Cranberry Rasam Recipe with step by step picture. Cranberry is known as Kuruthi Nelli in Tamil. Cranberry has the unique taste of both sour and bitter. It tastes good to eat it raw with sprinkled salt and red chilli powder. It can also be cooked and used in multiple recipes across world. I have used cranberry in many south Indian based recipes including rice, thokku, pickle, rasam etc., Due to it’s sour taste it fits well in all these recipes.
Cranberry protects your body from illness and controls blood sugar. It is best known for preventing the urinary track infections (UTIs).
The cranberries I bought are very ripe and sour. It slightly has the bitter taste. So, I planned to make a rasam without adding tamarind and tomato. Based on the sourness, you can either add tamarind or tomato to balance the sour taste in rasam. When it is cooked, you can not notice the bitter taste but it will be dominated by sour taste.
Here is the simple south Indian rasam recipe using cranberries as main ingredient. It goes very well with hot steamed rice. We have used freshly ground rasam masala here, which enhances the flavor of this rasam.
Basic information:
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
1 cup of Cranberries + little less than ¼ cup
1 tsp Cumin seeds
2 tsp Black pepper
1 green chilli
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 sprig curry leaves
3 and 1/2 cup water
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp jaggery
a big pinch asafoetida
3 tbsp coriander leaves, finely chopped
Video recipe:
Method with step by step pictures:
1. Grind cranberry to a smooth paste without adding water. If you find any difficulty, then added very little water to grind it to a paste.
2. Transfer to a bowl. Rinse the mixie jar using 3 1/2 cups of water and add it to the bowl.
3. Coarse grind the cumin seeds, black pepper, garlic and green chillie. Keep aside this rasam masala.
4. In a kadai, heat oil. Add mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves. Allow everything to crackle.
5. Add the cranberries and sauté till the cranberries burst. It is not required to make it mushy.
6. Add the coarse ground rasam masala and fry it in low flame till it releases nice aroma. It just takes less than half minute only.
7. Add the cranberry juice that we already prepared.
8. Add salt to taste
9. Add turmeric powder
10. Allow it to boil. When the rasam starts boiling, add the jaggery and asafoetida. Mix well so that the jaggery will be dissolved well.
11. Boil the rasam for a minute.
12. Turn off the stove and add chopped coriander leaves.
13. Mix well and serve hot with rice.
Serving Suggestions:
1. Serve it with hot steamed rice for lunch along with any fryums.
2. It can also be consumed as a soup during very cold winter days. Just sip it slowly and enjoy it.
Notes:
1. Adjust the water quantity based on the sourness of the cranberry. If it is less sour, you can either add tamarind or tomato based on your preference.
2. I have used the freshly ground rasam masala for this rasam recipe. It can be very well substituted by home made or store bought rasam masala.
