Recipe for Pomegranate Rasam – Spicy Pomegranate Lentil Soup
Pomegranate-BBC news calls this the fruity panacea. Packed with anti-oxidants (note the ruby red colour), it’s known to protect the heart, prevent prostate cancer, reduce LDL (the bad cholesterol). It’s rich in ACE Vitamins and iron, and no wonder doctors and many others are recommending a glass of pomegranate juice as a part of everyone’s diet
Fortunately, it’s available in India pretty much all the year round and this is one fruit, the more I read about it, the more I am convinced of it’s goodness.
Guess what I did with these ruby red seeds?
I made a pomegranate rasam!
Rasam is soul-food for any Tamilian. Be it a simple tomato rasam or the more exotic varieties like Mysore Rasam, Lemon Rasam or the fruity varieties made with pineapple, pomegranate, mangoes and so on. Pomegranate rasam is a recipe my father’s aunt makes quite regularly and now my mother makes it too. The delicate sweetness that the fruit juice adds to the rasam makes it rather unique.
This recipe has taken inspiration from my grand-aunt -Mythili mami in Chennai who probably makes the most amazing traditional Tamil food.
More Rasam recipes for the winter –
Pomegranate Rasam
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup toor dal - pressure cooked (with 3 cups water and turmeric)
- 1 small lemon sized tamarind soaked in 1/2 cup hot water
- 1 cup pomegranate arils
- 1 tsp jaggery
- 1 pinch turmeric powder
- 1 pinch asafoetida
- 1/2 tsp salt
For tadka:
- 1 tsp ghee
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
- 8 - 10 curry leaves
- 2 green chillies slit length - wise
Instructions
- To prepare pomegranate rasam, start by mashing the cooked tur dal with water until you get a thin soup consistency. You can even do this in a blender.
- Squeeze the tamarind pulp into the hot water. Strain and keep aside.
- Grind the pomegranate seeds with 1/2 cup water. Strain well to get roughly 3/4 cup pomegranate juice.
- In a pot/ a heavy bottomed vessel, place the mashed toor dal. Add the tamarind extract along with turmeric powder, pinch of asafoetida, rasam powder, salt and jaggery. Allow to come to a gentle simmer on a medium-low flame. Take the vessel off the flame.
- In a tadka ladle, heat the ghee. In hot ghee, add the ingredients for tadka. When they begin to crackle, put it into the rasam pot. Add the pomegranate juice, give it a stir and keep covered until you serve.This rasam is bursting with flavours- sweet, tangy, spicy. Served piping hot on a rainy day- it is heavenly bliss.
Pomegranate juice? Salad? Topping for ice-cream – I give up.Faffer
Hi nandita did u make curd ruice with pomegrante or did u make a chat with them>)we would love to see what u did with pretty ruby seeds:)
Wow, more interesting suggestions-chat and curd rice-yes will probably make that next time, but that’s not what I made this time!SOme more guesses??
You ate them!! :):):)On second thoughts…maybe you made pretty looking ice cubes with them in the centre? Just thought of it because you’ve changed your profile pic to ice cubes.You couldn’t have dried them in the sun, considering that Monsoon has again hit Mumbai hard.
Vaishali-1. Obviously I ate them in some form-but not as it is!2.Didn’t take that much effort with them either3.You right on that one, no question of Sun out here, it’s all one big cloudAny more guesses?
Did you make some kind of dessert out of it? How fortunate indeed that it is available to you all year round!Paz
Rasam out of pomegranate ??? Wowwwww !!! Incredible. Thanks for participating in the FMR 7 event !!!
Rasam out of pomegranate ??? Wowwwww !!! Incredible. Thanks for participating in the FMR 7 event !!!
This rasam looks delicious.
wow rasam its sounds cool will give a try and let u know thanks for sharing this yummy rasam:)
Nandita,Very interesting recipe, never explored this possibility before. Nice photos, loved the one with wisps of steam coming out rasam. Somehting went wrong the first time i posted this comment, so if you find it twice, please delete one.
Disclaimer: Any resemblance in recipe idea, pictures, words is purely co-incidental.hahaha! I liked that! 🙂
Rasam? With pomegranate? Tomorrow you’ll say that you made a cocktail with potatoes!!!Hmmmmm…well, ‘Blog Patrol’ will have to find out the truth in this. Only then will the dish be approved of.:) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Wow…would never ever have guessed it :-)Btw I tried your lasooni dal palak and it was awesome!!!! Thanks buddy.Next on my list is this rasam if I can find pomegranate here
New to me, but have to try it, I love pommergranites I think it tis the fruit of the gods.
WOW…the rasam looks superb…!! Really sorry for disappointing u. I wrote a comment but the net here wud just not upload it that morning..!! But my guess was making a salad or juice blend out of it…I have never tasted rasam made with pomegranates ..!! I want some now…:-((I’m definitely going to try this one !
Dal and pomegranate! Two of my most beloved flavors. I will remember to try this.
Oops Nandita missed the guessing game this time!Rasam with pomegranates…!!!hey I never knew we could make Fruity rasams!:)
Kya re akele akele kha rahi hai !This was somehting i could have never guessesd 🙂
All I can say is friends, neither did I know until my grand-aunt make this once and I fell in love with the tastes.It’s definitely worth a try and for those of you who don’t get pomegranates easily in your local market, do make it with any citrus fruit-just remember not to boil the rasam after you’ve added the fruit juice / pulp.It’s a good change to make a fruity spicy soup for the winter days-especially who stay in places unlike Bombay who DO have a winter season :)Thanks for your interest and enthusiasm.Hope you are preparing your entries for the weekend breakfast blogging!A couple of special mentions:Ashwini it feels great when someone actually tries out your recipe and gives feedback, coincidentally Vaishali has features this one on her blog patrol, i feel elated!LG- Kya karu? Necessity is the mother of all invention, even disclaimers LOL!!Chocolate lady- A special welcome to you on my blog, I guess I’m seeing you around for the first time. Let me know if you try this one out.
Pom rasam, this is some thing that I have never heard before..great recipe!
Looks delicious. I will have it in the round up on Monday!
I too missed u’r guessing game…Your Pome Rasam is interesting…so one more item added to my do do list…I too had recently posted one Pome rice recipe….and was doing a lot of reading abt pomes and was amazed at the variety of recipes that one can make out of it!…thanx for sharing yours.
This is something I haven’t eaten much, mostly just eaten the seeds raw or in a salad. Sounds interesting.
Krishna, Gabriella, Indianadoc and Kalyn, thanks for finding this interesting, do let me know if you happen to try this out!Doc-it’s true one can really make a whole lot of stuff from pomes, and now fellow bloggers are even guessing that my muffins are stuffed with Pomes, hahahah