Tomato Rice popularly called as Thakkali Sadam in South India is a very quick to make rice dish that is packed with flavours from tomatoes, cardamom, and the Sambar Powder. Most often tomato rice is made from leftover rice, but in this recipe you will notice we have made it super simple using an electric pressure cooker where the rice gets done in just 20 minutes.
Course : Lunch
Ingridients : 1 cup Rice
10 Pearl onions (Sambar Onions) , finely chopped or regular onions
4 cloves Garlic , finely chopped
4 Tomatoes , finely chopped
1 teaspoon Mustard seeds (Rai/ Kadugu)
1 sprig Curry leaves , roughly torn
1 tablespoon Sambar Powder
1/2 teaspoon Cardamom Powder (Elaichi)
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric powder (Haldi)
Mint Leaves (Pudina) , a small bunch, finely chopped
1 teaspoon Sesame (Gingelly) Oil
1 tablespoon Ghee
Salt , to taste
Instructions To begin making the Thakkali Sadam Recipe - Spicy Tomato Rice, get all the ingredients ready. Change the mode of the electric pressure cooker to the saute mode.Preheat oil in the saute pan of the electric pressure cooker; once heated, add the mustard seeds and allow it to crackle.Once it crackles, add the onions, garlic and curry leaves. Sauté until the onions are tender and golden.Once the onions are done, add chopped tomatoes and sauté until the tomatoes are tender and water has evaporated and has formed a semi-thick paste. Next add in the sambar powder, turmeric powder, cardamom powder, salt and mix everything well.Add mint leaves and sauté for a few more minutes. Finally, add the washed rice along with 1-1/4 cups of water. Cancel the saute mode, by going into keep warm. Press menu and set the cooking mode to rice mode. Turn the pressure nozzle to point to the pressure mode and allow the thakkali sadam to get cooked on its own.The timer in the electric pressure cooker will automatically go off and get into keep warm mode. You can open once the pressure has released completely. Finally add a tablespoon of ghee or sesame oil and stir it into the thakkali sadam and serve hot.Serve Thakkali Sadam Recipe along with Tomato Onion Cucumber Raita Recipe for a weekday lunch or dinner or even pack into your lunchbox for kids or office.