Tomatoes with Yoghurt

This is one of those things that sounds not quite right – but it’s lovely. I first had it in the late 80s when my Mum found a recipe in a vegetarian cookbook in a bargain bookshop. I have loved it ever since. The acidity of the tomatoes works really well the sharpness of the yoghurt. The boy claims that this is something I am subjecting him to.

1tsp mustard seeds

6 tomatoes, diced

250ml plain yoghurt

A big pinch of salt

If you can be bothered, peel the tomatoes first by scalding them with boiling water. It doesn’t matter if you can’t get every scrap of skin off. Then chop them up. Having a bowl handy helps as the chopping board gets wet very quickly, so being able to save the juice helps.

Put the mustard seeds in a dry frying pan until they pop and then turn the heat down quite low. Add the tomatoes and their juice, along with the salt and give it a stir until it stops fizzling.

Then the yoghurt. I’m a big fan of Turkish yoghurt and favour Yayla brand – the 10% fat is the best and comes in the tubs with the blue label. The green one is 3.5% and is a bit cheaper, but is also very good.

Stir in the yoghurt and heat very slowly so it doesn’t split. It just needs to be warmed through and nowhere near boiling.

This is Indian in origin, but over the years I have been surprised at how many things it goes with.

I happily augment with other things from time to time – turmeric, black pepper, garam masala, fresh coriander or mint. Either way the boy is not impressed.