Mint Leaves Rasam

Without rasam, our lunch wasnt complete...i do many varieties of rasam with mint leaves, tomato, lemon, ginger etc...Here come one of among my variety rasam..Mint is one of the most simple natural herbs, and has a lot of good uses, besides just tasting good. It is also easy to grow..Mint also functions as an expectorant, helping to drain the sinuses and ease the congestion of colds. It can be imbibed in a tea, or it can be added to a vaporizer or pot of boiling water, to fill the air with mint impregnated steam. Mint can be grown from seed, however usually it is much easier to simply purchase small plants. The plants should be planted to the depth of the soil in the pots. Water well, especially right after planting. When the plants reach about a foot in height, the top half inch or so can be pinched off to encourage the plant to grow bushier. Coming to this rasam, its such a delicious and easy dish i use to prepare very often whenever i buy few bunches of mint leaves...This flavourful rasam goes to Sowmya's SWC-Cooking with greens and also to JFI-Mints guest hosted by Ashiwini , event started by Indira...

1/2cup Mint leaves (chopped)
1no Tomato
1/4cup Toor dal
2nos Garlic cloves (crushed)
1/4tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Cumin seeds
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
2nos Dry red chillies
1tsp Lemon juice
Salt
Oil

To Grind:
 1tsp Peppercorns
1tsp Cumin seeds
2nos Dry red chillies
1tbsp Coriander seeds

Dry roast all the ingredients from the list 'To Grind' as coarse powder...Cook toor dal with a cup a water in pressure cooker until they turns soft...keep aside and smash the tomato, add the smashed tomato and crushed garlic cloves to the cooked toor dal...add the grounded spice powder as per ur need and salt..

Heat enough oil and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida powder and red chillies and let them splutters, add the chopped mint leaves to the tadka and stir until the mint leaves shrinks, add the spiced water to the kadai and once it starts bubbling and put off the stove..

Serve with rice!