Moringa Rasam Powder (Murungaikeerai Rasam Podi)(Moringa Soup Powder)

Category: Home made Powder
Preparation Time: 5 mins  
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Servings: yields around 1 and 1/2 cups

Moringa Rasam Powder

Rasam is a most popular and a very common dish prepared in south Indian homes on a daily basis. There are lot of varieties of Rasam already posted in our blog like Tomato Rasam with freshly ground rasam powder, Pineapple Rasam, Cranberry Rasam, Selavu Rasam, Paruppu Rasam, Horsegram Rasam. 

When I brought homemade moringa powder from home, I started adding a little to our normal rasam. Then thought of making Rasam Podi with moringa leaves and it's a hit at our home. As we all know, Moringa leaves are  packed with nutrients and super healthy. If we have access to fresh leaves we can use it in our regular cooking. But when we are outside India and we dont have easy access, the dry powder comes in handy.

If you're used to buy masalas from the store, it might feel like a hectic task to prepare at home. But once we started, we cant resist ourselves from making these at home. Also we can adjust the ingredients as per our liking and preference.

These home made masala powders are filled with aroma, flavour and most importantly no preservatives. Also when we have babies or toddlers, we can easily adjust the spice level when we make it by ourselves at home.

Make sure to roast the ingredients in low flame or else certain spices will get burnt fast which affects the flavor of the podi. 

Ingredients: 

• Coriander seeds- 1/2 cup
• Channa dal- 1/4 cup
• Toor Dal - 1/4 cup
• Dry Red chillies- 8 - 10 nos (adjust as per spice level)
• Cumin seeds-  3 Tbsp
• Black Pepper- 3 Tbsp
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/2 Tbsp
  

Drumstick Sambhar -Home style

Category:  Lunch
Preparation Time: 10 mins 
Cooking Time: 30 mins
Servings: 3-4


Drumstick Sambhar is our favourite and after coming to US I really missed my mom's Sambhar . And whenever we bought fresh ones here, Immediately will prepare this sambhar. At my home, they will cook toor dhal in open pot and not in pressure cooker; when Dhal cooked "under pressure", there's little compromise in taste - this is in my opinion:), May be that's the secret for the authentic flavor. They will cook Dhal in open pot with a tomato in it, once dhal is half cooked, they will take off the tomato and some dhal water for preparing rasam.Then add the veggies with home made sambhar powder so that it gets cooked in dhal itself. Both the Rasam and Sambhar will be Yummy:)
Due to time constraint, I pressure cook it mostly:(

 Home Style Drumstick Sambhar

Ingredients:

• Toor Dhal - 1 cup
• Small onions, peeled and halved - 12-15 nos
• Tomato, roughly chopped  - 1 no.
• Drumsticks, chopped - 2 nos
• Tamarind - lemon sized (I used 1/2 tsp of tamarind concentrate)
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Sambhar powder (Home made / Store bought) -1 1/2 tsp
• Cooking Oil- 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
• Asafoetida (Hing) - a generous pinch
• Curry leaves - few
• Red chilly - 1 (adjust for required spiciness)
• Water - as required
• Castor Oil - few drops (Optional)
• Coriander leaves - 3-4 tbsp
• Salt-  to taste

Method:

1. Soak Dhal in enough water for atleast 15 mins and pressure cook it with required water, turmeric, few drops of castor oil for 2 whistles (Not to be mushy)
   
2. Take the cooked dhal in a pan / in cooker itself, add required water and then add halved onions, chopped tomatoes and drumsticks
   
3. Add Sambhar powder and allow to cook till the veggies become soft (not mushy)
4. Add tamarind juice and allow to boil for few mins
   
5. In another pan, heat oil, once its hot, add mustard seeds. After it splutters, add red chilly, asafoetids, fenugreek and curry leaves
6. Then add the sambhar into it (or the vice versa) and give a nice boil
7. Switch off and garnish with coriander leaves
   
8. Serve hot with Rice or Idly, Dosai or Pongal