Mumbai Mast Tomato Pulao

My 161st recipe, "Mumbai Mast Tomato Pulao | Mumbai street style tomato pulao". An extremely flavorful easy tomato rice recipe. A tomato pulao recipe you can pack for your office lunch box within couple of minutes. Without worrying about crunching into whole spices like a cinnamon stick, bay leaves or so.

If there is one dish which RK holds high regards for, then it would surely be the Paneer Biryani. He had tasted it during his bachelor days. Loaded with Indian spices it is one which will make Indian food lovers happy. You can watch my video recipe here on my youtube channel.

While RK was working in Pune during his bachelor days, RK said that he used to visit a road side stall who specialize on North Indian Cuisine for dinner. Their specialties were stuffed parathas and an extremely flavorful paneer biryani. RK said that he loves that biryani so much that he used to have it almost every other day. There is no wonder why he liked the food so much.

Mumbai and the neighboring Pune is famous for their street food and they cook up wonderful dishes which taste even better than the ones you can get from a hi-fi restaurant there. So when I was thinking to prepare something different for lunch today, all I could think of was to recreate a Mumbai street food style tomato pulav. Since I had not tasted that paneer biryani, I had to browse through the net to search for recipes which were a close match.

This Mumbai mast tomato pulao immediately caught my attention. It was very easy to make, far different with a unique flavor when compared to my South Indian Tomato pulao recipe. And when I served it to RK, he said that I had absolutely nailed it. It was extremely flavorful, delicious and he liked it better than the paneer biryani which was close to his heart. A job well done 😉 The recipe was adapted from here. 

Mumbai Mast Tomato Pulao

Mumbai Mast Tomato Pulao

Revathi Palani

Mumbai Mast Tomato Pulao is a Mumbai street food style rice. It is very easy to make and is extremely delicious and flavorful.

4.75 from 4 votes

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 15 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Servings 2

Youtube Video

Ingredients

  

• ¾ Cup Basmati rice
• 1 ½ Tbsp Oil
• 1 Tbsp Ginger garlic paste
• ½ large Onion (Cubed)
• 1 large Tomato (Chopped)
• 1 ½ Tbsp Tomato ketchup
• ¼ tsp Turmeric
• ½ tsp Red chilli powder
• 1 tsp Pav bhaji masala powder
• 1 tsp Salt (Adjust as per taste)
• ¼ large Red Bell Pepper (Cubed)
• 1 small Green chilli (Finely chopped)
• 20 small cubes of Paneer
• Coriander leaves - For garnishing
• 2 tsp Ghee (Optional)

Instructions

 

• First rinse rice and cook in any method you prefer like open pot/instant pot or pressure cooker. Add few drops of oil while cooking to get well separated strands. Bring to room temperature and keep aside.
• In case of using store bought paneer, soak it in hot water for about 10 minutes. Remove it from the water and keep aside.
• Now, heat a pan with oil in medium-high heat, add the ginger-garlic paste and saute for 30 secs. Follow it by onion and saute until translucent. 
  
• Now, add the tomato and give a stir. Then add the ketchup and give a quick stir.
  
• Follow it by turmeric powder, chilli powder, pav bhaji masala powder, salt and mix well.  
  
• Add the capsicum, green chilli, give a nice stir and add ½ cup of water. Mix well and turn the flame to low-medium. Cook for a minute.  
  
• Now add the paneer cubes and stir once.
  
• Continue to cook until the mixture gets thickened up. By now all the raw smell of masala would be gone.   
  
• Finally, add the cooked rice to the mixture and mix well until combined. Make sure not to break the rice strands. Turn off the flame.
  
• Garnish with coriander leaves, ghee and mix well.  
  
• Serve hot and enjoy with a simple papad / raita of your choice / potato chips or just some plain yogurt

Notes | FAQ

- Do adjust the spiciness ((red chili powder) and salt according to your taste.

- Adding paneer is optional, but I highly recommend adding it. You can also add green peas.

- Adding ghee is purely optional, but it gives a nice flavor and glaze to the pulao.

- You can use left-over rice as well. After adding the rice, saute for a few minutes in low flame until the rice warms up.

- This recipe uses Pav Baji masala for the best flavor. If you cannot find it, you can add garam masala powder instead for a comparable flavor experience.

 
Sending this recipe to the First Blog Anniversary Celebration of Delectable Flavours.