A quick and easy no-tamarind rasam / thin lentil soup or broth with the goodness of tomatoes made in Instant Pot! Check out my tomato rasam with a detailed video!
I love meal planning and meal prepping. A couple of months back, I shared how I cook my lentils in bulk and freeze them. I also shared how I use frozen lentils and make dishes like sambar, dal, khichdi, etc. Today I am sharing how to make rasam in Instant Pot with the frozen lentils, precisely frozen masoor dal.
Here is “dump and go” not-so-spicy mild Instant Pot tomato rasam. This is such an easy-peasy rasam perfect for bachelors and folks living in dorms. You can make this rasam quickly in Instant Pot.
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What is rasam
When you Google the word “rasam,” this is what you get – a thin, very spicy southern Indian soup served alone or combined with other foods, such as rice, as a side dish. And that’s what rasam is, but it doesn’t have to be spicy all the time.
I would define rasam as thin south Indian soup with or without lentils. :-)
Rasam is quite popular in South India, and there are zillion varieties. Each South Indian state has its variation and name as well. But let’s stick to the Tamil Nadu style thakkali or tomato rasam.
Rasam varieties
As I mentioned before, there are different rasam varieties like paruppu rasam, meaning rasam with toor dal, and jeera rasam, meaning cumin-flavored rasam. Typically, we use toor dal for rasam, but you can find moong dal and masoor dal rasam on my blog.
Similarly, there are fruit-based rasams like watermelon rasam, cherry rasam, pineapple rasam, etc.
Do check out 20 plus rasam recipes on my blog archives.
Tamarind forms the base of many rasam recipes but not for all. For this tomato rasam, I haven’t used any tamarind. I let the tomato flavor to shine.
Rasam powder
Like sambar powder, rasam powder is a quintessential ingredient in my kitchen. Again not all rasam recipes call for rasam powder, but rasam powder is versatile, and you can use it for many other dishes.
Guess what, you can use sambar powder to spice up your rasam, but you can’t do the other way around. So if you don’t have rasam powder, don’t worry. Use sambar powder instead.
You can make your sambar powder and rasam powder, but a store-bought one works just fine. You can find both sambar and rasam powder in all Indian groceries.
How is this tomato rasam different from other rasam recipes?
- Like I said before, I didn’t add any tamarind to this rasam. Tomatoes add good sour flavor; hence it is tomato rasam.
- Instead of toor dal, I used masoor dal that too frozen masoor dal.
- I used freshly crushed cumin, pepper, and garlic along with rasam powder, which adds a nice flavor to this rasam.
- It’s a “dump and go” rasam kind that you can make it with minimal effort.
- You skip tempering and serve it as a soup, which makes it vegan or prepare a ghee tempering and serve as a soup or along with rice.
How to serve rasam?
While you can relish rasam as soup, typically in restaurants, it is served along with rice as part of the thali; one exception is the mulligatawny soup or the rasam.
We mix rasam with rice and relish it along with a dry curry called poriyal or gravy curry called kootu. I love it both the way. It’s my go-to comfort food.
Watch me make the rasam in Instant Pot.
Here is the rasam video. Please do subscribe to my channel and check out new videos.
How to make Instant Pot Tomato Rasam?
Crush the whole spices:
- Crush the cumin seeds, pepper, garlic, and curry leaves in a hand mortar and pestle. Make sure you crush the garlic and pepper coarsely. It’s ok to leave cumin, and curry leaves whole. You can also pulse them in a mixer jar.
Dump the ingredient into the Instant Pot and cook:
- Add 4 cups of water, tomatoes, cilantro, the crushed cumin-pepper-garlic and curry leaves, turmeric powder, rasam powder, salt, and the frozen masoor dal. Mix it well.
- Close the Instant Pot. Make sure the vent is in the sealing position. Select manual/pressure cook and set the time to 2-minutes at high-pressure mode. When the cooking is complete, naturally release the pressure. Carefully open the lid after releasing the pressure and mix the rasam. Mash the tomatoes thoroughly; you can also use a hand blender to mash it. Or if you like chunky tomatoes, leave them as is. Serve hot.
Tempering:
- Tempering is optional. In the video, I did mention that I will temper before taking pictures. But I ended up clicking without tempering as I wanted to keep it vegan. If you wanted to temper, heat a tempering pan and add the ghee. When it is hot, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and hing. When the cumin seeds sizzle, turn off the heat and add it to the rasam.
Recipe Notes
- I have tried this rasam with 3 cups measure and 4 cups measure. If you are using the 3 cups of water, adjust the salt, and the rasam will be slightly thick. For a broth-like consistency and a non-spicy version, go with 4 cups. While serving, make sure to mix well.
- Adjust the salt and spices as per your taste.
- Tempering is optional. You can skip tempering and serve it with a dollop of butter or skip the butter for a vegan version.
- This rasam is not spicy, making it perfect for toddlers and kids.
- Instead of tomatoes, you can add frozen tomato puree as well.
- You can pulse the cumin, pepper, garlic, and curry leaves in a mixer jar. You can roast and crush as well. But give this a try without roasting; it is fantastic.
Check out other popular south Indian rasam recipes
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📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Tomato Rasam with Frozen Lentils | Thakkali Rasam
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
To crush:
- ½ tsp pepper
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 garlic cloves
- 10 curry leaves
Other Ingredients:
- 4 cups water refer to notes
- 200 grams tomatoes chopped ( I used two small Roma tomatoes and cherry tomatoes from my garden)
- 2 tbsp cilantro chopped
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tbsp rasam powder
- 2 tsp salt or to taste
- ½ cup masoor dal cooked and frozen
To Temper (optional, I did not temper)
- 2 tsp ghee
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ⅛ tsp asafoetida skip for a gluten-free version
Instructions
Crush the whole spices:
- Crush the cumin seeds, pepper, garlic, and curry leaves in a hand mortar and pestle. Make sure you crush the garlic and pepper coarsely. It’s ok to leave cumin, and curry leaves whole. You can also pulse them in a mixer jar.
Dump the ingredient into the Instant Pot and cook:
- Add 4 cups of water, tomatoes, cilantro, the crushed cumin-pepper-garlic and curry leaves, turmeric powder, rasam powder, salt, and the frozen masoor dal. Mix it well.
- Close the Instant Pot. Make sure the vent is in the sealing position. Select manual/pressure cook and set the time to 2-minutes at high-pressure mode. When the cooking is complete, naturally release the pressure. Carefully open the lid after releasing the pressure and mix the rasam. Mash the tomatoes thoroughly; you can also use a hand blender to mash it. Or if you like chunky tomatoes, leave them as is. Serve hot.
Tempering:
- Tempering is optional. In the video, I did mention that I will temper before taking pictures. But I ended up clicking without tempering as I wanted to keep it vegan. If you wanted to temper, heat a tempering pan and add the ghee. When it is hot, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and hing. When the cumin seeds sizzle, turn off the heat and add it to the rasam.
Video
Notes
- I have tried this rasam with 3 cups measure and 4 cups measure. If you are using the 3 cups of water, adjust the salt, and the rasam will be slightly thick. For a broth-like consistency and a non-spicy version, go with 4 cups. While serving, make sure to mix well.
- Adjust the salt and spices as per your taste.
- Tempering is optional. You can skip tempering and serve it with a dollop of butter or skip the butter for a vegan version.
- This rasam is not spicy, making it perfect for toddlers and kids.
- Instead of tomatoes, you can add frozen tomato puree as well.
- You can pulse the cumin, pepper, garlic, and curry leaves in a mixer jar. You can roast and crush as well. But give this a try without roasting; it is fantastic.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
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