Thursday, November 17, 2022

TOMATO SAARU

 TOMATO SAARU

We use tomatoes in so many dishes in our Indian cooking, be it from the South or the North of India.  Tomatoes have numerous health benefits as they are strong in lycopene as per this article in WebMD. 

Elsewhere in this blog, you will find recipes for dishes made with tomatoes, such as:-

Today's recipe is for an aromatic and flavourful saaru which goes great with hot steamed rice. I have adapted this from the Kannada YouTube video Simple Tomato Saaru in Veg Recipes of Karnataka.

This easy to make Tomato Saaru does not call for the addition of dal so can be made quite fast. 

I am sure you will like it as much as we did. We usually have hot steamed rice, with saaru, and pappads or pappadam, as we call them in the South. 


Ingredients:-

  • Tomatoes (medium-sized), 2
  • Tamarind, size of a small gooseberry
  • Jaggery, 2 tsp, or to taste
  • Green Chilli, slit, 1
  • Turmeric Powder, 1/4 tsp 
  • Coriander Leaves, finely chopped, 2 tbsp
  • Salt, to taste
To Be Roasted & Ground For The Masala:-
  • Byadgi Red Chillies, 4
  • Coriander Seeds, 2 tsp
  • Cumin Seeds, 1 tsp
  • Asafoetida, a pinch
  • Fenugreek Seeds, 1/4 tsp
  • Coconut Gratings, /4 cup
  • Oil, 1 tsp - for roasting the ingredients
For Seasoning:-
  • Mustard Seeds, 1/2 tsp
  • Cumin Seeds, 1/2 tsp
  • Asafoetida, a pinch
  • Dry Red Chilli, broken into halves, 1
  • Curry Leaves, a sprig
  • Ghee, 2 tsp
Method:-

Wash the tomatoes and roughly chop them.
Grate the jaggery  and slit the green chilli
Soak the tamarind in luke warm water and extract the juice
Finely chop the coriander leaves


In a pan, heat 1 tsp of oil and roast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, red chillies, fenugreek seeds and asafoetida till the cumin seeds splutter and the roasted ingredients turn slightly golden. 
Transfer to a mixer jar and grind these roasted ingredients along with 1/4 cup of coconut gratings to a fine paste adding just the required amount of water. This forms the masala for the saaru. Keep aside 

In the same mixer jar, grind the chopped tomatoes to a paste with very little water
Transfer to a vessel and add slit green chilli, turmeric powder, tamarind juice and salt to taste
Bring to a boil the lower the flame and let it simmer for 5 minutes till the raw smell of the tomato goes
To this add the ground masala prepared earlier, mix well and add the required amount of water to get the saaru consistency
Once again bring to a boil, add the finely chopped coriander leaves and switch off the gas 

Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a small seasoning pan and on medium heat add the mustard seeds, when they splutter add the cumin seeds, asafoetida, broken red chilli and curry leaves and saute for a few seconds
Add this seasoning to the Tomato Saaru

Transfer to a serving bowl and serve hot with steamed rice and pappadams






3 comments:

  1. This saaru may be very good. We will try.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We didn't add rasampudi
    How come rasam is done

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The ground paste of chillies-spices forms the masala which is equivalent to putting rasampudi.

      Delete

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