Hot-&-Sour Tomato Rasam

Name: Hot-&-Sour Tomato Rasam (Milagu Rasam)
Yield: Serves 2-4 as a side
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon fine sea salt; Pinch of asafoetida (optional); 6 garlic cloves; 1 teaspoon cumin seeds; ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric; ½ teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder; 1 tablespoon neutral oil; 1½ teaspoons black peppercorns; ½ teaspoon black mustard seeds; 2 tablespoons chopped coriander (cilantro); 2 teaspoons tamarind paste; 8 fresh curry leaves; 4 ripe medium tomatoes, chopped

Milagu Rasam

Preparation info

Serves
2-4
as a side

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Nutmeg Trail

By Eleanor Ford

Published 2022

About

Literally ‘peppered water’, this complex broth is both edgy and soothing, just the thing to scare away a summer cold. The dish was corrupted by the British Raj into the soup mulligatawny, with an added assortment of meat and vegetables, but to my mind this original is better.

The heat comes from peppercorns. Kashmiri chilli also lends a kick, but is more there for the gorgeous shade of red it brings.