Quick Lemon Rasam

You need:

1.       Tomatoes                     2 nos large

2.       Green chilli                   2 no.

3.       Ginger                            1”- cut into tiny bits

4.       Pepper                           1 tsp

5.       Cumin seeds                                ½ tsp

6.       Coriander                      little cut

7.       Curry leaves                 few

                          8.     Lemon juice                       3 tsp

Rasams are of many kinds. Chief ingredients are toor dal, tamarind, tomatoes and the inevitable Rasam powder. In this page I describe a Rasam in which the chief ingredients viz., dal, tamarind and the rasam powder are left out but goes to make a marvelous substitute. This item was first attempted by my daughter who was on deputation to Omaha. She stayed with three other friends who took turns to make up their daily grub. When her time to cook came, she wanted to cut short the drudgery of time consuming cooking of the dal and mixing the tamarind paste to save time. She improvised this item and in the last decade this has been a very popular item in our circle of relatives and friends. It uses no dal or tamarind and the ubiquitous rasam powder. Here is the recipe’:

Method:

Cut tomatoes into tiny bits and drop into a pan, add ginger bits, split green chilli, pepper, cumin seeds, salt and 2-3 cups of water and boil this all together for ten minutes. Add 2 more cups of water. Just let it all boil for a minute. At this point add lemon juice. Just garnish with coriander bits and curry leaves. No mustards. Omaha Rasam is ready.
Note: The quantity mentioned are enough for 3-4. If you want to make it for more, scale up ingredients proportionately.