Instant Pot Rasam Rice
Rasam is what I crave when we’ve been traveling or eating out too much. And on those days when I simply don’t want to mess with soaking tamarind, waiting for the toor dal to cook, and make rice in a different pot. A few years ago, I came across this method where you can make it all in one go and tried it in my pressure pan – this was before the OPOS days. Now, I have started using my instant pot for the same, and even the extra step of watching and turning it off is eliminated. It’s ready with minimal prep – no soaking tamarind, no making a pot of rasam, and rice separately, no waiting for dal to cook. All the ingredients go in the instant pot together, pressure cooked for 15 minutes, and a simple rasam rice is yours – hot, steaming, and will soothe your soul in under 30 minutes. And it tastes heavenly!
Servings Prep Time
2servings 10mins
Cook Time Passive Time
15mins 5mins
Servings Prep Time
2servings 10mins
Cook Time Passive Time
15mins 5mins
Ingredients
  • 1/4cup ricesubstitute with any grain of your choice such as couscous, quinoa
  • 2tbsp toor dalcan also use moong dal, but toor dal is the traditional dal used in rasam
  • 1small piece tamarindno need to soak; or 1 tsp of tamarind concentrate
  • 2small Tomatoes
  • 2tsp Rasam powder
  • 1tsp Salt
  • 1/4tsp Hing
  • 1/2tsp Mustard seeds
  • 1/2tsp Cumin seeds
  • pinchturmeric powder
  • 1/4cup cilantro
  • 1tbsp Oil/gheefor tempering
  • 2-4cups Water
Instructions
  1. Chop tomatoes and cilantro, gather all the ingredients
  2. Salt, hing, mustard, cumin seeds
  3. Turn on the Instant Pot, and set on saute mode; add oil/ghee
  4. Once it gets hot, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing and let splutter
  5. Add tomato pieces, turmeric and rasam powder and saute; add cilantro, rice and dal
  6. Measure 4 times water to rice+dal ( roughly 3 cups water to 1/4 cup rice + 2 tbsp dal); be generous with the water as it’s supposed to be soupy
  7. Cover the instant pot, set it on “Sealed” position, with the manual pressure cooker setting; set the timer to 15
  8. Once the timer goes off, cancel the timer, and let it rest for about 5-10 mins; After about 5 minutes, turn the valve to vent position, using a long handled spoon, very gently and release the pressure slowly
  9. Open, add the salt and mix it well
  10. Hot steaming IP rasam saadam is ready!
Recipe Notes

This recipe is perfect if you want to cook for just yourself, or two people and you don’t want to mess with a pot for rasam, one for rice, and one for dal.  I started making it more after we became empty nesters, and our meals became much much simpler.

If you don’t have rasam powder:

Crush a few pepper corns, cumin seeds, 1 red chili, and a few curry leaves roughly and use instead of rasam powder. Optionally add a couple of cloves of garlic, if you love garlicky rasam.

If you don’t have tamarind/tamarind paste:

Make it without the tamarind, and squeeze lemon/lime juice after it’s ready for the tang

Toor dal vs. Moong:

I wasn’t sure if toor dal would cook in 15 minutes along with the rice, but I was pleasantly surprised when it did, the first time I made this recipe. If you want an even lighter version, use moong dal instead of toor.

Rasam Powder:

Recipe here

Satvic, comforting nourishing soul food at its best!