Perisan Tomato Rice | Estamboli Polo

If you are looking for a simple-to-cook yet tasty dish, Persian Tomato Rice can be one of your best options. The ingredients are not hard to provide, it won’t take a long time to prepare it and it can be a suitable dish for vegetarians

Persian Tomato Rice | Estamboli Polo

Estamboli polo is consideredas a meal that can be prepared all-round the year since finding its ingredients can’t be that hard as it includes only rice, tomato and sometimes potato. There are many recipes for this simple-yet-delicious dish like adding meat, soy or chicken for people who believe rice and tomato are not enough for a meal.

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Prep Time 3 hours hrs

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 4 hours hrs

Course Main Course

Cuisine persian

Servings 4 people

Calories 250 kcal

Ingredients

  

• 4 cups rice
• 6 big tomatoes
• 1 big onion
• 4 potatoes
• Oil as mush as required
• Salt, pepper and turmeric as mush as required

Instructions

 

• About 4 hours before you want to cook Estamboli Polo, put the rice in a big bowl and wash it several times. Then add some water to the bowl and let the rice for some time.
• Peel and chop the onions and potatoes. Use some oil to stir fry the chopped onions. Do not forget to add some pepper and turmeric.
• After a while add the chopped potatoes and let them cook for a while.
• Peel and grate the tomatoes and add them to the other ingredients. Let all of them cook, the tomato juice must be gone after a while.
• Add the rice and the water which the rice is in, to the other ingredients. Let all the ingredients cook and boil. When the water has completely evaporated, Mix all the ingredients.
• Add some cinnamon and butter, cover the pot with a piece of cloth as an infuser. Use a heat diffuser and let the Tomato Rice cook for about 30 minutes.

Why Estamboli Polo is a popular dish?

Combination of other ingredients and rice is quite popular in Turkey, as well. That’s why some people suggest that this dish is originally Turkish. But, no matter what, this dish can be really pleasant to eat.

The recipe varies based on where you live, your diet and generally each individual taste. Vegetarians prefer the easiest type of Estamboli meaning rice with tomato.

Using only one pot to make the whole dish is another reason why it has remained every Persian household favorite.

Hardly ever can you find an Iranian not having rice on his daily eating routine. The popularity of rice has created the whole structure of Persian food as we have various meals including rice alongside stew or different ingredients and also the simplest way to have rice cooked with tomato that has ended up being out beloved Estamboli.

Serving Estamboli Polo or Tomato Rice

• The most common things eaten with Tomato Rice are yogurt and Shirazi Salad just like Dapmokhtak. But do not forget Sabzi Khordan.

Tips for cooking Tomato Rice

• If you are a big fan of meat, it can be added to this dish. You’d better make small meatballs with minced meat and then top the dish with those meatballs. Rear Shank can also be cooked and added and mixed with other ingredients.
• Using a piece of cloth as an infuser and a heat diffuser is necessary for cooking this dish. Otherwise, the rice and Tah Dig might burn.
• Here’s a pro tip: fry some of the minced potatoes (a small part of it) and mix them with the dish before serving it.
• Stir frying some tomato paste with the ingredients can give the dish a better colour.
• Adding 1/2 cup tamarind molasses cam give the dish a sour taste.
• Clearly, adding some saffron to the ingredients gives it a better taste.
• Throughout all these years the only time I saw a very strange recipe for estanboli was when it was cooked with raisin. Though I am not a big fan of sweet meals the sweet Estamboli tasted unbelievably good. The sweetness of raisin is just like how we have it in adas polo recipe
• Bell pepper fans can add the small pieces of yellow and red bell pepper to the dish. Frying the bell pepper pieces with onion slices can add to the lovely smell of the dish.
• Adding half a cup of tamarind juice with boiling water gives Estamboli a sour taste.
• Some prefers having fried potato slices added to the rice.
• professionals believe just having tomato does not give that preferable red color to the rice so adding fried tomato paste is a good way of not just improving the taste but also helping the dish to look lively red.
• Don’t forget the importance of saffron.
• Although it might get a little bit harder but if you add grilled tomato to the rice the taste would turn out to be extraordinary.
• If you are having difficulties cause of high cholesterol, preferably use olive or canola oil and serve steamed vegetables such as zucchini, green beans and carrots beside the dish.

Have you ever cooked are eaten this dish? Which way of cooking it, do you think, makes it taste better? With or without meat? We would love to know about your opinions.