Sev Tomato - My Favourite

Tomatoes are my favourite fruit/veg. I'm not going to get into a debate about which they are, I just know that they taste fabulous, and can really make a dish.

A cheddar cheese sandwich on thick, crusty white bread is made a thousand times better by adding a few juicy slices of ripe tomato. Pasta turns from bland to fabulous with a rich tomato-based sauce. Little cherry tomatoes of all shapes and colours add a new dimension to a boring bowl of lettuce.

One of my favourite dishes of recent times is one that I got from my Gujurati friend's mum - Sev Tomato. It is soooooooooooo easy to make. And it's so good that my dog, who knows she's not allowed to eat off my plate, actually stole this from me as I was half way through. Obviously she thought it was her food!


Sev Tomato

1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
pinch of hing (asafoetida)
1 teaspoon of ginger paste
7-8 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon haldi (turmeric powder)
1 teaspoon dhaniya (coriander powder)
salt to taste
1-2 handfuls nylon sev

1. Heat the oil then add the jeera, hing and ginger paste. Stir for a few seconds.
2. Add tomatoes, haldi, dhaniya and salt - mix well. Cook for 8-10 minutes, until tomatoes are really soft and disintegrating.
3. Serve topped with sev - eat quickly or the sev goes all mushy.

Eat with roti/chapatti (or if you're like me, straight out of the pan with a spoon!)
As I'm such a tomato freak, I often eat this without the Sev, and it's still really tasty.

For those that don't know, sev is made from besan (gram/chickpea flour), mixed into a dough with a few bits and bobs, pressed through a small sieve to make little, wiggly besan worms, then deep fried.
Picture courtesy of the Bengali Sweet House - USA, where you can buy Sev amongst many other Indian items.

If you want to try making your own sev, then try this recipe from Tarla Dalal, Indian cookery queen.