Naadan Rasam

Chop the tomatoes into fine pieces.

Lightly dry roast or heat the ingredients for grinding in a small pan. Pls make sure you don¦t roast it too much.

Allow it to cool a bit and then grind it to a fine powder.

Heat oil in a pan.

Splutter the mustard seeds and sautT the broken dry chillies, finely chopped small onions and curry leaves.

Add the tomatoes and mix well.

SautT the tomatoes a bit. Pls do not reduce it to pulp. The tomatoes should only be lightly mashed and the chunks should remain as such.

Add the turmeric powder and mix well again.

Add the required amount of water followed by the crushed powder.

Add salt and mix well.

Add chopped coriander leaves and asafoetida and simmer it for some time.

Add the jaggery piece to it and stir well.

When it starts to bubble, switch off the flame.

Cover it so as to lock the flavour.

Serve warm with rice.

Alternatives available:-

You can also add another chopped lot of fresh coriander leaves before serving.

You can substitute the tomatoes with a lemon sized tamarind.

You can cook the dhal separately and add it instead of grinding to a powder. But grinding is much easier as it saves a lot of time.

You can also alter the quantity of garlic, red chillies and pepper accdgly.

You can also substitute the ingredients for grinding with their respective powders and give more of a reddish hue to it. However, I suggest this method for best results.

Inclusion of jaggery or a tsp of sugar is a must as it tends to stabilize the taste factor.

Though I¦ve started off the cooking procedure with the tempering, you can skip it if preferred, and start out with sautTing the tomatoes and save the tempering part to the end.

Anyways, at the end of it all, you¦ll have a pot of fresh n spicy rasam to be guzzled down for lunch with rice and other trimmings. An absolutely naadan treat for a change!! A must try delicacy which¦d definitely leave you all with something to cheer about for lunch.

And a final word to those down with flu, look no further. Have a glass of piping hot rasam and I¦m sure you¦ll definitely do away with your illness and would be on your way to reinstate your health before long.

So, on that get well note, happy cooking!!!