Tomatoes and Rice Recipe
Old Fashioned Tomatoes and Rice
Follow our easy, step-by-step, photo illustrated instructions to learn how to make this old fashioned Tomatoes and Rice recipe at home. Printable recipe included.
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This old fashioned recipe makes a great side dish for about any meal, or just enjoy a bowl by itself. Probably created as a way to stretch a meal, out of necessity, as a way to feed a large family when times were tough.
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Like many of our old Southern favorites, I suspect this Tomatoes and Rice recipe came about out of necessity. Someone needed a way to stretch a few ingredients to feed a large family, and thus our recipe was born.
Still, it’s a really tasty dish and I hope you’ll enjoy it should you try it.
Bacon Grease is one of the key ingredients to giving this dish great flavor. You do save your bacon grease – right?
While you could use butter, or even cooking oil, there’s just something about bacon grease that gives it that down home great taste.
It’s a great side dish, but I’ve been known to just fill up a bowl and enjoy it by itself. Pass another Hoe Cake please. Smile.
Mama made this for us when I was a kid. Like a lot of folks, we saw some tough times of our own. But, I’ve always said that I grew up poor, I just didn’t know it.
It was also a great way to use up some of those fresh tomatoes coming out of her garden. Somehow, they just all seemed to be ready at the same time. Of course, she spent many a late night setting up and canning lots of tomatoes to get us through the winter months as well.
Ready to give our recipe a try? Alright then, let’s head on out to the kitchen, and… Let’s Get Cooking!
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Tomatoes and Rice – You’ll need these ingredients.
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Dice the onion.
I’m only using half of the onion in the photo. It will equal about one half cup diced up like this.
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Place 2 Tablespoons of Bacon Grease in a large sauce pot.
Bacon Grease is a key ingredient in this recipe. While butter or cooking oil will still work, it’s the flavor from the bacon grease that really enhances the dish for that old time flavor.
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Add the diced onions to the sauce pot.
Place the pot over Medium heat on your stove top. Saute the onions until translucent, stirring often.
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While the onions are cooking, chop up the tomatoes.
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Onions should be cooked until tender. Mine were even starting to brown a bit.
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Add 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic. Stir this in with the onions and let it cook for about a minute.
Fresh garlic would be great, but I keep a jar of minced garlic in the refrigerator most of the time. Just saying.
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Then, add the tomatoes to the pot.
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Stir the tomatoes often, and let them cook for about five minutes.
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Add the 1/2 teaspoon of Black Pepper.
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I added 1/2 teaspoon of Salt. Be careful with the salt. The chicken stock I used was unsalted. If yours contains salt, you may not need to add salt at all.
Getting the salt “just right” is very important. You certainly don’t want to add too much or it will be too salty to enjoy. But, rice needs salt to give it great flavor. Start off easy, you can always add a bit more if you need it. Smile.
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Add 4 cups (32oz) of Chicken Stock.
Bring this up to a boil over Medium heat.
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When the stock begins to boil. Add 2 cups of dry white rice.
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Stir everything together.
Let this come back up to a low boil, stirring often.
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When the ingredients start to boil, cover the pot. REDUCE the heat to about Medium-Low.
SIMMER the tomatoes and rice for 15 minutes. Keep it covered, and do not stir. You want to cook it long enough for most of the liquid to evaporate from the pot. You might also want to consult the package for directions on cooking the particular rice you’re using. It may require more or less time to cook than the 15 minutes I’ve suggested here.
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Remove the pot and set it on a folded towel. Let the pot remain cover and let it rest for about 10 minutes.
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Remove the lid and fluff the cooked rice with a fork or large spoon prior to serving.
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Enjoy!
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Tomatoes and Rice Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: Varies
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Stove top
- Cuisine: American, Southern
Description
Old fashioned Tomatoes and Rice is easy to make, and goes a long ways. Makes a great side dish for lots of meals, or just enjoy a bowl by itself.
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons Bacon Grease
1 small Vidalia Onion, chopped
3 fresh, ripe Tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon Garlic, grated
4 cups Chicken Broth (32oz)
2 cups uncooked White Rice
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
Instructions
Place bacon grease in large sauce pot over Medium heat.
Add the chopped onions, saute until translucent.
Add the grated garlic.
Add the chopped tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes, stirring often.
Add the black pepper.
Add the salt, if needed.
Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil.
Add the dry white rice.
Stir well. Bring pot back up to a low boil.
Cover with lid.
REDUCE heat to Medium-Low.
Let simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed and rice is tender. About 15 minutes.
Remove from heat. Let rest for 10 minutes. Stir and fluff rice before serving.
Enjoy!
Keywords: old fashioned, tomatoes, rice, tomatoes and rice, bacon grease, easy, stretch a meal
Your Comments:
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Be Blessed!!!
Steve
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Category: Side Dishes
We grew up eating rice and tomatoes and every variation thereof I think. If you knew how to make rice, you would never starve and all 5 of us kids at least knew how to make rice. The older of my brothers spent 20yr in the Navy – he had three ‘dishes’: Rice, Rice Special (with tomatoes) and Rice Supreme (with tomatoes and hotdog). He never starved. HA! Thanks.
Steve you always surprise us! Surprised to see you used Basmati rice! Don’t you love the long grains and nutty flavor! I love all kinds of rice. Favorite dinner is simple as buttered rice and a cheese omelet. Thank you for the tasty looking Tomatoes and Rice dish and letting us know you are alright.
When you mentioned Oak Island , I had to comment.We have been vacationing there for over 20 years. It feels like home to us (we live in Reidsville, NC ),we love it there. I was sorry to here about all the damage they had and keep all in our prayers.We felt the earthquake here, too.Strange times.
★★★★★
Your recipe today certainly brings back memories from Legends n, long ago. I grew up eating tomatoes and rice, but they were just plain and simple. Nothing sophisticated like your recipe. Mama would just cook fresh tomatoes when we had them in our garden or heat up some some she had canned herself when we didn’t have fresh. I’m sure she only put salt and pepper for seasoning because that’s all she had. She certainly didn’t have the carton of chicken stock. you show.. She cooked plain white rice in a separate pot, and we put the tomatoes over rice on our plates. If we had fatback, she’d fry some and this would be our supper once or twice a week. We also ate canned salmon over plain white rice sometimes if we could afford to buy a can. I’m the 7th of 8 kids and we lived in the “bonnies” in N. C. Like you, I grew up poor but didn’t know it because everyone around us was poor also. I will try your recipe as I’m sure it will be lot better than what I grew up eating.
My Mama cooked rice and tomatoes for us just like yours except she put bacon or fat back renderings. That was and still is good eating. I have tried cooking many dishes from other regions and countries but NC cooking is still the best. Thanks for sharing. Btw,I’m from Wallace.
I haven’t tried just tomatoes and rice, but I have made Rice with tomatoes, peppers, onions and cilantro and herbs.
I do make macaroni and tomatoes, which is a childhood favorite. Anything with tomatoes is sure to be a tasty dish.
Thanks for sharing.