As a home cook, I am always on the watch out for fast and simple recipes on the net to make my meal planning and preparation job easier.

There are some really quick recipes that rely on so much processed food as short-cuts,  I will find it ridiculous if they take up longer time to cook in the first place.

What I welcome more are wholesome and convenient recipes that use none of those ingredients born out of a science lab, like this Whole Tomato Rice.

It’s a really convenient way to prepare a one-pot rice meal, basically involves cooking a whole tomato and rice together in the cooker, with olive oil, black pepper and salt as seasoning.  But remember to remove about 1/5 of the water you would normally use to cook your rice, otherwise you’ll end up with soggy rice due to the high water content in the tomato.

I have long kept away the bulky electric rice cooker since I started cooking my rice the stove top way.  But that did not stop me from trying out this latest online sensation.  The concept is to cook the tomato and rice together, the stove top can do that as well.

I added some grated cheddar cheese and a dash of dried sweet basil for additional seasoning.  I have also seen others getting all creative with butter, prawns, and sausages.  It is a great recipe keep, took me only 20 minutes in all to prepare and cook the basic version, but the potential for variation looks limitless.

WHOLE TOMATO RICE
SOURCE
INGREDIENTS :

- 2 cups rice
- 1 and 3/4 cups of water
- 1 big tomato
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons grated cheddar cheese
- 1 teaspoon dried sweet basil

INSTRUCTIONS :

01. Wash and drain rice.

02. In a cooking pot, add rice, water, pepper, salt and olive oil. Stir to mix well.

03. Remove the tomato stem (see photo 2), and cut a cross slit on its base (see photo 3).  Place it in the center of the pot.

04. Cover the pot and let the rice cook over a small-medium fire for about 8 minutes.

05. Turn off the heat when all the water has been absorbed by the rice.  Let the pot of rice sit undisturbed in the covered pot for another 10 minutes.

06. With a spatula, toss and mix the tomato and rice well.  Serve immediately.

NOTES TO SELF :

If using rice cooker, the cooking process in step 3 and 4 will be automatically completed by the cooker.  Let the rice sit in the cooker undisturbed for about 10 minutes before mixing the rice with the tomato.  Rice will be less soggy.