Lemon Rasam | Dal Lemon Rasam | South Indian Tamarind Curry

Of late I have become this crazy Rasam fan. With husband and me taking turns with fever and cold, the only thing that was pure comfort to us during these times is a simple flavorful rasam. I have never tried lemon rasam before so I was bit skeptical of how the taste would be. I even thought to myself how just few tbsp of lemon juice can make the rasam so unique. To be on the safer hand I checked for the Lemon Rasam recipe from my dear friend Sangee Vijay's blog. To my surprise husband and me felt that this is one of the best tasting rasam's ever so you know what happened right ;-) I had to make this rasam again the same week. Thanks Sangee dear for this lovely and delicious recipe.

Lemon Rasam is a tangy and flavor rich tamarind curry made with strong flavors of lime/ lemon juice. It has a unique and dominating taste of lemon and makes you enjoy every bit of the rasam from start to finish. The tempering of whole spices, tomato, lemon juice, tamarind pulp, cooked dal adds magic to this recipe. Give it a try and I am sure that this will be a rasam that you will keep making again and again at home.

LEMON RASAM RECIPE

Recipe Source ~ adapted from here

Serves ~ 4 generously

Cook & prep time ~ 20 mins

Serving Suggestion ~ White rice, sambar, poriyal and appalam

Ingredients 

Toor Dal - fistful

Tomato - 1 large chopped

Lemon juice - 2 tbsp or juice of 1 large lemon

Green chili - 3-4 

Coriander leaves & stem - chopped to garnish

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Rasam Powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp

Tamarind pulp - from 1 lemon sized ball

To Temper

Oil - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Hing - a generous pinch

Dry red chili - 1 

Curry leaf - 1 spring

Method

• Pressure cook toor dal with 1 cup water, turmeric powder, salt and few drops of oil for 4 whistles or for 10 minutes. Once done switch off and let the pressure settle, mash the dal with an wooden ladle and set aside
• Extract tamarind pulp with water and set aside. Squeeze lemon juice and set aside.
• In a wide pan add the tamarind water, mashed tomatoes and let it come to a boil ( this takes 3 minutes) now add the cooked dal to this again bring it to a boil. 
• Now add the rasam powder and give it a good stir, wait for the rasam to boil and when bubbles come to the brim of the pan switch off by adding lemon juice, chopped coriander leaves and stems
• Now add salt and check for spice level. In a little wok add oil temper mustard seeds, hing, curry leafs and chopped green chilli add this to the prepared rasam. Close the lid for the flavors to combine.

Serve hot along with rice, sambar, porriyal and appalam :-)

Cooks Wisdom

- In the original recipe Sangee tempers the rasam at the beginning itself, but I followed my usual method of tempering at the end. 

- You can add few drops of coconut oil/ ghee while tempering for additional flavor.

- Make sure that the lemon is fresh for a great tasting rasam

- I used store bought rasam powder you can use freshly group powder too.

- Coriander stems give the lift of flavor for rasam recipes, so make sure you add the stems 

- I have not added garlic in this recipe, you can go ahead and add chopped garlic while tempering