A Small Cup of Low-Salt Tomato Rasam
One small cup of tomato rasam made with very little salt, plus pepper, cumin and a little garlic. It is food. It does not treat blood pressure.
Important: this remedy is only a supportive home measure. Keep taking any medicine your doctor has prescribed, monitor your readings, and consult your doctor before adding anything new.
A small cup, and the salt stays small
Rasam is a thin southern soup. This version is one small cup: ripe tomato, a pinch of salt only, crushed pepper, cumin and a little garlic, simmered and strained or sipped with the pulp. It is something warm to drink with a meal. It is not a blood-pressure medicine, and making it salt-free at home does not replace a doctor's salt advice.
Tomato can worsen burning in people who already have reflux, so stop if the chest burns. If a doctor has given a salt limit, count this cup inside that limit. Do not drink a jug. Keep prescribed medicine. A sudden severe headache, chest pain, or breathlessness is not a reason for a second cup.
Ingredients
- One ripe tomato
- A pinch of salt, not a spoon
- Cumin, black pepper and a small garlic clove
- Water
How to prepare
- Chop the tomato and simmer it in water with cumin, crushed pepper and garlic for about ten minutes.
- Add only a pinch of salt. Mash or strain. You want one small cup, thin enough to sip.
How to use
- Drink that one cup warm, with a meal or just after.
- Do not add a second pinch of salt at the table.
- Keep blood-pressure or heart medicine as prescribed.
Helpful habits
- If it tastes sour enough, you do not need tamarind as well.
- Make it fresh. Do not keep it overnight on the counter.
Precautions
- Very little salt. This is not a licence to eat other salty food.
- Stop if tomato makes your chest burn.
- This cup does not treat blood pressure.
Frequently asked questions
If I skip the salt, can rasam replace my pressure tablets?
- No. Even with a pinch of salt, or none, this is soup. Do not stop or change blood-pressure medicine because of a cup of rasam.
Can I drink a jug through the day?
- No. One small cup is the amount. A jug is a lot of tomato and still not a treatment.
It burns my chest. Should I add more pepper?
- No. Stop. Burning after tomato is a reason to leave rasam, not to make it hotter. Ongoing burning needs a doctor.
