Beetroot rasam, south-indian style soup with beets, lentils and tomatoes. A delicious accompaniment served with rice for a comforting meal.
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Rasam, an integral part of south-indian meal. I can eat without sambar, but rasam is a must, in my daily lunch menu. My kids too prefer rasam over sambar any day. The pleasure of eating hot hot rasam mamu (rice), is something unexplainable, you have to experience that joy.
Since it is part of our daily meal, we have room for lot of creativity and there is a lot of varieties of rasam to make. Some of our favorites are
Rasam Varieties
Why Beets Rasam
I have an affinity towards beets, i love to include it more in my diet. These days i have trained myself to even drink raw beets juice. I know for many cooked beets is a put off. My SIL love to eat raw beets, but she hates beets curry, she feels it is too sweet for her palate. If you are like her, you should try this Beets lassi or Beets thogayal, a spicer version of Beets.
How to make Beets Rasam
The recipe is very simple, all you need to do is soak jeera and dal before hand, rest is all done is 20 minutes. While the dal is soaking, microwave cook beets for 10-12 minutes or until it is done. You can also pressure cook it for 2-3 whistles. Once beets are well cooled, take the soaked dal and jeera along with tomatoes,garlic and beets and blend it to puree.
Take the puree to the stove, add rasam powder and salt. let it boil until the rawness of the spice powder escapes. Then top it wtih plain water and add tempering, garnish with coriander leaves.
You can also drink this rasam just like soup. My lil one loves this rasam and calls it blood rasam. Yup, i know it is a bit scary. But trust me, this rasam is a splendid way to make them enjoy beets.
Beetroot Rasam | How to make Beetroot rasam
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 100 grams beetroot, chopped
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds/jeera
- 2 teaspoon tuvar dal/split pigeon peas
- 2 nos large plump tomatoes
- 2-3 pods garlic skip if making sathvik
- 1 inch ginger chopped
- 1 no green chili
- 1½ teaspoon homemade rasam powder Check recipe here
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- a sprig of curry leaf
- fresh coriander leaves for garnish
Tempering
- 1-2 teaspoon oil
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds/kadugu
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds/jeera
- 1 no round red chili
- ⅛ teaspoon hing/asafoetida
- ¼ teaspoon freshly pounded black pepper powder
Instructions
- Soak cumin seeds and tuvar dal in ¼ cup of water for 20 minutes. While the dal is soaking , let us prep the beets.
- Wash, peel and cube the beets. Take it in a microwave safe bowl, add water to immerse the beets well. Microwave it for 10-12 minutes @ high for it cook. The beets must be fork tender. This can be done on stove-top also. Do not discard the beets water.
- Let the cooked beets cool completely. Now take the cooked beets with the water, along with the soaked cumin and tuvar dal with the water, add chopped tomatoes, garlic, ginger, green chili, curry leaves and ½ cup of water. Blend them well with a stick blender or using a mixer jar. The liquid should be quite smooth.
- Now take this blended liquid in a sauce pan, keep it in on the stove. Add rasam powder, turmeric powder and salt to this and mix well.
- Let this cook in a medium flame, once it starts to boil, let it be on the stove for 10-12 minutes for the raw smell of the rasam powder to evaporate.
- Once the rawness escapes, add 1.5 cups of water to this. If you feel the rasam is too thick, add another ¼ cup to ½ cup of water to it.
- Let this simmer in a slow flame for the rasam to froth well on top. Garnsih it with fresh coriander leaves and remove it from the flame.
- Heat a small tadka pan with ghee, once it is hot, splutter mustard seeds, add cumin, hing and curshed peppercorns, crushed red chili, pour this sizzling tadka over the rasam.
- Serve rasam hot/warm with rice , vegetable curry/appalam
Disclaimer
I m not a Doctor or a Nutritionist The Nutrition information provided above comes from the plugin and is only an estimate.
Enjoy this colorful and delicious beetroot rasam with steaming hot rice and a generous drizzle of ghee. This beets rasam can also be enjoyed as a soup.
Other Beets Recipes
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Rafeeda AR
Blood rasam... that sounds gross! 😀 Still, I love the color of this rasam. I just picked up some beets yesterday, would love to try this rasam for our weekend lunch then... the remaining would go for stir fry, my kids love it that way!
cookingwithsapana
Seriously addictive looking rasam. I love the bright color and would love to try it soon.
Padmajha
Same pinch Priya. WE too cannot live without rasam! And this rasam is going to be cooked soon.Have a couple of beets that no one wants to eat as a curry.And this will be one of the best ways to sneak in this veggie. One doubt though, does the rasam have the sweetness from beets?
Priya_Srinivasan
Thanks pj! No dear the rasam will not taste sweet. The other spices will rake care of it and it will have a balanced rasam taste only.
Sharmila kingsly
Simply love this color .. Beetroot rasam is a lovely way to indulge beets for the kids who dont touch it.. Lovely share Priya!!
Mayuri Patel
Now that its getting a bit chilly in Bangalore don't mind having this hot rasam at all, though I've not tasted a beetroot one. Would love to try.
Jagruti's Cooking Odyssey
Hahaha..Blood Rasam 🙂 I've never heard of beetroot rasam, sounds interesting and lovely colour it has.
Pavani
That is such a healthy and soul warming beets soup. Love that beautiful color.
Anonymous
Oh my my.. what a droolicious Rasam.. simply loved the texture.. very unique.. superb
jayashree
This rasam is new to me. Sounds good and would love to try. Beetroot gives bright colour, no doubt, the little boy called is blood rasam.
MySpicyKitchen
My beets rasam is somewhat similar to yours minus the rasam powder. That is a colorful Bowl of rasam & rice.