Tomato Rice

Tomato Rice, which is also known as tomato pulao is basically a recipe from the Southern part of India. It is a popular dish prepared in every South Indian kitchen on daily basis. It is ideal for lunch boxes, I myself used to prepare tomato rice at least once in every week for my husband’s lunch box. I always used to think more as to what different I can prepare for my husband’s lunch box, as he preferred to eat rice in his lunch because chapatti gets little harder in the lunch box during his lunch hours. So I had to think of varieties of rice recipes for his lunch box.

Secretly I also wanted to impress him with my recipes, as there is a line which states ‘the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’, and of course my husband loved to eat tastier food. Hence, it was easy for me to decide his menu. I mostly prepared rice recipes with the leftover rice, among all tomato rice, puliogere, egg rice, masala rice, fried rice etc were mainly on my list.

In this tomato rice recipe, I have used boiled rice. However, there are other methods of tomato rice recipes where we use uncooked rice just as the method to prepare the usual pulao recipes. I used tomatoes which are juicy riped ones. For this recipe, I have skipped curry leaves which are the regular ingredient used in most of the south Indian dishes because my husband does not like the taste of curry leaves. So, people who prefer to prepare tomato rice without curry leaves, this recipe would give a better option for them.

This is the simplest form of the tomato rice recipe. It is not exactly the same as the South Indian Version because they use a whole lot of other spices or even get the ready-made tomato rice grounded powder from the market.

I’ve seen my mother used to make the tomato rice powder by roasting different kinds of spices (somewhere around 10-12 kind probably), then grinding them in the mixer grinder and storing in a container for future use. Ah!! That takes a lot of patience and time to prepare. So what would you do when you are craving for tomato rice and the powder is not ready, just why not try this easy recipe and enjoy your crave. And this recipe can even be a solution for a quick tangy menu for the leftover boiled rice.

[Veg]

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Course: Main dish

Cuisine: South Indian

Serves: 2

Measuring Items: 1 cup=150 ml, teaspoon

Ingredients:

1. Onion- 2
2. Green Chilli- 4
3. Tomato- 7-8 (small size)
4. Coriander leaves
5. Boiled rice- approx 500 grams/ 2 cups

Spices:

1. Refined/ vegetable oil
2. Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
3. Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
4. Mirchi powder- 1 tsp
5. Cumin powder- ½ tsp
6. Coriander powder- ½ tsp
7. Sugar- 3 tsp
8. Salt (as per taste)

Method:

1. Take a cooking wok or kadhai, heat oil in it. Add mustard seeds, as it splutters start adding onion, green chili, saute for two minutes.
2. Add finely chopped tomatoes and all the other spices described in the list above.
3. Cover and cook further till tomatoes become mushy. Mix and fry for some time until the tomatoes leave the oil.
4. Now add the boiled rice and mix well. Mix and cook for another 5 minutes.
5. Garnish with coriander leaves. 

The tomato rice is ready to be gobbled, is just simply a hungry killer. So try this simple recipe and help me with your feedback. Enjoy cooking, serving and eating!!

Paromita Pramanick ©2017. All Rights Reserved.