Tomato rice or ‘thakkali sadam’ in Tamil is a simple, easy to prepare, healthy one pot south-indian dish made using tomatoes, rice, spices and flavoured with ghee.
As the name suggests the key ingredient used in tomato rice are tomatoes. Using ripe, red tomatoes gives a nice bright tempting colour to the rice. This recipe usually uses short-grain rice. You can use basmati, kolam or any other rice of your choice.
Serve it with papad, pickle, plain curd or any raita or have it on its own. It does not require any accompaniment. If you have any leftover rice you can adapt this recipe to finish it.
There are many variations of this recipe. I am sharing a no onion-garlic version. This recipe gives you a medium-spicy rice. You can adjust the spice level to your taste.
This is a good option for lunchbox if you are running out of time. As it requires a few ingredients and gets prepared in a jiffy if you have leftover rice.
Tomato Rice
Course: Main CourseCuisine: South IndianDifficulty: Medium4
peopleAn easy and delicious South-Indian style tomato rice.
Ingredients
Tomatoes – 3-4 nos (medium, ripe and finely chopped)
Rice – 1 cup (heaped)
Ghee – 2 tbsps
- For masala
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
Poppy seeds/Khuskhus – 1 tsp
Roasted chana dal – 2 tbsps
Kashmiri chillies – 2 nos. (deseeded)
- For Tempering
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Hing/Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder/Haldi – 1/4 tsp
Salt
Directions
- Dry roast all the given ingredients under ‘for masala’ . Once cooled, grind to a fine powder.
- Cook the rice in an open pan or pressure cooker. Just the way you cook normal rice. Keep it aside.
- Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a pan or kadai. Add mustard and allow it to splutter.
- Next, add hing, curry leaves and saute.
- Add tomatoes, mix well, cover and cook till tomatoes turn soft and mushy.
- Add haldi, half of the ground masala powder (around 2-3 tbsp). Mix well.
- Add the cooked rice, salt and mix well. Now add the remaining masala powder as per your taste and spice level. If you add all the masala it will turn very spicy. Mix well. Drizzle 1 tbsp of ghee over the rice.
- Serve tomato rice with papad, curd or raita.
Notes
- Depending on your liking you can prepare tomato rice fluffy or mushy.
- For fluffy rice, prepare rice 2-3 hours beforehand so that it cools completely. Leftover rice is the best to prepare fluffy rice.
- For mushy and slightly sticky rice, prepare the rice and immediately continue with the recipe.
- You can puree the tomatoes instead of chopping them.
Health Benefits of Tomatoes
- Tomatoes are a great source of vitamin C, potassium, folate, and vitamin K.
- The two components, Vitamin A and Vitamin C, help the body to get rid of harmful free radicals in our blood. Hence, it is a good anti-oxidant.
- Tomatoes help to improve the digestive system and the liver. They are loaded with fibre which helps prevents constipation too.
- They boost your immunity levels and controls the release of stress hormones.
