Kwik Fix Series # 5 - Tomato Rice

Tomato Rice used to be a regular candidate for my lunch box way back in school. I have seen this featuring in lot of my friends' box too. However, the recipe varies with each household and to me, the best is my mom's recipe. Well, that's quite natural. She used to have the curry powder ready to make any variety rice in a jiffy. As iyers, we are not used to adding onions to everything and my mother typically doesn't add onions to this dish. Going by the tradition, I don't normally add it to mine too. But this time, I made onion raitha to go with the rice and reserved a handful of onions for the rice too. It was not at all bad. Rather, I should say it tasted good. I added a handful of chopped onions and a tsp of fennel seeds to make it taste hotel-like and it did taste alike! This recipe came as a saviour when I had no idea what to cook for dinner, few days back. I got into action, the moment I decided to make this and it got ready very quickly.

Ingredients:

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Chopped onions - a handful
Chopped tomatoes - 2
Boiled peas - a handful (optional)
Slit green chillies - 1
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Sambar powder or chilli powder - 1 tsp
Curry Powder - 2 to 3 tsp
Mustard, channa dal 1 tsp each to season
Salt to taste
Oil 3 tsp
Cooked Rice - 1 cup
Cilantro to garnish

Method:

1) Heat the oil, season with mustard, channa dal and fennel seeds.
2) Fry the onions and green chillies till tender.
3) Add the tomatoes and cook till soft.
4) Add the dry powders except the curry powder. Cook well.
5) Keep the flame at low, mix the rice and curry powder. Keep on stove for a min.

Garnish and serve hot with potato wafers and onion raitha.

Click here for the curry powder recipe.

Tips: You can use finely chopped potatoes or brinjal or okra in place of tomatoes. For brinjal and okra rice , don't add onions. (As you like it) Don't add fennel seeds for any of these.