Tomato Thokku is a South Indian style spicy tomato pickle. It is very easy to prepare and perfect to pair with rice, idli or dosa.
What is tomato thokku?
Tomato thokku or thakkali thokku is a spicy South Indian (mainly Tamilian) style tomato pickle that is quite popular in Tamil nadu. It is prepared by sauteing the tomatoes along with spices, until they shrink and ooze oil.
Tomato thokku can be made in a completely ground or coarse paste form. The shelf like of thokku depends on the amount of moisture. The lesser the moisture the more will be the shelf life of tomato thokku.
Unlike regular pickle, that needs sun basking for few days, this tomato pickle is ready to eat after sauteing and takes very less time to prepare.
Ingredients Needed to make Tomato Thokku
- Tomatoes: Medium to big sized ripe vine tomatoes or any variety of tomatoes.
- Spices: Turmeric, red chilli powder, and sambhar powder is used to make the pickle.
- Whole Spices: Fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and dried whole red chillies are used.
- Curry Leaves: Fresh or dried curry leaves.
- Asafetida: To add nice pungent flavors in the pickle.
- Oil: I have used olive oil but you can add any oil of your choice.
How to make Tomato Thokku?
There are two ways to make the tomato thokku.
Either chopped tomatoes or a coarse puree can be used. Alternatively canned tomatoes can also be used.
Dry roast fenugreek, whole red chilli, and mustard seeds and make a powder. Heat oil in a pan and saute the mustard seeds, asafetida and curry leaves. Add chooped tomatoes / puree, turmeric, salt, jaggery, red chilli powder, and sambhar powder. Cook on low heat until thickened.
Now add the roasted seeds powder and cook until oil oozes out from tomatoes. Cool and store in an air tight container and store in refrigerator.
Serving and Variations
Serve the tomato thokku with curd rice, lemon rice, idli, upma or paratha. You can also pair it with plain boiled rice. Similarly to tomato thokku, coriander leaves, mint leaves and curry leave thokku is also very popular.
Other Pickle Recipes
Looking for more such easy recipes to get some ideas for your meals? Do not miss my Falafel Pita Salad Bowl and Soya Chaap Masala and the best one’s Bread Upma.
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Tomato Thokku
Equipment
- Saucepan
Ingredients
- 8 medium sized red tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon oil
- few curry leaves
- 2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 pinch asafetida
- 4-5 whole dried red chilli
- 2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
- 2 teaspoon sambhar powder
- salt to taste
- 1 small piece jaggery
Instructions
- Wash and chop tomatoes. Dry roast fenugreek seeds,whole red chillies, curry leaves and mustard seeds in a pan and grind to make a powder .
- Heat oil in a pan, add remaining mustard seeds, curry leaves, and asafetida. Sauté for a minute.
- Add chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, salt red chilli powder, and sambhar powder.
- Cook on low heat for about 20 minutes or till tomatoes are mushy. Now add jaggery and roasted powder and mix well.
- Cook again till oil comes out from edges.
- Remove from heat and serve with rice , curd rice , or paratha.
- Store in refrigerator.
Notes
- Canned tomatoes can also be used in the recipe
- For deep red colour use Kashmiri red chilli powder
- Other versions of thokku include corriander leaves thokku, curry leaves thokku and mint thokku.
Nutrition
This post was originally posted in 2014, since I have updated the pictures and content for better engagement.
Always let me know how these recipes turned out in the comments below and give a ★ rating. I will be so excited to hear how you enjoyed your Tomato Thokku and please do share your tips and tricks with me.
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Best Regards,
Sapana Behl
Tomato pickle looks delicious.
Yummy thokku
Fingerlicking tomato thokku, my mouth is just watering here.
Thooku looks so delicious Sapana..very nice..
I can have it all the day with idli/dosa/rice too…
Pickle looks lovely, love the rich color.
This is a great dish to make with juicy summer tomatoes. Love that color.
My favourite dish. Such a lovely colour and should have tasted swell…
The tomato pickle looks nice and vibrant.i remember my daughter giving me a jar of this and we all loved it.
One of our fav chutneys! Love it!
Must have been yummy.
I make some versions of tomato chutney regularly but this sambhar powder one is new. Will give it a try.
This spicy tomato thokku recipe must be really delicious as the pics say it all. We too make chutney but with different Ingredients. This sounds so interesting and yummy with usage of sambar masala.
Truly a finger licking recipe and so unique …as tomato pickle is never a part of north indian cuisine. Wow.
The Tomato Thokku looks fiery and absolutely delicious! We make this too, but this version with sambar powder is new to me. I’ll definitely try this out shortly. At home, all of us are Thokku fans, and have it with just about everything. I’m sure we will love this version too. 🙂
Beautiful colour of tomato thokku, looks very inviting. When I was in Bangalore, during the tomato season my neighbor would make some and would always give a jar of it. Perfect condiment that goes with flatbreads, rice, idli and even as a sandwich spread.
What a yummy looking tomato chutney that is Sapana. Spicy, tangy and delicious. We love this on just about everything 🙂
The tomato thokku looks just delicious. Just by seeing your picture, I get tickling in my tongue. It looks exactly the way my mom prepares. She usually makes this and sends me it. It tastes heavenly with roti and Idli/Dosa. Only very few times, I tried it. But never nailed it. Your post encouraged me to try again. Thanks for sharing this.
One awesome delicious tokku. The colour and the spice is what I love using sambhar powder is something I have not tried. Will definitely try in my next batch.
This is the perfect timing to prepare tomato recipes. I made last week one of our favorite pickle 🙂 your recipe pictures are mouthwatering!
Great recipe Sapana. Everything looks so perfect- the color, texture, consistency- very tempting. The photos are beautiful. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Your Spicy tomato thokku looks absolutely gorgeous, I love all your clicks in this post. Recipe looks really simple and quick too
This is such an awesome delicious tokku. This thokku is such a staple at my home but i have never used sambhar powder though! May be I should give it a shot in my next batch.
A must have thokku during the tomato season. I have made the thokku both ways like you have mentioned. They work well with idli, dosai or roti and the best choice with curd rice.
This spicy tomato thokku looks lip smacking. I love to have this thokku with rice, idli, dosa or chapathi.
Everyyear we make tomato thokku and I simply love the process. Here, I adore the colour of the thokku and the images of the tomatoes are fanatastic.
Beautiful color of this tomato thokku ! Love to have in any kind of meal 🙂
So inviting spread, wanna make sometime …