Tomato Rice

View this Recipe in Dhivehi

First of all, this tomato rice recipe has quite a bit of heat, so cut down on the githeyo mirus and the black peppercorns if you want it milder. Second, we think tomato rice tastes best when cooked with ‘haru handoo’ but you can still use whatever rice you have at hand. We did actually test it with basmati rice and it tasted pretty good. Lastly, you can substitute the valhomas with an equal amount of canned tuna, but if you do that you’ll be missing out on that nice smoky flavour and that extra bit of bite.

Serves: 1-2

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• ½ githeyo mirus (or to taste)
• 1 large tomato
• 1 ½ tbsp. oil
• 15 curry leaves
• 3 inch piece of raanbaa
• ½ tsp. peppercorns (or to taste)
• 2/3 cup valhomas (chopped to bite sized cubes)
• ½ tsp. salt (or to taste)
• 5 tbsp. tomato paste
• 3 tsp. rihaakuru (or to taste)
• 2 cups cooked rice

Instructions:

1. Slice the onions, garlic and githeyo mirus thinly, and chop the tomato into small cubes.
2. Heat the oil in a large pot and once it’s heated, add the onions, curry leaves, raanbaa, peppercorns and githeyo mirus.
3. Cook the mixture until the onions become transparent and begin to take on a golden brown colour. Then add the garlic and cook until the garlic becomes soft.
4. Now add the valhomas and salt, give it a good stir, cover the pot and let the mixture cook for around five minutes. Keep the heat on medium.
5. Add the cubed tomatoes, mix well, cover the pot and cook for another additional two minutes.
6. Add the tomato paste followed by rihaakuru, mix well and let it cook for another two minutes.
7. Finally, mix in the cooked rice.