Horse gram is known as Kulthi in Hindi, Kollu in Tamil and Ulavalu in Telugu. Horse gram as we all know is good for health and is said to aid in weight loss. It is said to be good for diabetics also. I have already written about its health benefits in my Kollu Sundal post, so do not to repeat all that again here. Rasam is a great way to include horse gram or kollu in our diet. Today we will learn how to make Kollu rasam (ulava saaru) following this easy recipe with step wise pictures.
Prep Time : 10 mins
Serves: 3-4
Recipe Category: Rasam-Soup
Recipe Cuisine: South Indian
Author:Padhu Sankar
Ingredients needed
Horse gram/Kollu – 1/4 cup
Tamarind – small gooseberry sized ball
Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp
Tomato -2 medium
Curry leaves -2 sprigs
Salt neededTo be ground coarsely
Whole black pepper/milagu -1 tsp
Cumin seeds/ jeera seeds -1 tsp
Garlic Cloves – 2-3
For the seasoning
Ghee -1 tsp
Mustard seeds- 3/4 tsp
Red Chilli -1
Curry leaves -few
For Garnishing
Coriander leaves finely chopped -2 tbsp
Preparation
Soak tamarind in a cup of hot water for 15-20 minutes. Extract the juice and keep it aside.
Grind pepper, cumin and garlic coarsely or you can crush it using a mortar and pestle.
Wash and soak horse gram overnight or for 5-6 hours. Pressure cook with 1 cup of water for 3 whistles. Strain the cooked kollu/horse gram.
Take 1 tbsp of cooked horse gram and grind it to a smooth paste. Mix it with the strained liquid. We are going to use this liquid (water in which kollu was cooked) for making rasam. Keep this aside. You can use the rest of the kollu for making sundal.
Take a vessel, add tamarind extract, turmeric powder, chopped tomatoes, curry leaves, ground powder and salt needed.
Boil on medium flame until the raw smell of the tamarind goes.
Then add the liquid we had kept aside along with needed water (around 1/4-1/2 cup of water) and simmer the rasam.
When froth starts forming at the surface, switch off the rasam. (do not boil the rasam as it will loose its flavor)
Heat a tsp of ghee, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add red chilli, curry leaves and pour it over the rasam.
Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve piping hot with rice.
Healthy rasam…will try sometme soon!!
I have been looking for different ways to add kollu…till date, the only thing I knew was to add a handful to milagai podi..will try it soon, thanks!
Tried the recipe.taste is good.
Super…Living in Canada, cant find Kollu easily. Got hold of it recently. Your cooking posts inspire me 🙂 Thanks!
Hi Padhu,
Can you please share your kollu stuffed chappathi recipe for us?
And I also heard that we can directly pressure cook the horsegram with out soaking it for 5-6 hours or overnight. How does this work?
This is gonna be my first experience with horsegram so lots of doubts.
And I've to tell you this Padhu you are my inspiration, just by trying your recipes I got to like doing cooking, if not I would have been bad at this.
Thanks a lot for the great work you are doing. God bless you and your family.
Thank you so much. Very happy to know that I have inspired you to cook.Regarding your doubt – By soaking, the horsegram is much softer after cooking.If you forget to soak it overnight, you can soak it for a minimum of 30 minutes in hot water and then pressure cook for 3 whistles.
Hi padhu….can I use sprouted horsegram for the rasam??
Does the method remain same??
Yes, you can use sprouted horse gram and follow the same method above.
I usually clean and wash and then dry roast kollu and break it in mixie and then pressure cook for 5-6 whistles. In that case the kollu saaru is strong and u can use it for rasam and the remaining I grind it like chutney and use it for kollu kadaisal.
hello mam.i had a two month baby.still breastfeeding.normal vaginal delivery.can i eat kollu for
post pregnancy weight loss.?
Tried it, awesome. Thank you ☺
I tried .very good receipe
I tried this kollu rasam. It tastes good. You’re teaching ways are very easy to understand.