Tomato Rice | Tomato Pulav

This Tomato rice is not the usual recipe that everyone is expecting. I learnt this recipe from my MIL. After marriage, I am making tomato rice this way only. Once I happened to make this recipe for a picnic, which we went with our friends. Everyone loved it, and some of them asked me for this recipe. Hence I am sharing it with you all.

I have used bay leaves, cloves and fennel seeds in this recipe. Hence it gives the taste of a pulav.

Servings : 3

Ingredients:

1. Oil – 4 tablespoons
2. Cloves – 4
3. Cinnamon stick – 1 inch
4. Bay leaf – 1
5. Fennel seeds powder – 1 teaspoon
6. Green chilli – 1
7. Garlic – 5 to 6 pods (chopped)
8. Onion – 3/4 cup (finely chopped)
9. Tomatoes – 4 (big and ripe ones)
10. Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
11. Homemade Chilli powder – 1 heaping tablespoon (or Raw chilli powder – 1.5 teaspoon, Coriander powder – 2 teaspoon)
12. Salt – as required
13. Curry Leaves – few sprigs (for garnish)
14. Sona Masoori Rice (or any Raw rice) – 3/4 cup (uncooked)
15. Coriander leaves – few sprigs (for garnish)

Method:

1. First, chop the onions, garlic, tomatoes and keep them ready. Then heat a pan, add oil, cinnamon stick, cloves, fennel seeds powder, bay leaf, green chilli, garlic and saute for few seconds.

2. Then, add the chopped onions and saute until they become translucent and shrink in size.

3. Now, is the most important step : Take all the chopped tomatoes in the blender and puree it. Add this puree to the pan and add turmeric powder, homemade chilli powder, salt to it. Also add 1/2 cup water to the pan. Add the salt for the gravy and the rice, in the gravy itself.

4. In the mean time, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Wash and clean the rice with water twice. Then add the rice to the boiling water and cook for about 15 minutes. Then check if the rice is cooked well. If so, filter the rice immediately. Otherwise cook for few more minutes. The cooking time may vary for different types of rice. Mine was cooked in 15 minutes.

5. While the rice is cooking, simmer the tomato gravy until it is reduced and become thick as shown below: (about 15 to 20 minutes in low flame)

6. Now, add the cooked rice little by little into the gravy and mix. I added the entire cooked rice (yielded from 3/4 cup uncooked rice) and it might look mushy at first. But after around 30 minutes, all the gravy will be absorbed into the rice.

At this stage, give a taste test. If you think, some more rice can be added, please do the same.

7. Finally garnish with coriander leaves and roasted cashews (optional).