lemon Rasam Instant Garlic Rasam Tomato puree rasam Ingredients: 1 cup - tamarind extract 2 - green chillies 2 - red chillies Salt to taste 1 tsp - mustard 1 tsp - tur dal 1 tsp - asafoetida 3-4 tsp - veppampoo/dried neem leaves (less)

Heat ghee in a pan and temper with mustard seeds, jeera, curry leaves, garlic, hing and red chilies; Serve hot with steamed rice and enjoy! Tip: This rasam could also be had as is, like a soup! This dish is also called Punarpuli saaru. Courtesy: http://maneadige.

blogspot.com/ RELATED RECIPES Pineapple rasam Vepampoo rasam Instant Lemon Rasam Instant Garlic Rasam Tomato puree rasam Ingredients: 7 to 8 - kokum, wet/dry 1 tsp - jaggery 1/2 tsp - mustard seeds 1/2 tsp - cumin/jeera 3 to 4 - dry red chilies, low to medium spiced 4 to 5 - curry leaves 1 to 2 - garlic flakes (optional) 1 to 2 tsp - ghee/oil a generous pinch of hing salt as per taste (less)