Tomato Fry

Tomatoes?? Are they not too common in our lives to write a blog post on a recipie using this humble fruit? Is this humble vegetable/fruit of any health benefit? 

YES!! It indeeds is... Tomatoes are a very rich source of Vitamin A and C apart from Vitamin B6. Tomatoes can help you lose weight. If you are on a diet, build lots of tomatoes into your everyday eating. 

They make a great snack and can be used a lot in salads and other meals.

Because tomatoes contain lots of water and fiber, they are “filling food”; one of those foods that fills you up fast without adding a lot of calories or fat. 

Lets move away from the usual usage of tomatoes and see how to make something different with this humble fruit.   

Ingredients for Tomato fry:

Tomatoes - 4, medium sized

Onions - 3, medium sized

Coconut - 1/4 of a medium sized coconut, grated

Green chillies - 2

Dry red chillies - one

Mustard - 1 teaspoon

curry leaves - 10 small leaves

Method:

Chop the onions, in equal size. 

Chop the tomatoes. 

Chop green chillies lengthwise to around one inch length

chopped onion in the frying pan

Take a frying pan and pour 2-3 tablespoons of oil (coconut oil is preferred). Once the oil is hot, put one teaspoon of mustard into it. Once the mustard splutters, chilly and curry leaves. 

Add the chopped onions and stir till they turn light brown (to be exact, the color of financial/economic times paper colour :). Addsing salt to onions, speeds up the sauteing process.

Add 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1/2 teaspoon of chilly powder and the chopped green chillies and mix thoroughly. This dish tastes better when spicy. However, you can add/reduce the no. of green chillies, depending  upon how spicy you want the dish to be.

Once mixed thoroughly, add the tomatoes and close the pan with its lid. Tomatoes get cooked faster, when the cut portion of the tomatoes face down. 

After 2 or 3 minutes remove the lid, add the grated coconut into the pan and mix thoroughly. 

Grated Coconut

Tomato Fry is ready. This is a very good dish for chapattis, pooris etc. and also a side dish for lunch with rice. You can choose not to add grated coconut into this. However, the idea of adding grated coconut into this is that the sour taste of tomatoes is avoided . Also, adding coconut helps people who have acidity and donot eat tomatoes due to this problem since the coconut nullifies the sourness of tomatoes and also is a very good coolant for the stomach.

Final one after adding coconut

Serves 2 people if used as a dish for chapatti and serves 3-4 people if used as a side dish with rice.

#tomatofry, #keralarecipes, #keraladishes, #vegetarianrecipes, #vegetarian