Rasam Vada – Visual Recipe

Think South India cuisine and what springs in most people’s mind is Idly, Vada, Sambar & Dosa. In reality South Indian cuisine varied in flavor and sheer variety and each region and sub-region has its own flavor and specialties. Today we are going to see a recipe that brings together the rasam and vada into a complete dish on its own. It’s one of my favourite and hope you would like it too!

Ingredients for vada:

Onion – 2 (big)

Curry leaves – 15-20 leaves

Ginger – small piece (1/2 inch)

Red chilly powder – 1/4 tbsp

(or more as per taste)

Salt – as per taste

Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Cooking oil – for deep frying vada.

Step 1:

Soak channa dal for 4-5 hours.

Step 2:

Filter out completely the water in a strainer.

Step 3:

Grind all ingredients together. Please note you don’t have to add water while grinding. After grinding, if needed add salt as per taste.

Step 4:

Vada can be made  either in flat or in ball shape.

Step 5:

Deep fry the vada in cooking oil.

Step 6:

Keep aside the deep fried vada and let’s make rasam now. Mean while, you can eat couple of this vadas pipping hot.

Ingredients for Rasam:

Water – 4-5 cups

Red chilly (whole) – 2

Black Pepper  – 10

Garlic – 3 pod

Turmeric powder – 1 pinch

Tamarind – 1 small lemon size

Jeera – 1/4 tbsp

Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Curry leaves – 4-5

Mustard seeds – 1/4 tbsp

Cooking oil – 1 tbsp

Step 1:

Mix tamarind in water and keep aside. Coarsely grind red chilly, black pepper, garlic, jeera, asafoetida together and saute mustard seeds and the grounded ingredient in frying pan with 1 tbsp of cooking oil. Add a whole red chilly and curry leaves for seasoning.

Step 2:

Add the tamarind water into the fry pan and bring it to boil. Check the taste for salt and tamarind.

If the tamarind taste is more, you can add little more water to offset it.

Step 3:

While rasam is boiling, add the vada to the hot rasam and remove it from stove immediately. Keep it aside for 10-15 minutes so that rasam gets absorbed into vada.

Now your Rasam vada is ready to serve…

Enjoy the tasty dish!