Tomato garlic rasam, a south-indian style tomato soup, flavored with garlic, served along with rice as part of everyday lunch.
Rasam, ask any South-Indian, they will immediately suffix it with “ahh, comfort food”, yes for us a hot bowl of rasam mammu/rice is one of the best things we enjoy on tired day. This tomato-garlic rasam, one of the few recipes i blogged during my initial days and was in dire need of make-over.

This tomato-garlic rasam is one which i make almost every week. My younger one is a rasam fanatic, whereas my elder one is a dal fanatic, though he likes rasam but he favors dal more. My younger one can have rasam every single day, and wont complain. He is a happy baby with rasam mammu!
More Rasam Varieties for you to try
I have a cousin, who can live her life-time with rasam, we used to make so much fun of her, never knew my own will become like her. Coming to rasam, to make my younger ones lunch time a bit exciting i try to make different rasam everyday, i even mash veggies with dal and make rasam with it, we moms do many juggad to make sure kids get something extra.

This tomato-garlic rasam was made part of a weekday thali, i paired this with simple chana dal, and karela masala. So making both my kiddos happy.
This simple garlic rasam is an excellent soup to have during cold/flu. It brings good relief to your sinusitis . With the climate getting little cold here, a warm bowl of rice mixed with this delicious rasam is what we love at home, it definitely brings a great relief in those cranky/nagging/achy time

The ingredients
- Tomatoes, these are the star ingredient of the recipes, chose well ripened plump tomatoes
- garlic, i usually add 3-4 cloves of garlic, adding more might overpower the rasam flavor
- The Spice powder, i use my kootu podi/powder to flavor the rasam, you can use your own rasam powder too. In case you want to know my recipe, i have provided the link.
- green chili, i use 1 chilli, if you don’t prefer chili, replace it with 1/2 tsp sambar powder.
- Curry leaves, coriander leaves and ginger are the usual ingredients we need while making any south-indian dish.

Tomato garlic rasam | South-Indian style tomato soup
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
To Grind
- 4 nos tomatoes
- 3-4 nos garlic cloves
- 1 tsp shredded ginger
- 1 no green chili or ¼ tsp sambar powder/chili powder
- sprig of curry leaf
- handful of fresh coriander leaves
The Spice powder
- 2 tsp Kootu podi/rasam powder heaped tsp
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ¼ tsp hing/asafoetida
Tempering
- 2 tsp ghee/oil any vegetable oil
- ½ tsp mustard seeds/kadugu
- ½ tsp cumin seeds/jeera
- ½ tsp freshly crushed black peppercorns optional, but recommended
Instructions
- Chop the tomatoes roughly, take it along with rest of the ingredients given under To Grind in a mixer and grind it to a fine paste using 1/2 cup of water.
- Transfer the contents to another vessel and wash the mixie jar with another 1/2 cup of water and add that to the already ground tomato mixture.
- Place the vessel on the stove, add kootu powder/rasam powder, hing and salt to the ground mixture. if not adding green chili while grinding the tomatoes, add 1/4 tsp of chili powder/sambar powder to the rasam along with rasam powder.
- I normally use kootu podi for making my rasam, this is my mom's recipe, i have been using this for the past 14 years. If you want to use the regular rasam powder recipe, then avoid chili/chilli powder
- Let this cook in a medium flame for 10-15 minutes and let the rasam boil and the rawness of the spice powder fade.
- After 15 minutes, check the consistency, if it is too thick, add another 1/2 cup of water or else leave it as such. If adding water, let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Take it off the stove.
- Now for the tempering, in a kadai, heat oil/ghee, splutter mustard seeds, add cumin, red chili and pepper powder. Pour this sizzling tempering on top of the rasam.
- Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot along with rice or just have it as a soup.
Video
This tomato rasam is quick to make everyday recipe. Serve it along with steaming hot rice and curry of your choice for a comforting meal.

If you have tried this recipe and like it, give it a star rating or let me know in the comments below. You could also share it with me on Instagram using #icampinmmykitchen and tagging me @priyasrinivasan
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Very nicely presented.
Wat a comforting food, just loved ur clicks..
What a world of difference Priya…your new ones are so breathtaking..and the rasam so inviting ..
The weather here warrants that bowl of rasam now!!
New clicks are amazing Priya. Tomato garlic rasam looks awesome.
very delicious and aromatic rasam , love the new clicks 🙂
The new clicks are really good…..esp the last one.
another delicious version of rasam I must try