Tomato rice is a popular South Indian dish also known as thakkali sadam in Tamil. A simple, spicy and flavorful one-pot meal made with rice, tomatoes, and spices. This dish can be made very quickly in a pressure cooker or in an instant pot if you are using leftover or precooked rice. It tastes very delicious itself, or with a crispy papad and boondi raita.
If you are looking for a quick and easy recipe then this one-pot meal is delicious as well as nutritious that you can make in less than 20 minutes. Here is a lip-smacking Tomato Rice recipe that you can easily make at home without any hassle. Just follow the step-by-step recipe given below for an authentic Tomato Rice recipe.
About This Recipe
Thakkali Sadam is a popular rice dish from Tamil Nadu cuisine. It is a slightly spicy rice dish made with rice, tomato, and spices. In the Tamil language, ‘thakkali‘means tomato, and ‘sadam‘ is rice.
Though this dish started as a South Indian favorite, now it has become popular all over India. It is made with minimal ingredients by cooking rice using tomatoes and spices. It is very easy to make and has a distinct hot and tangy flavor. It is an ideal one-pot meal or quick lunch box recipe that can also be served for breakfast and dinner. Traditionally, this dish can be served with coconut chutney, sambhar or any spicy curry. To make a wholesome meal, you can serve this with boondi raita, papad or even chips.
If you are looking for a simple home-cooked vegetarian meal, then you must try this dish.
Ingredients
For this delicious, nutritious and tangy rice dish, you will need the following ingredients.
The rice is the main ingredient of this dish. Though there are lots of methods to making tomato rice depending upon either you use leftover rice, or freshly cooked rice.
In this recipe, basmati rice works best here, but you can use any variety of rice available in your kitchen.
As the name suggests, tomato rice is made of using lots of tomatoes. Make sure, they should be juicy, ripe, firm, but not too firm.
Avoid using such tomatoes those have any blemishes or dark spots. You can also use cherry red tomatoes, canned tomatoes, or tomato puree, if making for kids.
Here, I have used a small onion and garnished with lots of coriander leaves, but you may add other veggies too. Feel free to add more veggies of your choice.
The herbs and spices, I have used here are ginger-garlic paste, black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, 2 dried red chillies, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, and salt to taste.
Additionally, you may add lentils and nuts as per your choice to make it healthy.
Addition of other various Indian spices, further enhance the taste of this dish. Peanuts can also be added to give extra taste and crunch.
Serving suggestions
Tomato rice tastes very delicious itself, but it also goes well with curd or any raita like onion, boondi, or mint Raita.
For some crunch, you can also serve it with papad or chips on the side. In South Indian cuisine, tomato rice served with some coconut chutney, and pickle.
Tomato rice definitely tastes great with ghee. So you may use ghee instead of oil here, but if you want to make vegan, then use only oil.
This is a spicy, flavorful rice recipe that is perfect for adult’s or kids’ lunchbox too. If making for kids then just skip the chilies.
Learn how to make one-pot tomato rice recipe at home by following the detailed step by step recipe for quick lunch or dinner!
See more related recipes like:
Lemon Rice
Tamarind Rice
Veg Pulao
Peas Pulao
Veg Biryani
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Tomato Rice
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
Tomato rice is a popular South Indian dish – a simple, spicy, and flavorful one-pot meal made with rice, tomatoes, and spices that you can make in less than 20 minutes. Here is a lip-smacking Tomato Rice recipe that you can easily make at home without any hassle.
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 3 large tomatoes
- 1 small onion
- 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
- 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- A pinch of asafetida (hing)
- 2 dried red chilies
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon garam masala
- Salt to taste
- ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves
- 2 tablespoons oil
Instructions
- Wash the rice and set them aside. Heat some oil in a pan and add Black Mustard Seeds (Rai) and Cumin Seeds (Jeera) to the pan.
- When the Rai & Jeera start to crackle, add Dried Red Chillies and Asafoetida (Heeng).
- Add finely chopped onions and fry them for a couple off minutes.
- Then add some ginger-garlic paste. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Put finely chopped tomatoes in the pan. You can also use tomato puree instead.
- Add Turmeric Powder (Haldi), Red Chilli Powder, Garam Masala and Salt, according to taste.
- Mix the spices and saute till the tomatoes are cooked and start leaving oil on the sides.
- Add the washed rice to the pan.
- Then add 2 cups of water to rice.
- Cover with a lid and cook on medium flame for 10 minutes, or till the rice are cooked.
- Tomato Rice are ready. Garnish with Coriander leaves and serve them hot with any raita.
Notes
- Use leftover rice for this recipe for more flavours.
- furthermore, try to use juicy ripened tomatoes for the richness and colour.
- additionally, adding pudina leaves are optional, but it gives a nice aroma to your pulao.
- finally, after adding rice, gently mix it and do not break the rice grains of tomato rice recipe.
- Tomato rice can be made from fresh tomatoes or tomato puree. However, fully ripe red juicy tomatoes are best suited for making this dish, as it owes its unique taste and flavor to absorption of the sweet and tart juices of tomato into the rice.
- Addition of onions, ginger, garlic and various Indian spices, further enhance the taste of this dish. Peanuts can also be added to give extra taste and crunch.
- Though tomato rice made from fresh rice tastes better, it is quite common to make this recipe from left over rice. Overall, it is a satisfying dish which is delicious, nutritious and tangy.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Main Course
- Cuisine: South Indian
