Classic Tomato Rice
A white rice with a flavorful tomato sauce
Equipment
- Rice Cooker
- Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 3 cups White (Long Grain Rice)
- 6 Plum Tomatoes (diced)
- 1 Large Onion (diced)
- 5-6 Dried Red Chilies
- 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 2 tbsp Channa Dal (Dried Split Chickpeas)
- 1 tbsp Urad Dal
- 2-3 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 6 tbsp Vegetable Oil
Instructions
For the Tomato Rice:
- Cook the white rice and spread it in a wide container to cool.
- In a large non-stick pan, heat 3 tbsp vegetable oil and fry the mustard seeds and dried chilies. The mustard seeds will pop! Give them a second before adding the chilies. About 30 seconds or until the mustard seeds are browned.
- Add the diced onion and fry until brown. Add in the tomatoes, 1 tsp of salt, and turmeric next.
- Once the tomatoes have started to bubble, reduce the heat to about medium. We're looking to slowly stew the tomatoes without letting them dry out. Keep them on the heat for about 25-30 minutes, until the tomatoes have turned almost into a sauce-like texture.
- Once the consistency is nice and mushy, remove from heat and add to the spread-out rice. Mix well being sure that the rice is coated thoroughly.
- Finally, in a small non-stick pan, heat up the remaining 3 tbsp of vegetable oil. When the oil is almost smoking, add in the split dried chickpeas and urad dal and toast in the oil. Be careful! They toast quickly! The second you see them brown, remove them from heat and pour over the tomato rice.
- Mix this in well and serve immediately!
Notes
Recipe Notes:
- This rice can be pretty perishable. Keep it refrigerated and be sure to finish it up in no more than a week.
- This recipe makes 3 cups of rice but to make your own measurements there are some good rules of thumb for ratios:
- 2-3 tomatoes per cup of rice
- 2 dried red chilies per cup of rice
- While this recipe uses plum tomatoes, I've found that you really can use any type of tomato! I've mixed together cherry tomatoes with plum and beefsteak to arrive at the desired amount I need for the rice. A good way to think about this is to think in terms of a plum tomato size. So, 6-7 cherry tomatoes look about the same quantity as 1 plum tomato. A REALLY large beefsteak tomato can get you 2-3 plum tomatoes.
- I always hazard towards more tomato versus less (and, accordingly, more onion). If you make too much, you can always freeze the remainder!