Lemon Rasam / Lemon Soup / Nimmakaya Charu /

Lemon Rasam / Lemon Soup / Nimmakaya Charu

There are many names for today's post. At least I call it with many names. You may call it soothing soup, rasam, charu ( in Telugu ), a refreshing drink or any other name. Lemon Rasam can be had as a soup or can be mixed with rice as rasam.

I have many memories with this Lemon Soup. During my childhood, my mom would often prepare this drink especially in winter season. This drink would cure us from sore throat, cough, cold and other infections that are associated with winters. It gives a nice warmth from inside the body. Lemon and other herbs that go into the preparation of this soup actually help the body to fight from infection and ails in recovering quickly.

The other day, my daughter was down with fever. I quickly prepared this rasam for lunch. I mixed it with rice and fed her this hot rice. Later in the evening, she wanted to have something soothing and hot drink. I immediately reheated this rasam, poured it into cups and served it to her with a nice appearance. She loved it so much and felt so relaxed. I could not resist myself and served one cup of soup for myself. It was really welcoming. This drink can be served hot or at normal temperatures. But not ice cold or taken out from the refrigerator as it would not help for sore throat.

The best part of this soup is that it is very easy to prepare with basic ingredients that are readily available in our homes. The ingredients are very effective as well.

Preparation

Take water in a vessel and put it on stove top. Add chopped onions, tomatoes, slit green chillies and ginger paste.

Add turmeric powder as well and bring it to a boil. Let the tomatoes become soft.

Heat another pan and add oil to it. When hot, add mustard, cumin and fenugreek seeds.

Allow them to splutter. Add hing, dry red chillies and curry leaf powder ( you can also add fresh curry leaves ).

 Saute for a minute and add this tadka to the boiling water.

Add lemon juice, salt and black pepper powder and mix well. Check for seasoning and switch off the flame. Serve hot as soup or as rasam with rice.

Ingredients

Tomato 1/2 of a medium sized tomato
Onion 1/2
Green chillies 1
Ginger Paste 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Oil 1 tsp
Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
Cumin Seeds 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds a pinch
Hing a big pinch
Dry red chillies 1
Curry leaf powder 1 tsp or fresh curry leaves 2 springs
Lemon 1/2 of a big sized lemon
Coriander leaves  a few sprigs

Method

1. Take water in a vessel and heat it.
2. Add chopped onions, tomatoes, green chillies, ginger paste and turmeric powder.
3. Bring this to a boil.
4. Heat oil in another pan and add mustard, cumin and fenugreek seeds.
5. Allow them to splutter.
6. Add hing, dry red chillies and curry leaf powder or fresh curry leaves.
7. Saute for a minute and add this tadka to the boiling water.
8. Now add lemon juice, salt and black pepper powder and mix it well.
9. Check for salt and spice and remove from flame.
10. Serve hot as soup or rasam.

Notes

• Add loads of finely chopped coriander for extra goodness and flavour.
• You can skip the tomato if you do not like tomato in your soup.