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A simple Tomato Rasam, always good to digest any heavy meals we had. We can serve as Soup to increase our appetite. For any festive lunch or a full meal, Rasam is an integral part of South Indian Thali. Without Tomato Rasam, meal is not complete. Many of us make this Tomato Rasam on a day to day basis, but surely I believe this recipe would be helpful for all beginners who start their cooking journey.

Generally, we prepare Rasam Powder in large quantity and store it in air-tight container and use it whenever we make rasam. In this Tomato Rasam, we follow the recipe of famous chef Nataraj Iyer where we are not going to use the conventional Rasam Powder. The main spice is from green and red chili which we are going to add it with the tamarind juice itself. The other spice is from Pepper-Cumin Powder. Also adding jaggery enhances the flavor and brings out the tanginess of tamarind and tomato. The green chili along with ginger really enhances the flavor. I tasted this rasam in one of the marriage function and loved it.

There are many different varieties of Rasam we can make. But some varieties are strong in one flavor, for example, garlic rasam has a strong flavor of garlic, orange or pineapple rasam has its own strong flavor of the fruit. But this Tomato Rasam is simple, yummy and surely completes the meal satisfyingly.

If you like this Nataraja Iyer Rasam, then you can also try other Rasam Recipes.

Kalyana Rasam - Kalyana Rasam is a Rasam usually served in the Tamil Brahmin marriages. It tastes delicious with the right balance of tangy, spice and sweet.
Pineapple Rasam – Unique and Tasty Rasam with dominant flavor of Pineapple
Milagu (Pepper) Rasam – A Traditional and Healthy Rasam which tastes yummy with a hot steamed rice
15+ other Rasam varieties – Collection of Traditional and unique Rasam Recipes

Table of Contents

Recipe Card to make Nataraja Iyer Rasam

Method to make Nataraja Iyer Rasam

Soak tamarind in warm water for 10 mins and extract the juice

Wash the dal and add turmeric powder and pressure cook for 4 whistles till the dal is completely cooked and becomes soft and mushy. Mash the dal and set it aside

Take pepper and cumin seeds in mixer jar and grind it to coarse powder and set aside

In a brass vessel or stainless steel sauce pan, pour the tamarind juice. Add chopped tomato, salt, green chili, broken red chili, ginger, hing and grated jaggery. Boil the tamarind mixture for 10 mins in medium flame

Add mashed dal to the cooked tamarind and stir well. Add 2 cups of water and keep the flame in low. We don't want the rasam to boil anymore

Add pepper-cumin powder and stir once. Finally garnish with coriander leaves. Keep the rasam in low flame till you get a frothy layer on top. Then Switch off the flame. Do not boil the rasam anymore