One of my favorite dishes to make on a cold or rainy day is Rasam. Rasam in Tamil means juice, extract, or essence. Rasa in Sanskrit has a similar meaning. Many South Indian languages also call this dish Saaru (juice).
If you google rasam recipes, you will find variations with tomatoes. But for an authentic medieval Indian rasam, you skip the tomatoes and chilies (which didn’t arrive in India until much later). Instead, use: tamarind, cumin, coriander, toor dal, curry leaves, ghee, ginger, and the true star of the era, black pepper.
It is interesting to note that tomatoes originally grew in the Andean region of South America. After being brought to India by Portuguese traders, they were adopted so widely that they now appear in many traditional cuisines. The same is true for chilies, another produce from the Americas that has become a staple of Indian cooking.
Pictured below is a boiling pot of rasam I made recently with tomatoes, before I garnished it with chopped cilantro.
Anna Bushi 