Tomato charu (Tomato rasam)

Ingredients:

4 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 1/2 tbsps of oil

1/2 tsp of mustard seeds

1/2 tsp of cumin seeds

1/4 tsp of turmeric powder

2-3 green chillies

few curry leaves

2 tsps of toasted sesame seeds powder

1/2 tsp of red chilli powder

2-3 cups of water

coriander leaves

salt to taste

Procedure:

1)First we need to cook the tomatoes till they are soft and kind of pure.

2)In a medium size saucepan add chopped tomatoes, 1/3 tsp of salt and 1/2 cup of water, cook it for around 10 minutes on medium flame. (make sure that the tomatoes are completely cooked)

[If the tomatoes are not tangy you can use little tamarind while cooking the tomatoes.]

3)Add 2 cups of water to the cooked tomatoes and extract the juice from it, set it aside.

[You can use the pulp if you like but i am not using pulp in this recipe.]

4)Now heat oil, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds, wait until mustard seeds splatter, add green chillies, turmeric powder and curry leaves.

5)Stir in the extracted tomato juice and bring it to boil. Then add red chilli powder, sesame seed powder, salt and coriander leaves, simmer it for around 2-3 minutes.

Serve hot with plain rice, mudha pappu and papads.