Dal Rasam Recipe (Paruppu Rasam)

Dal rasam also called south Indian soup is a popular dish. It is a spicy hot dish made with cooked toor dal water, tamarind, and tomato and flavoured with various spices. The flavours from various spices of rasam are extremely appetising and scrumptious. This is no onion no garlic toor dal rasam recipe.

Jump to:

• Serving Suggestions
• Variations and Substitutions
• Ingredients
• How to prepare dal rasam?
• Notes
• More South Indian Recipes
• 📖 Recipe Card

Dal rasam is also referred to by various south Indian regional names such as paruppu rasam, bele saaru, kattu charu. Rasam is a perfect winter warmer as it is spicy, hot, tangy and full of nutritious ingredients that act as a remedy for cold, flu, help to improve our appetite and aid in digestion as well.

On busy weekdays nothing could be as comforting a meal as rasam, rice and appalam. Pickle such as classic Andhra ginger chutney is an added bonus to the palate.

Serving Suggestions

Dal rasam tastes best when served hot with steamed rice along with papad and vegetable stir fries such as carrot beans poriyal, cabbage poriyal, jeera aloo, bhindi do pyaza or you could enjoy it on its own.

However, you could serve it at a party in an innovative way such as an appetiser in small glasses, rasam vada (vada dipped in a bowl of rasam) or serving it as the soup is sure to impress your guests.

Variations and Substitutions

You could substitute fresh tomatoes with tomato puree or totally skip it and add more tamarind extract.

You could tone down the heat by reducing peppercorns and red chillies, alternatively, add ½ tsp of grated jaggery to balance the heat and sourness.

To satisfy any extra spicy food lovers you can also add some fresh sliced chillies in tadka. This will give a spicy kick to the rasam.

Dal rasam with steamed rice, vankaya pachadi, cucumber kosambari, mango dal, sambar and basundi makes a delicious thali.

How to prepare dal rasam?

Dry roast 1 tablespoon toor dal, ½ teaspoon coriander seeds, ½ teaspoon cumin seeds, 2 red chillies and ½ teaspoon black peppercorn until fragrant over medium-low flame.

Allow the spices to cool down and grind them to a coarse powder.

Wash toor dal multiple times with cold water and cook until soft with enough water. Alternatively, cook in a pressure cooker for 2 to 3 whistles or until soft.

Collect only the dal water in a container and keep it aside.

Place tomatoes in a deep-bottomed saucepan and mash them with a potato masher.

Now add salt, ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder and tamarind extract to the same pan and mix well.

Boil the mixture on a medium flame for 5 minutes or until the raw aroma vanishes.

Now add 1 cup water and simmer rasam for 10-12 minutes.

Reduce the flame to the lowest possible setting, add toor dal water, ground spice blend and mix well.

Simmer rasam for 3-4 minutes or just until froth starts to form on the top.

Turn off the heat and add finely chopped coriander leaves.

For tadka, heat ghee in a second pan, add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds and let it pop.

Finally, add asafoetida and curry leaves and turn off the heat.

Add the tadka to rasam.

Serve piping hot rasam with steamed rice, pickle and papad or enjoy it on its own as a soup.

Check the other versions - tomato rasam, garlic pepper rasam recipe on the blog.

Notes

After adding freshly ground rasam powder just simmer rasam until froth forms on top to retain the flavour of spices. Do not let it overboil.

You could swap fresh tomatoes with tomato puree.

You could add sliced green chillies in tadka for extra hot rasam.

Adjust spices as per your preferred spice levels.

In this dal rasam recipe we use only dal water, dal could be used to make sambar, tadka dal or use in vegetable stir-fries.

Asafoetida enhances the flavour of rasam, however, you could skip it to make gluten-free rasam. Without asafoetida, rasam tastes good but not exceptional.

You could make a small batch of spice blend to use it when you are in a rush.

For the vegan dal rasam, swap ghee with oil.

More South Indian Recipes

Bisibele bath: A delicious pot meal made of rice, lentils, vegetables and a special spice blend.

Ven Pongal: A classic south Indian special dish prepared with rice, moong dal, a few essential spices and ghee.

Sweet pongal: A sweet prepared with rice, moong dal, jaggery, dry fruits, ghee and flavoured with cardamom and edible camphor.

Tomato Bath: Vegan, gluten-free and flavourful rice dish made with tomato, coconut, herbs and spice-based ground masala.

Mango Thokku: Spicy and tangy south Indian style chutney that is a classic accompaniment with rice and curry.

Dosakaya Pappu: Hearty and comforting south Indian dal made with toor dal, cucumber, and a few staple Indian spices.

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