For this week’s Cooking from Cookbook Challenge, I have a quick and easy recipe; tomato bhaat. Is it tomato bhaat or tomato upma? After reading the ingredients list, don’t ask me why it is called Bhaat. I asked myself the same question last week, when I found this recipe in my recipes folder. I thought bhaat is rice or a rice dish in Kannadiga and Marathi cuisines. However, I did not have this gyan (knowledge) about the cuisines when I wrote down the recipe some 14-15 years ago. Yes, you read it right. I jolted down this recipe that long ago! Had I known this fact back then, I would have asked the person who gave me the recipe the same question. If I wrote down the recipe name as tomato bhaat, then tomato bhaat it is!
This recipe to me is a variation of upma with lots & lots of tomatoes. I made this recipe twice in the last few days. The first time I made it, I followed the recipe as given except for cutting back a little on oil and replaced ghee with oil. Today, I used the same amount of oil as called for in the recipe and used more water to cook the rava~semolina~sooji but made half the recipe. The recipe also called for chana dal and since I did not have any in my pantry today, I used peanuts instead.
I was in a hurry to get to a party and could not click many pictures. This is the only picture for this post. 🙂 Well, not quite. I have one more picture but of the piece of paper where I noted the recipe. I will upload that tomorrow. You see, once I have the draft ready, it is very difficult for me to stay away from that “publish” button. My fingers are itching to click that button 😉 and I here I go, published! 🙂
Total Time: 20 – 30 minutes
Preparation: 5 – 10 minutes
Cooking: 15 – 20 minutes
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup Oil (I usually use olive oil but today it was Canola)
- ½ tsp. Mustard Seeds
- ½ tbsp. Urad Dal
- 2 tbsp. Chana Dal or Peanuts (I used peanuts)
- 5 Whole Cashews broken into 4 pieces
- ½ small Onion sliced or ¼ cup sliced Onions
- 4 Green Chilies cut ½” pieces (adjust to taste)
- 4-5 Curry Leaves
- ½ tbsp. Ginger Garlic Paste
- Pinch of Turmeric
- 1 medium to large Vine Ripe Tomato chopped or ¾ cup chopped Tomatoes (I used vine tomato but any variety would do)
- ½ tbsp. Salt (according to taste)
- 1 cup Coarse Sooji or Rava or Coarse Semolina (I use roasted rava, check notes below)
- 2 ¼ cup Water
- ¼ cup Milk
- Cilantro to garnish
Preparation:
- Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and urad dal. When the mustard seeds pop, add peanuts and lightly roast for a minute or two. If using chana dal, roast until dal is well roasted and turns golden brown in color.
- Add cashews and mix well and add onion, green chilies and curry leaves. Sauté until onions are translucent.
- Add ginger garlic paste and sauté until raw smell of ginger is gone.
- Add turmeric, salt and mix well.
- Add tomatoes, mix, cover and cook for 2-3 minutes or until tomatoes are mushy.
- Add water, milk and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat or turn of the fire and add sooji stirring it constantly to avoid any lumps.
- Once the sooji is properly mixed in the water, turn the flame to high and give it a good stir.
- Reduce the fire to medium, cover and cook for 2-3 minutes until all the water is absorbs. Uncover, stir, cover and continue to cook on low flame for another 3-5 minutes or until sooji is completely cooked.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with some lime or favorite chutney.
Note:
- I usually dry roast sooji and then store it in my pantry, as this increases the shelf life of sooji. The first time I made this bhaat last week, I used unroasted sooji and it tasted fine. However, I prefer dry roasted sooji.
- Last time I made this bhaat, I used less oil (⅓ cup oil for 2 cups of sooji) and felt I could have used ½ cup of oil as called for in the recipe. I used 1: 2 sooji to water ratio + ¼ cup milk to cook the sooji. Today I used ¼ cup oil for 1 cup sooji and 1: 2 ½ sooji to water + milk ratio. Are you totally lost here? To cut the chase, what I concluded is, if using ¼ cup oil for 1 cup sooji, then 1:2 sooji to water + little milk ratio will still work. But if using less oil, 1:2 ½ water ratio would be better to properly cook the sooji. Second, we like sticky bhaat vs. the dry bhaat. If one prefers not so sticky bhaat or upma, I would suggest 1:2 sooji to water ratio.
- If using chana dal, wash the dal and soak the dal for few minutes until all the prep work is done. No need to pre-soak it for a longer time. Also, chana dal needs to be roasted a little longer than peanuts.
- I used oil but can use ghee or clarified butter instead. Or can use ½ oil and ½ ghee.
Priya says
Wow, wat a breakfast dish, serve me with some spicy coconut chutney, i can finish that plate in no time.
Priya Srinivasan says
The Picture is looks great!!! Delicious breakfast, with all the goodness of veggies, would love on a Weekend morning!!! 🙂
Priya Srinivasan says
I meant i would love to add some more veggies and make it as a weekend breakfast!!! 🙂
Janani says
I like rava kichadi a lot thats how we call this at home isnt it a delight to eat so yumm na.
Vinitha says
This looks like a perfect healthy quick snack/breakfast
harini says
I always wonder why this one cannot be called Tomato upma 🙂
nayana says
looks delicious n a perfect breakfast dish….
veena says
Rava Kichadi in any avatar is yumm:-). This looks very nice
Pavani says
We usually call this tomato bath — don’t ask me why. That’s what we were told it is and we kept the tradition 🙂
Lovely clicks. Love that background. What is it? Did you make it? I’ve been looking for something that shade for a while now.
MySpicyKitchen says
I didn’t know about it. We do add tomatoes to upma once in a while but never give it a specific name. Nice to know it is indeed called tomato bhaat.
I did not make the background, Pavani. I don’t have a patio or a balcony to make my own background boards and I am afraid to do these projects indoors in fear of messing up the wooden floor.