Garlic rasam recipe with step by step photos. Garlic rasam also known as poondu rasam is a spicy, sour rasam tempered with garlic and spices.
I make rasam on a regular basis and in this rainy cold weather, I prepare rasam often. Since rasam is good for cough and cold. I also make rasam on those days, when I want to make a quick, spicy and an easy dish with rice.
This poondu rasam does not make use Of readymade rasam powder and cooked dal (lentils). Goes very well with steamed rice. You can also have plain as a soup.
With rasam, I usually serve steamed rice and a veggie roast or any veggie poriyal like carrot poriyal or beetroot poriyal. But both steamed rice and rasam is such a comforting meal, that you may not need to have any side dish.
How to make poondu rasam
1. Heat ½ cup water and soak 1 tbsp tightly packed seedless tamarind in it. Cover and keep aside for 20 minutes.
2. After 20 minutes, squeeze the softened tamarind very well in the water. Keep this tamarind pulp aside.
3. When the tamarind is soaking, make the ground rasam spice mix. Add 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 to 3 garlic cloves and 2 dry red chilies, broken and deseeded in a small dry grinder or spice grinder.
4. Grind to a coarse mixture. Keep aside.
5. Crush lightly 8 to 10 medium garlic cloves with or without peels in a mortar-pestle.
Making poondu rasam
6. Heat 1 tbsp sesame oil in a pan or pot. Add ½ tsp mustard seeds and ½ tsp urad dal.
7. saute till the mustard seeds crackle and the urad dal turns to a maroonish color. Saute on a low flame.
8. Then add 8 to 10 curry leaves, 1 to 2 dry red chilies and the crushed garlic.
9. saute till the garlic turns light brown.
10. Then add 1 small to medium tomato (chopped or crushed). Also add ¼ tsp turmeric powder and a pinch of asafoetida.
11. Stir and saute till the tomatoes soften.
12. Add the ground rasam spice mix. stir very well and saute for a minute on a low flame.
13. now add the tamarind pulp and 1.5 to 2 cups water. Season with salt. While adding tamarind pulp, directly strain it with a tea strainer in the pan.
14. on a medium flame, simmer garlic rasam for 5 to 6 minutes.
15. When done, switch off the flame and add 1 to 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves.
16. Serve garlic rasam hot with some steamed rice. You can also have it as a soup.
More rasam varieties
Poondu Rasam
INGREDIENTS
for coarsely ground rasam spice mixture
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves
- 2 dry red chilies - broken and deseeded
for tamarind pulp
- ½ cup water
- 1 tablespoon tightly packed seedless tamarind
for tempering and other ingredients
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon urad dal (husked and split black gram)
- 8 to 10 curry leaves
- 1 to 2 dry red chilies
- 8 to 10 garlic crushed lightly, with or without peels
- 1 small to medium tomato, chopped or crushed
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
- 1.5 to 2 cups water
- salt as required
- 1 to 2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
INSTRUCTIONS
preparing tamarind pulp
- Heat 1/2 cup water and soak 1 tbsp tightly packed seedless tamarind in it. Cover and keep aside for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, squeeze the softened tamarind very well in the water. Keep this tamaraind pulp aside.
preparing ground rasam spice mix and prepping
- When the tamarind is soaking, make the ground rasam spice mix. Add 1 tsp black pepper, tsp cumin seeds, 2 to 3 garlic cloves and 2 dry red chilies, broken and deseeded in a small dry grinder or spice grinder.
- Grind to a coarse mixture. Keep aside.
- Crush lightly 8 to 10 garlic with or without peels in a mortar-pestle. Chop or crush the tomato.
seasoning and making garlic rasam
- Heat 1 tbsp sesame oil in a pan or pot. Add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds and 1/2 tsp urad dal. Saute till the mustard seeds crackle and the urad dal turns to a maroonish color. Saute on a low flame.
- Then add 8 to 10 curry leaves, 1 to 2 dry red chilies and the crushed garlic.
- Saute till the garlic turns light brown.
- Then add 1 small to medium tomato (chopped or crushed). Also add 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and a pinch of asafoetida.
- Stir and saute till the tomatoes soften.
- Add the ground rasam spice mix. Stir very well and saute for a minute on a low flame.
- Now add the tamarind pulp and 1.5 to 2 cups water. Season with salt.
- On a medium flame, simmer the rasam for 5 to 6 minutes. While adding tamarind pulp, directly strain it with a tea strainer in the pan.
- When done, switch off the flame and add chopped coriander leaves.
- Serve garlic rasam hot with some steamed rice. You can also have it as a soup.
I prepared this ..it’s simply delicious..thank u
thank you deepti for this feedback and the rating too. happy cooking.
This rasam was superb dear.. everybody liked at my home.. Thank you:)
welcome divya and thank you for your positive feedback.
Awesome rasam dassana. It’s really awesome. Once in a week I eat rice that too only brown rice. And I don’t like brown rice with sambhar. But today when I prepared this rasam and brown rice with papad omg what a combination . Hmmm loved it. Thanks dassana for the amazing rasam.
welcome priya and thankyou for your positive feedback, we love rasam too with rice and papad 🙂
Hello Dassana Amit. Tried garlic rasam. It came out very good. Thanks for upload.
All the best.
thanks for the positive feedback arul.
hii m sakina…i really love ur recipes and i tried the garlic rasam..it was very easy but i dint get red chillies in my area so i used green chillies and roasted them and then put it in the food processor…it was very spicy for me so i put a lil more tarmarind and added a bit of sugar…it was tastng like indo-chinese manchurian soup…..it was very yummy…i also tried ur besan laddoo,and malai ladoo…it was superlicious…and ur recipes are soo good n easy…thankyou
thankyou sakina for trying so many dishes and for altering them 🙂 glad you liked them.
Hello ma’m thank you for your wonderful recipe.. This one is really awesome in taste… I m north Indian and as per I know RASAM is south indian dish… and from now I m gonna cook this regularly in my home… this is really very delicious… 🙂
glad to know sanjana you liked the garlic rasam recipe 🙂 and thankyou.
Your’s recipes are just awesome…Easy to made..i have improved my cooking by dis site only…thanku ao much…for helping us…
welcome pooja. nice to know this.
must try this.
Very authentic recipe! As a regular (silent!) reader of your site, I was very curious to see your take on my go-to-comfort food. And pleased that you stayed true to the andhra flavours 🙂
Only thing I do differently is crush all the aromatics in the mortar pestle and hand break chillies and add them all into the hot oil. I also omit tomatoes when I’m feeling lazy 😛 Although urad dal is new to me. We use it for all other andhra tempering except rasam.
On a different note, I love your page. I’ve tried so many of your recipes and have enjoyed making all of them.
thanks meghana. i make this rasam like this only. i didn’t know that it was andhra style. also thanks for sharing your tips.
I follow your blog very regularly.
In this recipe it would have been easier to follow if the tomatoes were mentioned in the list of ingredients as well.
Thanks
Kind regards
UKS
thanks. i forgot to add tomato in the ingredient list. have added now.
For coarsely ground rasam powder by mistake u wrote 2-3garlic cloves/lavang instead of writing cloves/lavang. Sorry i just wanted to let u knw abt it.
thanks riya for letting me know. it is garlic.