As much as I love to relish the crisp fresh fruits raw, I like to use them in my cooking and make savory dishes. The natural sweetness from the fruits intensifies the flavor of the food. I have already posted pineapple rasam, lemon rasam, and watermelon rasam and now adding this cherry rasam to my fruit-based rasam recipes. Last weekend, we went for cherry picking, and within half an hour, we picked about 5 pounds of fresh and crisp cherries. I love fruit-picking activities, and that’s one of the best parts about the summer here in the Bay Area. Nothing can beat the hand-picked fresh and juicy cherries from the tree. Even after relishing a lot of cherries and distributing it to friends, we had a lot of cherries left. That’s when I decided to make something with them. While everyone thinks sweet recipes especially baked goodies with fruits, I will be the one to think savory recipes with them. We are trying to cut down on sugar, so these delicious and spicy recipes work best for us.
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Now back to today’s recipe. The first recipe that I tried with cherry is this rasam. It is effortless to prepare, and I did not use any rasam powder or tamarind or split pigeon peas. You can make it with readily available ingredients from your pantry in no time. (Check the notes section if you have all sweet cherries) All you have to do is pit the cherries (remove the seeds), grind them and add in the spices and simmer. That’s it.
How to Remove Cherry Pits without a Pitter:
Before getting into the recipe, I want to share how to pit the cherries without a cherry pitter. I don’t own a cherry pitter, and as I don’t worry about the shape of the cherry after pitting, I follow the knife method. You can find a ton of cherry pitting methods online, but this simple one works for me. Wash the cherries and pat them dry. Then place them on a cutting board and using a large knife, i.e., the chef’s knife press/mash on the cherry until it opens. Open the fruit apart partially to reveal the pit and discard it. It is more like crushing the garlic before peeling. One thing I need to agree as we are mashing is slight; you might lose some juice and also the shape if you are planning to use it as a garnish.
How to make cherry rasam?
Ingredients:
15 cherries, plus three more to garnish ½ tsp cumin powder ½ tsp red chili powder ⅛ tsp turmeric powder 2 tsp salt 1 tsp ground pepper Four garlic cloves, crushed 5 to 6 curry leaves ¼ cup cilantro, divided 3 cup of water To Temper: 1 tsp ghee, unmelted 1 tsp cumin seeds
Steps:
Wash the cherries and discard the stems. Pat them dry and pit the cherries like mentioned above.
Cut five cherries into small pieces and grind the remaining ten cherries coarsely without adding any water.
In a saucepan add the ground cherries, cut cherries, cumin powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder, salt, ground pepper, crushed garlic cloves.
Add two cups of water and mix thoroughly.
Now bring this mix to a boil over medium heat. Now add the curry leaves, cilantro and remaining one cup of water. Mix well.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the rasam until it becomes frothy on top. Then turn off the heat.
In a separate tempering pan, melt the ghee. When the ghee is hot, add the cumin seeds and fry for 10 to 15 seconds. Add this tempering to the rasam immediately and also add the remaining cilantro. Cover the rasam and let the flavors infuse for five to 10 minutes. Finally, add two to three pitted cherries to garnish and serve hot as a soup or along with rice and dry curry.
Recipe Notes-
If your cherries are sweet, then add a tsp of tamarind paste and also reduce the cherries to 10. Grind five and chop and add the remaining five. If the cherries are sour, keep the same amount, do not add tamarind but add two tsp of jaggery. Skip the ghee tempering to keep it vegan, and you can also serve it cold without ghee tempering.
📖 Recipe
