Okra Rasam | Bendakayi Neeru Saaru | Vendakkai Thanni Kuzhambu

    Okra Rasam - a fancy name for bendakayi neeru saaru.'Saaru' is a Kannada name for rasam. Rasam is  basically a thin, tangy, watery soup made in southern India with or without dal which pairs well with plain hot white rice.Sometimes may be thick depends on the ground ingredients.There are so many varieties of rasam like kollu, tamarind, tomato , pineapple , lemon etc. In all varieties, the basic ingredients remain the same while the main ingredient differs.

         But this one is little different than regular, the spices are not from pepper  and jeera powder.After making, I remembered Chettinad thanni kuzhambhu.The Chettinad famous thanni kulambhu is made similar to with less toor dal or sometimes no toor dal.Thanni or neeru mean watery. If you add more onions the rasam will be more sweet and spicy otherwise, it remains on the spicy side.
     It's so thin that you can actually taste the flavor of bendakayi.I urge you to try this recipe if you are getting bored of regular sambar or if you don't like much dal in your sambar or you have a dislike over the regular rasam variety.There are some days you ran out of dal or If you want a accompany to a rich non-veg dishes.This is a real bliss to bachelors who really don't have a pressure cooker but, want to cook home style food.

      After I had this one at a friends house, I feel in love with it. Within 2 weeks I made  two times one is a trail before posting and, this time, it's made especially for posting.Okra rasam goes well with idli, dosa or plain rice with a mild curry-like kootu or poriyal/stir fry. Hope you guys will like this recipe and write to me.

Step by Step picture recipe for making okra rasam:

• Wash and chop vendakai to 1-inch pieces.Chop onion into juliennes.I used shallots because I was short of onions.Chop tomato and soak tamarind and extract the juice out. Now everything is ready.
• Heat a kadhai/pan add 1 tbsp oil. When the oil is hot add mustard seeds.Mustard seeds had to crackle.Add jeera and urad dal.When urad dal changes color add onion. Onion has to turn translucent.

• Add tomatoes and cook them through.Now add vendakai  to the kadhai.After the color changes, add sambar powder.

• Add around 2 cups of the water to the pan and required salt as well.Allow the rasam to boil until it becomes little thick and vegetable gets cooked.

• Simple and tasty side dish is ready to be relished.

                                            How to make bendakayi neeru saaru recipe

                          easy side dish for plain rice, idli, dosa.

 Cuisine: South Indian   Category: Side dish   Prep time:5
Cook time:20 minutes Total Time:25 minutes Serves: 5-6   



Recipe Source:Triveni

Ingredients:

• 10-12 bhindi/okra/ladies finger.
• 1 1/4 tsp sambar powder(adjust).
• 1/2 - 3/4  tsp thick tamarind paste.
• 10 shallots/chinna vengayam.
• 1/2 tomato(increase if you are using less tamarind).

To temper:

• 1 tbsp oil.
• few curry leaves/karivepilai.
• mustard seeds/kadugu.
• jeera/jeeragam.

Method:

• Wash and chop vendakai to 1-inch pieces.
• Chop onion into juliennes.I used shallots because I was short of onions.Chop tomato and soak tamarind and extract the juice out. Now everything is ready.
• Heat a kadhai/pan add 1 tbsp oil. When the oil is hot add mustard seeds.Mustard seeds had to crackle.Add jeera and urad dal.
• When urad dal changes color add onion. Onion has to turn translucent.
• Add tomatoes and cook them through.Now add vendakai  to the kadhai.
• After the color changes, add sambar powder.
• Add around 2 cups of the water to the pan and required salt as well.
• Allow the rasam to boil until it becomes little thick and vegetable gets cooked.
• Simple and tasty okra rasam is ready to be relished.