Today's recipe is made out of the grains that are fed to horses, ergo horse gram. Yep! Instead of the toor dal that is traditionally used in rasam, this recipe bases its protein content on horse gram. Horse gram is supposed to have some magical properties such as helping in weight loss. I don't know if that's a confirmed fact or not, but on cold rainy or winter days, it's a good hearty soup/rasam to have piping hot with some steamed rice.
| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Cook Time | 15 minutes |
| Servings |
servings
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Ingredients
- ping pong sized tamarind, soaked in warm water for about 30 minutes
- 2 medium Tomatoes I love campari tomatoes these days for rasam, they are juicy and flavorful
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Hing/asafoetida
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 sprig Curry leaves
- 1/4 cup horse gram
- 8-10 cloves garlic
To Toast In Oil/Ghee And Grind
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp toor dhal
- 1 tsp Coriander seeds
- 2 dry red chilies reduce to 1 for less heat
- 1 tsp black pepper reduce to 1/2 tsp for less heat
- 1 sprig Curry leaves
- 1/2 tsp Oil/ghee
To Garnish
- 1 cup Chopped cilantro
To Season
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 tsp Oil/ghee
Ingredients
To Toast In Oil/Ghee And Grind
To Garnish
To Season
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Instructions
- Pressure cook the horse gram with two cups of water for about 10 minutes (5 or 6 whistles if using Indian pressure cooker)
- While it's cooking, extract the juice from the soaked tamarind, to make roughly 2 cups of liquid
- Chop the tomatoes, cilantro
- Heat the oil or ghee (ghee adds a beautiful fragrance, but if you want to keep it vegan, stick with the oil) in a small pan
- Add ingredients listed under "To Toast And Grind" one by one, starting with the dal and toast until fragrant, and not burnt
- Take a wider pan/pot in which you will make the rasam, heat 1 tsp of oil, and saute the remaining cloves of garlic, making sure not to burn them
- Add the tomatoes and saute a bit, until slightly mushy
- Now add the tamarind extract, the curry leaves, salt, turmeric, and hing; boil for about 10 minutes
- After the toasted spices cool, blend into a powder or with water into a fairly thick paste; I prefer to make it into a paste as I feel it blends in easily with the soup. If making a powder, make sure it doesn't clump when added to the rasam
- Add the paste/powder into the boiling rasam, and boil for a few minutes
- By now, the horse gram should be done cooking. Release the pressure gently and safely, and mash the cooked gram with the back of a ladle as much as possible.
- Take the watery part of the cooked horse gram, along with a couple of table spoons of the mashed horse gram, and add to the boiling rasam
- Simmer until it gets frothy, and take off the heat
- Heat another teaspoon of oil or ghee in the same pan in which you toasted the spices, and add the tempering ingredients - mustard seeds and cumin seeds; when they splutter, pour over the rasam, garnish with lots of cilantro
- Enjoy as a soup, or with hot steamed rice with a mild poriyal/vegetable such as cabbage or beans.
Recipe Notes
- The remaining cooked horse gram can be made into a dal or a chutney, will soon share the recipe.
- Link to cabbage curry/poriyal here
- Link to green beans curry/poriyal here
- Horse gram is considered one of the healthier legumes, and is considered high in iron. It is prescribed in weight loss diets, and is supposed to help with maintaining body warmth in the winter
- If you don't like the texture of the horse gram whole in your rasam, you could blend it with the spices
- I cooked 1/4 cup of the horse gram and found that for this quantity of rasam, I used only about a third of it; you could reduce the quantity to maybe 2 tablespoons of it if you don't think you would use the rest of the horse gram for anything else
- Feel free to omit the garlic if you're not a fan
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