Pepper away the Monsoon blues with this quick and simple Black pepper Rasam/soup

The medicinal uses of Black pepper are well known. It is one of the trusted home remedies for cold and cough. We have been surviving the Monsoon bug by adding this ‘natural antibiotic‘ to our day-to -day meals.

We are having this hot spicy Pepper Rasam/ soup almost every day to soothe our itchy throats; a soothing balm to ‘shoo’ away the Monsoon blues.

This is of course my Mother-in-law’s recipe and uses very few day-to-day ingredients; Black pepper-cumene seeds –some dried coconut and curry leaves. You can make a ready spice mix and store in an airtight container. Whenever you want to make the rasam just boil some lentils add the ready spice mix and viola! your ‘magic potion’ is ready in minutes

Here’s the recipe for Pepper Rasam/Soup

Things required:

¼ cup Toovar Dal (pigeon pea lentils)

8-10 Black pepprcorns

~2 tsp Cumene seeds

~ 1 tbsp dried coconut grated

4-5 curry leaves

Pinch of turmeric and few drops of oil to cook the Lentils

Salt to taste

1 tsp homemade ghee

Method:

Pressure cook the dal with ~ 2 ½ cups  of water, a pinch of turmeric and 3-4 drops of oil.

In a pan dry roast black peppercorns, cumene seeds, dried coconut and curry leaves one by one.

Cool and coarsely grind the spices in a mortar and pestle.

Heat ghee in a deep pan.

Add the spice mix.

Add the cooked dal along with the water. Adjust the consistency of water to your liking.

Season with salt and boil for few minutes.

Serve piping hot.

Notes:

You can adjust the spices to your taste, it is a very forgiving recipe.

You can skip the ghee if you don’t want it, just mix the spices and the dal and boil together.

If you plan to serve this as a clear soup, let the soup stand for a few minutes and then just pour out the liquid. You can use the leftover dal to make some dal parathas or sambar

You can zest up the soup with a dash of lime juice