BANANA FLOWER RASAM / BALE HOOVINA SAARU / VAZHAIPOO RASAM

Banana Flower Rasam recipe with video / How to do Banana Blossom Rasam / Bale Hoovina Saaru / Poombey saaru

Banana flower Rasam / Bale Hoo Saaru is a tasty , healthy and interesting recipe made from Banana Flower. Tastes so good with hot rice .

If you like this Recipe you can check few more Banana flower / stem based recipes like Banana Flower Chutney ,Banana FLower Stir Fry  , Banana Flower Stem stir fry , Banana Flower Raita , etc

Check out Banana Flower Rasam Video Here :

How to buy & clean Banana Flower :

We all know how healthy Banana flower is .It is loaded with fibre, antioxidants, iron, potassium, calcium, vitamins and all other minerals. In Kannada, they are called as bale moothi or poombey .

While buying, always remember to pick banana flower that’s firm, fresh, tightly packed and bright purple in colour. If you can get organic banana flower more the better. The cleaning part of banana blossom is a little boring but the benefits that we get makes the time spent worth. . here is a video which shows how to clean easily

Banana flower is very good for new nursing mother as it increases milk supply and helps in healing the wounds quicker. During my Postpartum days, my mom used to give me Banana flower chutney every day for lunch & I used to relish it with hot rice topped with fresh homemade ghee. 

How to make Banana Flower Rasam with step by step photos :

Take fresh banana flower. 

Discard few outermost petals, which are very thick and little aged ( around 3-4 layers ). They will have a slight bitterness. So better not to use. The white flowers, if they are grown, remove the stamen. The tender ones you can use as such. refer video to clean and chop

Cut Banana flower into half . To make rasam , we don’t need full flower . Just half of it is enough. You can use remaining half for something else like chutney , stir fry etc.

Finely chop banana flower from the tip and drop them in a bowl having water + buttermilk mixture . refer video to clean and chop

Keep it so for 10 mins .

Later discard water and the chopped banana flower is ready to use.

Add all the masalas to it one by one . Add haldi , salt , jaggery , tamarind and pepper.

Add a cup of water and pressure cook for 2 whistles in a cooker.

Once pressure releases , allow to cool .

When banana flower has cooled well , transfer to a mixer grinder.

And grind to a smooth paste.

To make rasam, in a vessel take chopped tomatoes , green chilli , a cup of water and let it cook for 4-5 mins.

Once tomatoes are soft , add pureed banana flower .

Add water and adjust rasam consistency . Simmer and bring it to boil.

Boil rasam nicely . Add few Curry leaves and chopped coriander leaves .Switch off.

Prepare a tempering . Add ghee to a small pan . Once hot , add mustard , cumin seeds , garlic . Saute garlic till golden . Lastly add a pinch of hing .

Pour the tempering over the rasam .

Banana flower rasam is ready to serve . Enjoy hot with hot rice topped with little ghee.

Few simple points to note while making this Banana Flower Rasam are as follows :

• Always pick and use the good banana flower. else they turn bitter.
• The same recipe you can follow to do curry leaves rasam. Replace banana flower with curry leaves and add little coconut while grinding.
• You can add a tsp of Rasam powder too.
• In case you don’t like garlic flavour, you can replace it with Hing for flavour.