Nellikai Rasam | Amla Rasam | Gooseberry Rasam, a healthy, mildly spicy and tangy treat for our taste buds. Nellikai (Amla / Gooseberry) is so healthy and nutrition rich. In this tasty rasam, Nellikai (Amla / Gooseberry) are cooked along with tomato, pepper-cumin and other Indian spices, making this rasam simply superb. Doing Tomato Rasam and also sometimes lemon rasam is conventional for many of us. But sometimes we get bored of the regular food. Thats when our innovation and discovery skills gets freshen up.
My elder daughter loves rasam and hence I would make many different version of rasam like Brinjal rasam, Drumstick rasam, onion rasam and also some of the healthier rasam like Kandanthipili rasam, pepper rasam etc. You can see my collection of Rasam Varieties in this link. Like Kandanthipili rasam which is very good in curing body ache, pepper rasam in curing cold/congestion, this Nellikai (Goosebery/Amla) rasam is a healthy variation to the regular rasam.
Gooseberry has lots of medicinal values in it. For maintaining blackness of hair, volume of hair our elders advice us to include Amla in our daily diet. The moment we think about gooseberry our tongue starts to drool. I used to bite raw gooseberry, though initially we feel the tanginess, and later if we sip water, the after taste of gooseberry would be so sweet. Conventionally Gooseberry pickle is one of the traditional pickle variety. We can make spicy or sour version of the gooseberry pickle. Also Nellikai pachadi is also one of the traditional food which is served with Poricha Kuzhambu.
With the natural tanginess of the gooseberry, we don’t need tamarind for this rasam. Gooseberry are de-seeded and ground along with green chili and ginger and then cooked with tomato along with pepper-cumin powder to make this mouth-watering Nellikai Rasam. Now lets see the video version of making this rasam!
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Recipe Card for Nellikai Rasam | Amla Rasam | Gooseberry Rasam:

Nellikai Rasam | Gooseberry Rasam | Amla Rasam Recipe
Equipment
- Mixer Grinder
- Sauce Pan
- Heavy Bottomed Pan
Ingredients
- 5-6 nos Gooseberry
- 1 Green Chilli
- 2 inch Ginger
- 1 Tomato Chopped
- 2 tbsp Toor Dal
- 2 tsp Peppercorns
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
- Asafoetida (Asafetida / Hing) a Pinch
- Salt To Taste
- 0.25 tsp Turmeric Powder
- Coriander Leaves Few
For Tempering
- 2 tsp Ghee (Clarified butter)
- 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1 broken Red Chili
- Curry Leaves Few
Instructions
Cooking Dal
- Take Toor dal in a vessel. Add pinch of turmeric along with a cup of water and pressure cook dal till soft and mushy. Mash the cooked dal and set it aside.
De-Seeding Process
- Wash gooseberry thoroughly. We can see vertical lines running in every gooseberry. Using a knife slice each lines and take out the seed. Repeat the same process for the rest of the gooseberry.
Grinding Process
- Take the de-seeded gooseberry in a mixer jar along with green chili, ginger and grind it to a paste.
- Next take peppercorns, cumin seeds and grind it to powder and set it aside.
Tempering Process
- Heat ghee in a pan. Add mustard seeds and allow it to sputter. Next, add broken red chili, curry leaves, pepper-cumin powder and hing (asafoetida). Also add chopped tomato.
Cooking Rasam
- Add water and cook the tomato. Once the tomato is cooked, add gooseberry paste. Also add turmeric, salt, 1 cup of water and keep flame in low and allow the rasam to boil for 5 mins.
- Finally add cooked dal and mix well. Adjust the consistency by adding water. Keep the rasam in flame till a frothy layer forms on top of the rasam. Garnish with Coriander Leaves and switch off the flame.
Serving Time
- Serve the delicious Nellikai Rasam | Gooseberry Rasam | Amla Rasam with hot steaming rice along with a teaspoon of ghee and enjoy the healthy rasam!
Video
Nutrition
INSTRUCTIONS WITH STEP BY STEP PICTURES:
COOKING DAL
- Take Toor dal in a vessel. Add pinch of turmeric along with a cup of water
- Pressure cook dal till soft and mushy. Mash the cooked dal and set it aside.
DE-SEEDING PROCESS
- Wash gooseberry thoroughly. We can see vertical lines running in every gooseberry.
- Using a knife slice each lines and take out the seed. Repeat the same process for the rest of the gooseberry.
GRINDING PROCESS
- Take the de-seeded gooseberry in a mixer jar along with green chili, ginger
- Grind it to a paste.
- Next take peppercorns, cumin seeds
- Grind it to powder and set it aside.
TEMPERING PROCESS
- Heat ghee in a pan. Add mustard seeds and allow it to sputter. Next, add broken red chili, curry leaves, pepper-cumin powder and hing (asafoetida).
- Also add chopped tomato.
COOKING RASAM
- Add water and cook the tomato.
- Once the tomato is cooked, add gooseberry paste.
- Also add turmeric, salt, 1 cup of water and keep flame in low and allow the rasam to boil for 5 mins.
- Finally add cooked dal and mix well. Adjust the consistency by adding water.
- Keep the rasam in flame till a frothy layer forms on top of the rasam. Garnish with Coriander Leaves and switch off the flame.
SERVING TIME
- Serve the delicious Nellikai Rasam | Gooseberry Rasam | Amla Rasam with hot steaming rice along with a teaspoon of ghee and enjoy the healthy rasam!
The post Nellikai Rasam | Amla Rasam | Gooseberry Rasam appeared first on Subbus Kitchen.