V8 Rasam is a South Indian soup with V8 vegetable juice and is served with rice.

I am concluding my blogging marathon # 17 with a healthy V8 rasam. Rasam or chaaru is one of my favorite Indian comfort food and it tastes amazing with hot rice. It also makes an excellent soup when mildly spiced. There are many varieties and, Tomato chaaru and miriyala chaaru are the ones I regularly make at home.

Once in a while I make V8 rasam which I adapted from a cookbook AT&T published back in late 90s. Addition of V8 juice to makes it a nutrient packed healthy side dish/soup.

What is V8 Juice?

V8 juice is a low calorie vegetable juice, loaded in vitamins. V8 is rich in Potassium, Vitamin A, C and Lycopene. It is a great low calorie, low sugar juice.

Why add V8 Juice to Rasam?

V8 juice is a vegetable juice and not everyone likes the juice as is. Jazz it up a bit with Indian spices and it tastes wonderful. Second, adding the juice to rasam not only enhances the flavor but also increases the nutritional value. V8 is available in almost all the supermarkets and substitute it with some water for a hearty side dish!!

V8 Rasam ~ Chaaru Recipe

📖 Recipe

Rasam, Chaaru, Blogging marathon, V8 Chaaru

V8 Rasam

V8 rasam is a spicy south Indian soup prepared with V8 juice. It is a comfort food in winters and side dish for rice.

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Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian, South Indian

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 15

Total Time: 20

Servings:

Calories: 55kcal

Author: Usha Rao

Ingredients

½ – 1 tablespoon Toor Dal ground to fine powder
2 teaspoon Oil
½ teaspoon Cumin ~ Jeera
½ tsp Mustard Seeds
4 Curry Leaves
1 ½ teaspoon Ginger Garlic Paste
Pinch of Turmeric
1 can (5.5 oz. or 163 ml) V8 Vegetable Juice 3 cups Water
⅛ teaspoon Black Pepper Powder adjust to taste
½ tablespoon Salt adjust to taste
½ tablespoon Tamarind Paste check note
2 teaspoon MTR Madras Rasam Powder use any brand you like. This is the only brand I tried so far
1 medium sized Vine Tomato diced
Cilantro for garnish

Instructions

Grind toor dal to fine powder. I grind dal to fine powder and add it to rasam instead of cooking the dal and then adding it to rasam. This saves some time and this is a tip I picked up from my mother-in-law.
Heat oil in a 2 quart/liter sauce pan and temper it with mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves.
Then add ginger garlic paste and sauté until raw smell of ginger is gone.
Add turmeric powder, toor dal powder and roast the powders for a minute or two until the toor dal is lightly roasted in the oil.
Add V8 juice, salt, pepper powder (can add pepper after tasting the rasam), rasam powder, tamarind paste and mix well. Add water, tomatoes, cover the pan and bring to a boil.
Once rasam comes to a boil, taste rasam and adjust salt, pepper and tamarind paste to taste.
Partly cover the pan and continue boiling for another 3-5 minutes until tomatoes are soft.
Add cilantro, turn of the heat and cover the pan completely. Let it sit for another 5-10 minutes and serve hot with rice.
This soup a little light and mild, and can be served as soup as well.

Notes

I prefer light rasams over thick rasams. If one wants a little thick rasam, add another ½ tbsp. of toor dal powder and also adjust water to desired consistency.
If not using rasam powder, grind together some cumin, pepper powder, coriander powder and fenugreek powder along with toor dal.
I usually add some onion but I skipped it this time.
Also, since I used rasam powder for the first time, I did not know how spicy the powder is, so I did not add any green chilies. If using green chilies, adjust the seasoning accordingly.
Adjust tamarind paste to taste and it depends on how sour the tamarind is. I used homemade tamarind paste.

Nutrition

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V8 Rasam, Spicy Vegetable Chaaru

What is V8 Juice?