Lime Rasam

Elumichai Rasam or Lime Rasam

A common thought between some set of people is, when we take lime fruit juice, we will get affected by cold or fever. But it is not so.

Here, some of the health benefits of lime juice:

• Lime juice contains more citric acid than orange or grapefruit juice. 
• One fresh lime contains 22 milligrams of calcium and over five micrograms of folate.
• Lime is good for women’s health.These citrus gems contain calcium and folate, two nutrients that are important for post-menopausal women and women of child-bearing age. 
• Lime peels can fight against aging skin.
• Lime is anti-carcinogenic. The limonoid compounds in lime have been shown to prevent cancers of the colon, stomach and blood. 
• Lime limonoids also stay active longer in your bloodstream, mopping more free radicals than green tea or dark chocolate.
• Lime juice can help prevent formation of kidney stones.Citric acid is a natural inhibitor of kidney stones made of crystallized calcium.

Here I'm going to give a simple rasam recipe using lime juice.

Ingredients

Lime fruit - 1 big fruit
Tomato -1
Green chilli - 2
Red chilli - 1
Paasi Paruppu (Green gram Dhall) Water - 1 cup
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Coriander leaves - 2 to 3 strands
Mustard seeds - for seasoning
Salt - to taste
Oil - for seasoning

Method

Select bigger size juicy lime fruit. Take juice from the fruit without seeds and keep aside.

Pressure cook green gram dhall and mash it well. Add water to mashed dhall to make it dilute.

Cut tomato into cubes, slit green chilli and add both to dhall water. Add salt and asafoetida powder and mix well.

Bring this dhall water mixture to boil, and cook till the raw smell of tomato and chilli goes.

Now add required water and cook in very low flame till froth appears.

Switch off the flame. Garnish with curry leaves and coriander leaves.

Season with mustard seeds and red chilli.

After few minutes, add lime juice to the rasam.

Serve hot with hot rice. Any spicy poriyal like brinjal, ladies finger or potato curry will match this rasam as side dish.

Note:
We must not heat this rasam after adding lime juice.

Will meet you with another healthy recipe. Bye!!!

Veppampoo Rasam

Veppampoo or flowers of Neem, as we all know have high medicinal value. We all prepare this rasam for our celebrations on Tamil New Year day. We can make our kids to eat veppampoo, without any hesitation by giving this rasam mixed in hot rice and appalam as sidedish. (My mom made me eat in this way only!?!?) I'm happy to share the recipe with my friends.

Ingredients

Veppampoo (Neem flower) – 3 tbsp

Tamarind – 1 Amla size (approximately)
Tomato (Finely Chopped) – 1 cup
Thoor Dhall – 1 ½  tsp
Red Chillies – 3
Black pepper – 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves – 2 to 3 strands
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Salt – as required
Oil – for frying

Method

Heat oil in a pan and fry the Veppampoo (Neem flower) till golden brown and keep aside.

Take 1 tsp thoor dhall, red chillis, black pepper, cumin seeds, curry leaves. Roast these ingredients with little oil and grind it to a fine paste and keep aside.

Soak tamarind in water for 20 minutes and take extract with chopped tomato.  (Adding tomato to tamarind extract, will give a delicious taste to the recipe and also it takes off the bitter taste from tamarind.)

Fry the remaining ½ tsp thoor dhall with very little oil till golden brown.

Add fried thoor dhall, salt and asafoetida powder to the tamarind extract and bring to boil.

Now add the ground paste to the boiling tamarind extract and bring to boil. When it boils, add required water and cook in low flame till the froth appears. Turn off the stove.

Season with mustard seeds.

Add the fried Veppampoo and little fresh curry leaves and serve hot.

Have a nice day!

Kandathippili Rasam

Rasam, is one of the most common recipe in South Indian cooking, but we definitely make some changes to bring differences in our cooking. Here, I'm going to share with one such different rasam which is made using Kandathippili. This is the stalk of the plant "Thippili or Long Pepper. "Kandam" means neck in Sanskrit and the stalk of the plant is named after this. Kandathippili has high medicinal value. My Mom use this in preparing "Deepavali Leghiyam".  But I love my Mother-in-law's preparation, "Rasam", which gives a very good taste and aroma. It helps in easy digestion and also a good appetiser. Here, I'm very glad to share the recipe with all my friends.

Ingredients

Kandathippili – 7 sticks

Tamarind – 1 small lemon size (approximately)
Tomato (Finely Chopped) – 1 cup
Thoor Dhall – 1 ½  tsp
Red Chillies – 3
Black pepper – 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves – 2 to 3 strands
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Salt – as required

Method

Take Kandathippili, thoor dhall, red chillis, black pepper, cumin seeds, curry leaves. Roast these ingredients with little oil and grind it to a fine paste and keep aside.

Soak tamarind in water for 20 minutes. Take extract with chopped tomatoes. (Adding tomato to tamarind extract, will give a delicious taste to the recipe and also it takes off the bitter taste from tamarind.)

Add salt and asafoetida powder to the tamarind extract and bring to boil.

Now add the ground paste to the boiling tamarind extract and bring to boil. When it boils, add required water and cook in low flame till the froth appears. Turn off the stove.

Season with mustard seeds and add little fresh curry leaves and serve hot.

Hope, you all love this recipe. Will revert back soon with yet another good recipe. Till then have great days friends!