Tomato Rice

Something instant to cook on a busy weekday, at the same time delicious and approved by the family, is a recipe that I always lean on when tired and have hardly any energy to enter the kitchen. If its liked by all at home equally then you don't have to see people frowning at the dinner table. This Tomato rice is one such recipe that we can have for dinner after a long day at work - happy faces and most importantly, easy to put together. 

Some papad/chips and little bit of pickle is all what you need to pair with this delicious tomato rice to enjoy your meal. When I started my kitchen garden last year, I planted a tomato plant. It would produce flowers but nothing got converted to tomato, which made me think that either it is a flower plant :D or may be my hands aren't good enough for gardening. Its not gonna bear fruit. But this year, thankfully, if not it surplus, we got a decent harvest of tomatoes. And when making tomato rice, with the tomatoes from our own garden, it gets even more fulfilling. At dinner table, you can see me repeat it over and over again "it has tomatoes from our own garden". And my little harvester gets even more interested in having his tomato rice since his little hands were also involved in producing the tomatoes :).

Now off to the recipe. This recipe needs the everyday pantry items, so you need not just wait for to get the ingredients before you try it. So try it for todays lunch or dinner and I bet you won't regret.

Ingredients

1. 1 1/2 cup of white rice
2. 1 1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes
3. 1/2 cup of finely chopped red onion
4. 1 tbsp of finely chopped green chilly
5. 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste
6. 5-6 mint leaves, finely chopped
7. 2 tbsp of finely chopped coriander leaves
8. About 2 3/4 cups of water
9. 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
10. 1/2 tsp of red chilly powder
11. 1/2 tsp of coriander powder
12. 3/4 tsp of black pepper powder
13. Salt to taste
14. Coriander/ Mint leaves for garnishing

For tempering

1. 1 tbsp of oil
2. 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
3. 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
4. 2-3 dry red chillies
5. 1/2 tsp of fenugreek seeds
6. 1 sprig of curry leaves

Method

• Wash and strain the rice. Keep it aside.
• Heat a pan. Pour in the oil. Once the oil gets hot, add the mustard seeds and let it splutter. Now add the fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, ginger garlic paste, green chillies, dry red chillies and curry leaves. Saute it until the rawness is gone.
• Now add the onion and saute it. Once onion starts turning dull and translucent, add the chopped mint leaves and coriander leaves, and saute it.
• Add the tomatoes and stir it. Let it reduce and cook. Add the turmeric powder , coriander powder and black pepper powder. Saute and cook untill the tomatoes are all soft and the mixture looks like a paste.
• Add the rice, water and salt. Stir it to spread it evenly.
• Cover and cook on medium low flame untill the water evaporates completely. Turn off the heat.
• Garnish it with coriander/mint leaves and serve it hot with some raita and chips of your choice.

Tips

1. Using basmati rice would enhance the taste.
2. You could add some urad dal to the tempering to enhance the taste.
3. Keep a close watch when cooking rice. The cooking time and water required would vary according to the type of rice used.

Curd Rice

The most comforting food is what I would want to describe, curd rice as. I just love having it and my lil monkey has also taken over that love for curd rice from me. So we make it often. With the rise in temperature, this is one perfect lunch option. That random bite on juicy pomegranate seeds is one big thing to like about it. But unfortunately, now pomegranate is not in season. But that doesn't stop us in enjoying this delicious crud rice with some pickle and papad. Perfect ! 

Enjoy this curd rice this summer. They are perfect to cool down when it is super hot and boiling outside. Here is the recipe to it.

Jeera Rice

There are times when you have people visiting around dinner or lunch time. And you get confused what to serve them with, when you might have prepared/decided to keep a simple dinner for your family and also have very less time to be creating something very jazzy. So in case, plain rice was on your family menu and you are not happy to be serving the same for you guests, just a simple seasoning could lift that simple rice to be a very simple yet a crowd pleasing one.

For me, my toddler has certain picky days when he would refuse the common or usual family menu items and to make it interesting for him, I convert a small portion of cooked rice into flavored rice for him to enjoy.

Lemon Rice

As much as Jordan hates plain rice, he is a big fan of seasoned or flavoured rice. So to make my life easy from feeding him for hours and going crazy, I depend upon these flavoured rice for our meals. If its flavoured rice, there would be a happy and silent toddler eating his own food rather than a cranky toddler whom I have to feed.

Lemon rice had been one flavoured rice that my mom used to make for our train journey to our home town. For a 4 day train journey, this lemon rice was a must in our food bag. We used to love having it. Now when it is a train journey, you may not have too many sides to have a lavish meal. But this lemon rice with some pickle was more than enough to tickle our taste buds and make it the most loved meal of the day.