Mysore rasam recipe | Rasam recipes

Updated on September 9, 2026 by Raks Anand 61 Comments

Mysore rasam is a type of lentil based rasam or soup from the Indian state of Karnataka and this staple south Indian rasam is made with fresh ground spices.

This is perfect as part of lunch menu anytime around the year. Whenever I want to make it special, I make Mysore rasam.

Serve mysore rasam with a simple potato curry or just few fried papads. Check out my 10 minutes rasam in this website.

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About Mysore Rasam
Mysore rasam Ingredients
Mysore rasam powder
Step by step
Top tips
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About Mysore Rasam

How is Mysore rasam different from other rasam?

I noticed Mysore rasam is different from other rasam mainly because it uses fresh grated coconut in this. Also, I it has mainly black pepper for spice than red chillies.

So the freshly ground spices makes it unique as well as thicker from the other rasam recipes. In addition, it's so flavorful that you can even have it as soup appetizer.

Taste

I have tried once mysore rasam from a cookbook when I started learning cooking. And it came out terrible. I thought that is how that rasam tastes.

Whenever I eat out in restaurants and have rasam with coconut, I always liked it and wondered what the recipe could be. But after few years only I realized its mysore rasam and it is supposed to taste great!

When Jeyashri posted it, I immediately told her she has to make it for me when ever I go for lunch to her home. And coming to the rasam I have another old cookbook with me that had the exact same recipe, so I tried the same way. It came out really flavourful.

Mysore rasam Ingredients

Here are the ingredients needed for this recipe.

Toor dal - Split pigeon peas - Cooked toor dal or dal cooked water is used for body
Tamarind - Tangy base for rasam
Tomato - Adds balanced, rounded tanginess and sweetness
Coriander leaves - For fresh flavour
Sugar/ Jaggery - To balance everything, it's a must add in Mysore style rasam.

Mysore rasam powder

Chana dal - 1 tablespoon - Gives thickness to rasam
Coriander seeds - 1 tablespoon - For flavor
Black pepper - 1 teaspoon - Spice and flavor
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon - Gives flavor and added for it's digestive property.
Grated coconut - 3 tablespoon - The ingredient that makes the rasam unique
Asafoetida - For flavour, digestion.

See recipe for full list and quantities.

Step by step

1. Pressure cook ¼ cup of toor dal with 1 cup water. I take tamarind also in a small bowl and place it inside toor dal.

2. Give 3-4 whistles in medium flame. Once done, set the dal aside. Extract tamarind juice to make it total one cup.

3. Since we are pressure cooking tamarind, it will not take much effort to extract the juice.

Prepare rasam powder

1. Heat a pan and roast chana dal firstly. After that, add coriander seeds and black pepper, give it a roast for 30 seconds.

2. Lastly add cumin seeds and give it a quick stir. Do not over roast the spices as it will give different flavor.

3. Then in goes the fresh grated coconut. Roast it until it is dry or golden here and there. I added oil but no need to add, you can dry roast.

4. Cool down and after that, powder it, set aside.

5. In the same pan, add a teaspoon of oil and saute cubed tomatoes with a pinch of salt.

6. Once it is soft (1 minute), add to the vessel in which you are going to boil rasam.

7. After that, add the tamarind extract, turmeric, ground fresh rasam powder, rasam powder if adding, salt as needed and sugar. Taste and adjust water as needed. You can add 2 cups approximately. Add the dal with water.

8. Sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves, few curry leaves.

9. Mix and bring to boil.

10. Once the rasam boils and becomes frothy on top, switch off the flame.

11. Garnish with more coriander leaves if needed or proceed for tempering.

12. Heat ghee in a pan and splutter mustard, few curry leaves and asafoetida. Add to the rasam.

Serve hot with apalam, rice and the evergreen combo potato curry. The potato curry in the backdrop is my next post! Can anything beat his combo?

Top tips

While roasting the spices, don't roast black pepper too much. Any spice in that case, coriander, pepper and cumin. The flavor will be different.
If you do not have tomato, you can skip it too.

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5 from 11 votes