Selavu rasam is prepared with kollu/ horsegram in the rasam powder, best homeremedy for common cold. Step by step photos.

A simple comforting rasam and appalam. Its heaven for me. I always love rasam with hot rice and little ghee. No need for any side dish also. So I immediately tried this rasam when my friend Sasi told me the recipe. It was so simple and it had kollu / Horse gram in it which I have never tried cooking, included in my diet so far. My mom have told me to include kollu in every day diet by adding a tblsp of kollu to the toor dal while cooking for sambar. Or make rasam with it. But never bought kollu so far.
This month I got a pack of kollu finally from Mustafa. I made this rasam twice after I got the recipe and loving a lot. She told its good for cold too, you can drink it as such like a soup. I am not sure why the name selavu rasam, but it sure is super delicious.
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Recipe card
Selavu rasam
Ingredients
- 2 Tomato
- 1 teaspoon Tamarind tightly packed
- 6 Garlic flakes
- 1 teaspoon Black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Jeera/ cumin seeds
- 1 Curry leaves sprig
- ⅛ teaspoon Turmeric
- 1 tablespoon Coriander leaves chopped
- Salt
To roast
- 1 & ½ teaspoon Kollu / Horse gram
- 1 & ½ teaspoon Coriander seeds
- 1 Red chilli
To temper
- 1 teaspoon Oil/ ghee
- ½ teaspoon Mustard
- 1 pinch Asafoetida
Instructions
- Mash roughly chopped tomatoes with your hands in a bowl and keep aside. You can add little water while mashing if you need.
- Soak tamarind in ½ cup hot water for 20 mins and extract its juice, keep aside.
- In a pan, dry roast horse gram, coriander seeds and red chilli in medium flame, until the horse gram turns golden red in colour. Take care not to burn it. Just roast until golden in colour and fragrant.
- Grind it along with pepper, jeera and curry leaves, to a powder in a mixer.
- Heat oil/ ghee in kadai, temper with mustard. Sprinkle asafotida and put the flame to low. Add the ground powder, turmeric powder and crushed garlic.
- Give it a fry and add the mashed tomato.
- Add tamarind extract, salt and enough water and boil for 5 minutes. Switch off the flame. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Notes
- While roasting, you will hear horse gram cracking sound starting. And you will be able to smell nice aroma too.
- Adjust tamarind amount according to the tanginess of tomatoes.
- Do not add more than mentioned kollu or coriander, otherwise rasam will become thick.
- Water quantity is apporx. 3 cups for this rasam. But use this only as guidance.
- You can try the same with toor dal in place of kollu/ horse gram.
Selavu rasam method
- Mash roughly chopped tomatoes with your hands in a bowl and keep aside. You can add little water while mashing if you need. Soak tamarind in ½ cup hot water for 20 mins and extract its juice, keep aside.
- In a pan, dry roast horse gram, coriander seeds and red chilli in medium flame, until the horse gram turns golden red in colour. Take care not to burn it. Just roast until golden in colour and fragrant.
- Grind it along with pepper, jeera and curry leaves, to a powder in a mixer.
- Heat oil/ ghee in kadai, temper with mustard. sprinkle asafoetida and put the flame to low. Add the ground powder, turmeric powder and crushed garlic.
- Give it a fry and add the mashed tomato.
- Add tamarind extract, salt and enough water and boil for 5 minutes. Switch off the flame. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Notes
- While roasting, you will hear horse gram cracking sound starting. And you will be able to smell nice aroma too.
- Adjust tamarind amount according to the tanginess of tomatoes.
- Do not add more than mentioned kollu or coriander, otherwise rasam will become thick. Water quantity is apporx. 3 cups for this rasam. But use this only as guidance.
- You can try the same with toor dal in place of kollu/ horse gram.
Serve hot with steamed rice. We had with sepankizhangu curry.
MANIMEKALAI RAMKUMAR
wow very taste rasam
sankar saranya
Superb combination
Nivedhanams Sowmya
i have never cooked kollu.. should try this!! looks simple and elegant!
Varsha Rajeswaran
Hi Raji ji..nothing works like rasam for me..thanks for reminding me of kollu rasam..the sight of your rasam comforts me !
Ruchi Indu
Very funny name. "Selavu rasam" I thought the rasam spends....
Veena Theagarajan
I tried kollu rasam slightly different version.. this looks good.. Loved the name 🙂
Durga Karthik.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kavitha
Usually they call this Kollu rasam, for selavu rasam they make a powder with 5 or 6 medicinal ingredients along with garlic and add this in a little qty to rasam. Pls check. 🙂
Malathi ganesh
Hi Raji, the name we call as selavu rasam is because in our village side we use the term "selavu petti" for masala box containing all regular spice. Bcz we use these ingredients we call it as selavu rasam in our village. If u wish I can share u traditional recipe we do in village how to prepare this rasam without frying or tomato or tamarind.
Raks anand
Thanks for your information 🙂
adityaa ilango
In my place(Pollachi), we call anjarai petti as selavu petti where we keep the mustard seeds, coriander seeds, seerakam etc as in anjarai petti. since we use almost all ingredients in the selavu petti we call it selavu rasam. this is what my amuchi (my mom's mom) explained me once when i asked the same question 😀 there maybe some other reasons too ! 😉 🙂
adityaa ilango
In my place(Pollachi), we call anjarai petti as selavu petti where we keep the mustard seeds, coriander seeds, seerakam etc as in anjarai petti. since we use almost all ingredients in the selavu petti we call it selavu rasam. this is what my amuchi (my mom's mom) explained me once when i asked the same question 😀 there maybe some other reasons too ! 😉 🙂
adityaa ilango
In my place(Pollachi), we call anjarai petti as selavu petti where we keep the mustard seeds, coriander seeds, seerakam etc as in anjarai petti. since we use almost all ingredients in the selavu petti we call it selavu rasam. this is what my amuchi (my mom's mom) explained me once when i asked the same question 😀 there maybe some other reasons too ! 😉 🙂
Aparna
I tried this rasam and it resulted wonderfully. Thanks for ur idea of mixing kollu with toor dal. Its beneficial for both health and pocket��
Rekhashree Sakthivel
Hi can v grind and keep horse gram powder for later use also
Raks Kitchen
Yes you can.