Tomato Saar is a quintessential Maharashtrian preparation, also a ‘must have’ dish for most of our festive fares.
Tomato is paired with coconut and then tempered with a few spices to make a sweet-spicy-tangy ‘soup’ usually as an accompaniment to steamed rice, although it can also be served like a soup on its own.
Every Maharashtrian household has a ‘unique’ recipe for Tomato Saar. This recipe is my mom’s and I have followed exactly as she makes it. (I am surprised that after all these years I have missed blogging about it here on My Foodcourt!) Freshly scrapped coconut is the best option for the authentic saar taste, but you can also use canned coconut milk for a quick option.
In other news, after my earlier rant about the camera, the DSLR is finally home and being played with. I am still discovering the unlimited features, so you will soon see a lot of my ‘discoveries’ with the same either here on the blog or on the FB page here.
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 4-5 | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 20 minutes |
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Tomato Saar is a quintessential Maharashtrian preparation, also a ‘must have’ dish for most of our festive fares.
Tomato is paired with coconut and then tempered with a few spices to make a sweet-spicy-tangy ‘soup’ usually as an accompaniment to steamed rice, although it can also be served like a soup on its own.
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- 9 - 10 ripe tomatoes
- 3/4 cup coconut freshly grated
- 2 1/2 tsps jaggery grated (or as required)
- 1/2 tsp red chilli powder (optional)
- salt to taste
- 2 tsp ghee or oil (homemade ghee tastes the best)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp seeds cumin
- 1/4 tsp asafoetida
- 1 - 2 dry red chillies broken into pieces
- 10 - 12 curry leaves torn into pieces with hand
- coriander leaves Chopped, for garnishing
- Cook the tomatoes in a pressure pan until soft (one whistle and then 5 mins on sim)
- Meanwhile grind the coconut to a fine paste using little water.
- Once the tomatoes are cooked, cool and remove skin and chop off the head.
- Grind the tomatoes along with the coconut to a smooth paste.
- You can sieve the paste through a mesh at this stage. I like to skip this step and directly use the paste as it is.
- Add sufficient water to the paste to bring it to a soup like consistency.
- Add jaggery,salt and chilli powder (if using) and bring it to a boil.
- In a small pan/kadai, heat the ghee/oil.
- Add the mustard seeds.
- Add the cumene seeds once the mustard seeds splutter.
- Switch off the gas and add the asafoetida, curry leaves and the red chillies.
- Pour this this tempering over the tomato saar.
- Garnish with fresh chopped coriander leaves and serve with hot rice or just as it is like a soup.
A good replacement for dal when one’s craving for something tangy!
yes Jagruti..almost like ‘soulfood’ for me 🙂
sounds so much like rasam. Would love a hot glass of that right now. Thanks for sharing. All the best with your DSLR. When I got mine, I was photographing maniac for months. The first photo is lovely
Thanks Anita. Hmm..am getting in the maniac mode now 🙂
I don’t think I remember the taste of saar w/coconut anymore! I should make this!
Mine is a lazy person’s one-pot coconut-less saar. I add the phodni first, pressure cook the tomatoes with some tur dal — which makes it even more rasam-like, except that saar is sweet — and then use my handheld blender. I make it very soupy so we end up drinking it like it were soup.
hmm..you try the coconut one I will try the coconut less one :)..
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Hi,
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Thanks Ramya will check it out
looks nice n delicious
Well , Thank you for a really wonderful recipe. We had all Gent’s Cooking Party! Wives to be served only! One Dish per G’man. I was entrusted with Tomato soup and I generally followed the recipe with minor changes like using Coconut milk rather than powder , sugar for sweetening. For Fodni I omitted Green Chili and and Curry leaves but used Ginger and garlic Instead. Was for 30 Persons, It came out to be wonderful with all ladies requesting Recipe. By the way My wife was not here so everyone knew that I had no direct help! Well thank you once again !
Jagdish
Great to hear that.