Bele Saaru (Tur Daal Rasam)

No. of servings:  4-6
Preparation Time:  10 mins	Cook Time:  25 mins

This is the best comfort food, especially when feeling under the weather!  Easy on the stomach and satiating at the same time.  Serve it with rice or vadas or as a soup by itself.

Ingredients:

• Tur daal - 0.5 cup
• Onion - 1 small (optional)
• Tomato - 1 large
• Turmeric - 0.5 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 0.5 tsp
• Asafoetida - 2 pinches
• Grated garlic - 1 tsp (optional)
• Curry leaves - 2 stalks
• Rasam powder - 2 tsp
• Tamarind - 1 lemon size
• Jaggery (or) brown sugar - 2 tsp
• Salt 
• Coconut - 1 tbsp
• Chopped coriander leaves - 1 fistful
• Ghee - 3 tsp (optional)

Method:

• Wash the tur daal and add 3 cups of water
• To it, add chopped onions (if using), tomatoes, turmeric and 1 tsp of ghee (if using)
• Pressure cook this until soft ('pressure cook' mode 5 mins. in IP)
• Soak tamarind in 1 cup of water
• In another vessel, in a tsp of ghee season mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves and garlic (if using)
• Mash the cooked daal and pour into the seasoning
• Extract tamarind juice into a small bowl and remove the pulp
• To it, add rasam powder, salt and jaggery
• Add this to the daal and bring to a boil
• Turn off heat and add chopped coriander and the remaining tsp of ghee
• Serve hot with hot rice (or) make 'Rasa Vada' with crunchy vadas (or) as soup! 

Tips and Tricks:

• Adding turmeric to daal helps in cooking the daal softly
• Adding ghee while cooking the daal flavors the whole rasam evenly

Pictures: 

Final Outcome: