Rasam


Rasam, charu pani, chaaru, saaru or kabir is a South Indian dish, traditionally prepared using kokum or tamarind juice as a base, with the addition of tomato, chili pepper, black pepper, cumin and other spices as seasonings. Steamed lentils can be added along with any preferred vegetables. Nowadays, all the seasonings required are combined and ground beforehand into rasam powder, which is available commercially. Chilled prepared versions are also marketed commercially.
It is eaten with rice or separately as a spicy soup. In a traditional meal, it can be part of a course that includes sambar rice and curd rice. Rasam has a distinct taste in comparison to the sambar due to its own seasoning ingredients and is usually fluid in consistency.

Origin

Rasam means "juice". It can refer to any juice, but in South Indian households rasam commonly refers to soup prepared with sweet-sour stock made from either kokum or tamarind, along with tomato and lentil, added spices and garnish.Rasam in Tamil Saaru in Kannada or chaaru in Telugu means "essence" and, by extension, "juice" or "soup".

Ingredients

Rasam is prepared mainly with kokum, kadampuli/kachampuli, tamarind, ambula/maa vithal/amchur stock depending on the region, along with tomato stock, lentils are optional but are used in several rasams recipes. Jaggery, garlic, cumin, black pepper, turmeric, mustard seeds, lemon, chilli powder, curry leaves, coriander as flavoring ingredients and garnish. All of these ingredients from basic method of making rasam all over South India.

Types

Different kinds of rasam are listed below with its main ingredients.