ADD TANG TO YOUR LIFE WITH TOMATOES

Tomatoes are juicy,healthy and sweet. Tomatoes have a number of health benefits and they are great appetisers.They have become an essential constituent in many Indian dishes.Tomatoes are tossed into rasam(pepper water) or sambar or kurma or soups for they add taste and colour to any dish.

Tomatoes are a rich source of Vitamin A and contains lot of Vitamin C and small amounts of iron,  fat, malic acid and Vitamin B.

Tomatoes purify our blood and also removes disease causing toxins from the kidneys and stimulates them.It contains beta-carotene and lycopene that fights against cancer.

A tomato is at its nutrition best when it is fully ripe as the starch present in the tomato gets converted into dextrose sugar and also  the Vitamin C content increases.

Tomatoes comes under the list of "must eat foods" and regular consumption of tomatoes limits the acidic value of the urine and reduces the chances of urinary infection.

It is widely used in Indian, Spanish, Sri-Lankan and Italian cooking.

Here is an easy to make soup-

Tomato and cocunut milk soup

Ingredients

5 tomatoes
1 onion
1 small carrot
1 small potato
100ml thick coconut milk
3-4 flakes garlic
3tsp oil
2tsp butter
1 teaspoon pepper powder
Few pieces of bread cut into small squares and deep fried
Salt to taste

Method

Chop the tomatoes,potato and carrot. Dice the garlic and onion . In a pressure pan , heat a teaspoon of oil and fry the onions and garlic until they become pink. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for about two minutes. Now, add the chopped carrot and potato and pressure cook for 3-4 whistles.

After cooling, open the pressure pan and puree the entire contents.


Heat the butter in a pan, add the tomato puree, bring it to boil and cook for about 4-5 minutes.Remove the pan from fire.Add the coconut milk and mix well.Bring the pan to fire once again but do not boil as it may curdle . As soon as it is heated, remove from fire and add the bread pieces,pepper powder and serve hot with a tablespoon of butter.