Tomato Pulav

Tomato Pulav


Tomato is an indispensible ingredient in my kitchen. There may be a few days when I do not use it in some dishes but usually it is included everyday. It is also one of those ingredients when available in low quantity makes me nervous and restless. I do have a tin of chopped tomatoes in my cupboard, just incase. Now that cost of vegetables has increased so much I am trying my best to see if I can churn out delicious dishes with lesser quantity of such ingredients. This needs to be done without compromising on the minimum quantity of fruit and vegetables one needs to eat to maintain a balanced diet. You may have found other tomato rice recipes on my blog and may wonder why I have posted another. It certainly is not to increase the recipe count without bothering about the content. After making and eating this tomato pulav, I was able to appreciate even more how different cooking methods/techniques can give different results. For instance, usually I would not cook the tomatoes along with the rice but in this dish, I did it. I realised that it induces subtly different flavours so this recipe is certainly a keeper. Also, the other advantage is that as I make it in my pressure pan, this is pretty much a one pot dish and I have less dishes left to wash. I also adopted a tip that I picked up from a television program although it was not really meant for the purpose I used it for. People who use pressure pan or even electric rice cooker may have noticed that the bottom most layer of rice sticks to the vessel and gets quite mushy. This time and couple of other times subsequently, I managed to avoid that by allowing the rice and water mixture to start boiling, gently stir it and then put the lid on to pressure cook. Another lesson I learned after a few mistakes is to open the pressure cooker/pan as soon as the pressure releases. Allowing the rice to sit in the residual heat makes the rice a big starchy mass. Open the pan and fluff up with a fork. These tips are quite handy when you make even plain rice for other dishes.

1 cup rice, rinsed and soaked for 10 minutes
3-4 tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon chilly powder
Turmeric powder
¼ teaspoon garam masala
1 onion, finely chopped
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Heat some oil and add the onions and fry until soft

Grind the tomatoes with garlic without adding any water and add this to the onions and cook until it all comes together and also raw smell goes off (about 5-8 minutes)

Add the turmeric powder, chilly powder and garam masala

Drain the rice and add to the tomato mixture and sauté. Add required salt and water, be careful not to add too much water because there is still some moisture in the tomatoes. My usual rice to water ratio is 1:2 but for this I added 1.25 cups water. Allow this to boil once, stir gently then pressure cook for three whistles.

Fluff up the rice with a fork and garnish with chopped coriander leaves