Tomato - Sago (sabudana) Vadam

Vadams, known as fryums in English, is a very popular side dish in South India. Vadams made of Sabudana are my personal favourites. Here is the recipe of how to make tomato-sabudana vadams

Ingredients:

Sabudana - 1 cup
Tomato - 3
Green Chili - 3

Prep Time:
1 cup of Sabudana needs to be soaked 1 cup of water overnight

Recipe:
Blend tomato and chili together until they are very nicely blended.

Now add half cup of water to a vessel and start boiling it in medium heat. Add the soaked sabudana to the boiling water along with the water in which sabudana was soaked. Keep stirring. The sabudana beads will start to turn translucent, then add the tomato-chili paste. Add salt to taste and let it come to a boil in medium heat, by now the sabudana beads have become completely transparent. Remove from heat and add just a dash of lemon juice for taste.

It is then dried in sun and can be stored for over a year. Tomato-sabudana fryums can used by deep frying them as required!!! 

Beetroot Rasam

When beetroot is pressure cooked most of the goodness in the vegetable is left in the water in which it is cooked. Beetroot rasam is one way of getting the nutrients that would otherwise be wasted.

Ingredients:

Beetroot - 2
Tomatoes - 1 or 2
Ginger - 1/4 inch
Garlic - 1 clove
Red Chili powder -  2ts
Coriander-cumin powder - 2ts
turmeric powder - 1/4ts
Coriander leaves - 1/4cup

Tempering:
Mustard seeds - 1/2ts
Cumin seeds - 1/2ts
curry leaves - 3 or 4

Salt to taste

Prep Time: 5-10 mins
Servings - 4

Recipe:
Pressure cook the beets. Once well cooked, drain the beets and collect the water in a separate cup. (Or) Pressure cook the beets, once the beets are well cooked (very soft to touch), the blend the beets along with the water in which it was cooked. Blend it soft.

Add oil to vessel, add mustard and cumin seeds and wait untill they start to splutter and then add the ginger and garlic cloves along with curry leaves and fry until there is no longer any raw garlic smell. Now add cut tomatoes along with red chili, turmeric, coriander-cumin powder and cook until the tomatoes are well cooked. Now add the beetroot water to the mixture. Keep adding beetroot water until the consistency is very   runny. Add salt to taste and Bring it to boil and remove from stove. Then add some coriander leaves to give it a nice aroma.

Your Beetroot rasam is ready!!

PS: Beets has a slight sweet taste to it, which gives an excellent flavour to rasam, so avoid excess addition of red chili powder, as it will over power beets taste.