A perfect flavored rice recipe that satisfies all checkmarks for a quick and satisfying meal. A lovely blend of flavors of tomato, coconut, and mint dances in your mouth while tickling your taste buds and will always leave you wanting a little bit more of this delicious and easy tomato rice🤤.
Flavored Rice !! Be it biryani or pulao or fried rice or chitrannam or any other kind of flavored rice, It is my biggest food weakness. Not only because of how delicious they are but because of how easy most of them are to make ( of course biryani needs some work but totally worth it !!).
The beauty of this tomato mint coconut rice is, this can be eaten by itself without missing any kind of curry or entrée on the side. Serve it with some raita or plain yogurt on the side to make it complete.
Ingredients
Most of the ingredients required for this tomato rice are very common ingredients in every Indian pantry. Let's take a look at them.
Main Ingredients: Cooked white rice ( I used basmati rice ), Oil, Ghee, Onion diced, Tomatoes diced, split green chilies, Mint leaves, dry coconut powder, or freshly grated coconut.
Mint and Coconut give a delicate flavor to this dish which makes this slightly different than the regular tomato rice.
Tempering Ingredients: Chana dal, split urad dal, mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, Curry leaves, cashews. If you don't carry common Indian pantry items, then you can skip chana dal, split urad dal, and mustard seeds. They just add the slight crunch to the rice.
Whole spices : Cinnamon stick, cardamom, cloves
Ground Spices : Turmeric powder, Salt, Red chilli powder, Garam masala and finally Kitchen king masala powder (This is not a sponsored post for kitchen king masala🙂).
Kitchen king masala is available in many Indian grocery stores around the world in many different brands. I used Badshah brand Kitchen king masala but you can use any brand. It is a mix of many different commonly used spices in Indian cooking. I usually don't prefer to use store bought ready made masalas ( prepared spice powders) in my cooking but this is the only ready made masala powder that I usually keep in stock.
It gives a nice balanced flavor to any dish with out much heat and can be used in many different dishes.
That being said, if you don't have kitchen king masala on hand, you can substitute it with
1 tsp coriander powder+½ more tsp chilli powder+½ tsp cumin powder
Kitchen king masala has many more spices in it so we are not trying to substitute it with exact ingredients but trying to create a simple and yummy dish with easily available spices at home.
Adjusting the spice levels in this Tomato Rice
This is seasoned and spiced just right, neither very bland nor spicy but if you want to adjust the spice levels according to your taste then follow the below guide.
Increase spice levels : Increase green chillies by 1 or 2 and if you want a little more increase ½ tsp red chilli powder.
Reduce the spice levels : Skip the green chillies and add red chilli powder only if you need it after taste testing at the end.
Reasons to love this Tomato Mint Coconut Rice
- Undoubtedly delicious !!
- Simple and Easily available Ingredients
- Quick and Easy to make
- No need of curry or entrée on the side
What more do we want in our busy lives !! Go make this delicious Tomato Mint Coconut Rice right away and let me know your comments below.
Variations
If you want to make it a more well balanced meal by adding some protein to it, then you can add some shrimp or small cubes of chicken ( small pieces cook faster and tastes good in fried rice dishes ) after the tomatoes are cooked and cook until the shrimp or chicken is well cooked before adding the cooked rice.
Shrimp only takes around 5 to 6 mins to cook, so don't cook it for long or else they will become very rubbery. Also add little more ground spices and salt for the shrimp or chicken if you add them.
Serving Suggestion
As I already mentioned above, this dish doesn't need a curry or entrée on the side. You can certainly serve it with a curry or entrée if you want but it has a complete flavor on its own and can be served with raita or plain yogurt and papad on the side.
Watch video How to make Tomato Mint Coconut Rice
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Recipe
Tomato mint coconut rice
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp ghee
Tempering
- ½ tsp split urad dal
- ½ tsp chana dal
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- 10 curry leaves
- 2 inch cinnamon stick
- 3 cloves
- 3 split cardamom
- 10 to 15 cashews
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
Main Ingredient
- 6 cups cooked white rice around 1.5 cups dry rice yields 6 cups cooked white rice, I used basmati rice
- 1 big onion diced
- 2 big or 3 medium size tomatoes diced
- 2 split green chillies
- â…“ cup packed mint leaves
- â…“ cup dry coconut powder or fresh grated coconut
- Cilantro for garnish
Spices
- Salt to taste
- 1 tbsp kitchen king masala if not available substitute with 1 tsp coriander powder + ½ more chilli powder + ½ cumin powder
- ½ tsp Plain red chilli Powder Indian
- 1 tsp garam masala powder
Instructions
- Heat a pan and add oil and ghee.
- Once they are hot, add the tempering ingredients and saute until they are slightly brown and sizzle.
- Now add diced onions and split green chillies along with ½ tsp salt.
- Saute onions until golden brown.
- Then add the Kitchen king masala, Red chilli powder, mix well and let it saute for 1 to 2 mins.
- Now add mint leaves and saute for a min.
- Add diced tomato pieces along with ½ tsp salt, mix well and saute for 2 to 3 mins.
- Cover and cook until tomatoes are completely cooked and oil is separating onto the sides.
- Now add coconut powder, garam masala powder mix well and cook for 2 to 3 mins.
- Add cooked white rice( make sure its not piping hot or else it will be mashed when you are mixing) and enough salt( add 1 ½ tsp first and check ) and mix well carefully without mashing it. Reduce the heat and saute for couple mins.
- Check the taste for salt and spices, garnish with cilantro and serve hot with raita or plain yogurt.
Video
Notes
- Stale rice works really well too with fried rice preparations. If using fresh cooked rice, make sure it is not too hot while adding to the pan and be careful not to mix rice too much or else it will be mashed up.
- To increase spice levels : Increase green chillies by 1 or 2 and if you want a little more increase ½ tsp red chilli powder.
- Reduce the spice levels : Skip the green chillies and add red chilli powder only if you need it after taste testing at the end.
- If you want to add protein to make it a well balanced meal, you can add shrimp or small chicken pieces after the tomato mixture is cooked and cook them well before adding the rice.
Don't forget to Pin the recipe to your recipes board for later. Love tomato based recipes? Then check out my super delicious and fool proof Tomato pachadi | South Indian Tomato chutney or Tomato coconut salmon curry Indian style
Padma.y says
Sooo tasty. Looking forward for more delicious recipes. Pl pin pastha recipe for kids
Yamini says
Thank you!! Am glad you liked it. Sure I will upload more pasta recipes for kids soon.