My 1 year old loves rasam rice. I give him garlic rasam whenever he has a cold, which is all the time. Rasam is generally easy to make and so is rice but I always prefer making it all in one pot since my todd is the only taker and he doesn't care about consistency. There are also a lot of different varieties of rasam - pepper rasam, jeera rasam, tomato rasam, garlic rasam etc and while each has its own merits, I usually like to make an all-in-one kind; no rule against that. The garlic, turmeric, ghee (clarified butter) and pepper are good for tackling a bout of cold while rice and lentils are a good source of carbs and protein that keep you satiated. This takes about 10 minutes to make and makes for a happy mom.

Ingredients :

1. Tomato - 1 whole

2. Water - 1 and 1/3 cups

3. Rice - 1/3 cup

4. Lentil (Moong dal) - 1/4 cup

5. Pepper - 1 tsp

6. Turmeric - 1 tsp

7. Salt - to taste

8. Garlic - 2 pods

9. Rasam powder - 1/2 tsp (My toddler does not like it hot so I added just a 1/4 tsp.)

10. Ghee/clarified butter - 1 tbsp

11. Curry leaves - 4-5 leaves

12. Coriander - 1/2 handful

13. Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp

14. *Tadka (Optional)

*Tadka - In a small pan, heat ghee, add 1 tsp mustard seeds and let it splutter and then 1 tsp jeera, 1 tsp asafoetida, let it warm for a minute before adding the tadka to the cooked rice.

Procedure :

1. In a pressure cooker, add everything except the tadka and ghee, and let it cook for 4-5 whistles. The result may be a little mushy but that's perfect consistency for a toddler. If your child likes a little bite, leave it on for 3 whistles.

2. Prepare tadka. Once the pressure dies down, open the pan and add it in, mash everything and serve with ghee. (I added the tomato and garlic whole and didn't worry about chopping. I also skipped the tadka because my baby was screaming like a tiny raptor and I wanted to quickly shove some food into him.)