Rasam

Rasam is a spicy, watery South Indian soup-like dish, known regionally as thili saaru in Kannada, chaaru in Telugu and chaatambde in Tamil, and is typically served as an accompaniment to rice, appearing alongside sambar rice in the same course of a traditional South Indian meal despite having its own distinct, lighter flavor and seasoning. Its main ingredients include tamarind, tomato and lentil, often combined with kokum, kadam and jaggery, and its name derives from the Sanskrit word rasa, meaning sap, juice or essence. It is popular enough to be sold commercially in chilled prepared form and as a bottled rasam paste, and it has an Anglo-Indian offshoot called mulligatawny, whose name comes from a Tamil phrase meaning pepper water.