Tomato Gojju (Boiled, smashed tomatoes with delicious seasoning)

Tomato Gojju (Boiled, smashed tomatoes with delicious seasoning)

Tomato gojju is a simple, tasty side dish. Spicy and tangy all in one bite. To this side dish tomato provides sweetness and tanginess and the seasoning provides all the flavours that blow your mind! :-) Gojju is a watery-medium thick side dish usually made out of veggies. Gojjus are prepared with a wide variety of vegetables. Typically gojjus are made with cooked/uncooked veggies that are smashed/ground and then seasoned for a heavenly taste and flavour. 

My granny and mom usually prepared this tomato gojju when they had to make a quick meal. With very few ingredients, this side dish gets ready in minutes. Perfect for a busy weekday dinner/lunch, when you need to make something quick, which is comforting.

Back home everybody loves gojju prepared from any vegetable. It's one of our comfort foods. A bowl of hot steaming rice and lots of gojju makes our tummy happy. :-) Does that work at your home too? Do give this recipe a try and let me know how it works out for you. :-) Two more such gojju's, quick fix lunch recipes for you: potato gojju in curds, tomato, potato gojju

Ingredients:

2 medium sized tomatoes
3-4 green chillies
1 dried red chilli
2 tablespoons of oil
1 leaflet of curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon of urad dal
2 tablespoons of freshly chopped corrainder
A pinch of asafoetida
Salt to taste

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 25 minutes

Preparation Method:

1. Wash the tomatoes, green chillies and pressure cook them using a cup of water until done. 

2. Peel the tomatoes. Smash the cooked tomatoes and the cooked green chillies in a bowl using your hands. 

3. There shouldn't be any large chunks of tomato in the gojju, so boil the tomatoes well. If the tomatoes aren't cooked enough they remain hard, uncooked and stay as large chunks no matter how much you try to smash them with your hands. 

4. Add salt to taste and all the water in which the tomatoes were cooked. We need the gojju to have a thick consitency, so do not add too much water.

5. Add chopped fresh corrainder, a pinch of asafoetida melted in a tablespoon of water and mix well. If your using asafoetida powder instead of melted asafoetida, then add it to the seasoning. 

6. Seasoning the gojju/smashed tomoato mixture: Heat oil in a tadka pan, add mustard seeds to it. When the mustard seeds start popping, add in the urad dal and fry it for few seconds. When the urad dal starts to brown add in the curry leaves, dried red chilli broken into pieces and asafoetida powder(if melted asafoetida wasn't added earlier to the gojju) and fry them for few seconds. Remove the seasoning off heat and add it to the gojju. Mix well.

7. Serve tomoato gojju with a bowl of steaming hot rice or with curd rice.

Side Note:

  • You can prepare gojju with hot just cooked tomatoes or let them cool so that you can smash them with your hands. Doesn't make any difference if the cooked tomatoes are hot or cold. 
  • Instead of cooking the green chillies, you can even add fresh green chillies to the gojju by smashing them. That way too it gives out its spiciness which gets infused into the gojju.
  • You can also add boiled potatoes to this gojju, making it yet another tasty potato-tomato side dish to go with rice.

Find more Konkani cuisine side dishes here

Tags: Vegetarian, spicy, lunch, sides, dinner, konkani food, easy to prepare, less time to prepare, quick recipe, konkani dish, side dish, tomato, gojju, bachelor recipe.