Tomato Rasam with Drumsticks

Recipe Credits:

My mom-in-law 😊


Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 2

Garlic - 2 cloves

Small Onions - 4

Drumstick - 4 to 5 pieces (1.5 to 2 inch pieces)

Tamarind Extract - 1 tsp (optional)

Rock Salt - 1/2 tbsp or as needed

Asafoetida - 1 big pinch

Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tsp

Curry Leaves - 3 to 4

Cumin Seeds - Few

Oil/Ghee - 1 tsp (to temper)

Finely Chopped Coriander Leaves - 1 tsp

Rasam Powder - 1 tsp

Water - 1½ to 2 cups



Procedure:

Wash and cut tomatoes into two halves.  Peel skin of garlic cloves and small onions.

Cook cut tomatoes, garlic cloves, small onions, and drumstick pieces.  I normally place them in a separator and pressure cook along with rice.

Remove the skin of the cooked tomatoes.  Grind them along with cooked garlic cloves and small onions to a smooth paste.

In a cooking bowl or kadai, add the ground tomato paste, water, cooked drumstick pieces, salt, rasam powder, tamarind extract, and a pinch of sugar or jaggery if desired.  Bring to a boil.

In a tadka pan/ladle, heat oil or ghee and temper mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, and cumin seeds.  Add this to the hot rasam and let it sizzle.

Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot with cooked rice.

This rasam is very flavorful with the tanginess of tomatoes and the aroma and flavor of drumsticks.  Can you look at those drumstick pieces peeping out??

Drumstick (Murungaikaai) Soup

Recipe Source

Dietician Ambika Sekar


Ingredients

Drumstick - 1 (cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces)

Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Tomato - 1 (cut into 4 pieces)

Onion - 1 (cut into 4 pieces)

Garlic - 2

Roasted Barley - 1/2 tbsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Scraped Coconut - 1 tbsp

Water - 1 to 2 cups

Procedure

In a large bowl, add all the above ingredients and cook in pressure cooker for 5 minutes or 1 whistle.

When the pressure from the cooker is completely released, remove the bowl from the cooker and strain the contents in a colander.

Allow to cool.

Remove the drumsticks to a separate plate and scrape the pulp and discard the peel.

In a mixer jar or blender, grind together the scraped drumstick pulp and other strained ingredients to a smooth paste adding enough vegetable stock drained out of the strainer.

Add more water if necessary.

Strain the soup through the colander once again and bring it to a boil.

Serve hot.

Notes:

Instead of scraped coconut and water, you can substitute with 1/2 cup milk.

This soup helps avoiding anemia and calcium deficiency.