Upgrade your meal with this Tomato Basil Rice! Tastes like a tomato basil pasta – in rice form. Copycat of a popular convenience pack seasoned rice, this is a terrific recipe base that can be adapted with your herbs of choice!
Tomato Basil Rice
When you see the ingredients below, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is a pasta sauce recipe. All the usual suspects are present.
Olive oil, garlic, onion, dried and fresh basil, tomato {paste}.
Except – we’re using rice instead of pasta.
Just a minor difference…. 😂
TOMATO PASTE WORKS BEST!
It’s a straightforward recipe to make, starting off like a pilaf with garlic and onion sautéed in olive oil along with dried basil (just a little sauté really makes the flavour bloom!) before adding rice, broth, tomato paste and some seasonings.
I like to make this Tomato Basil Rice with tomato paste rather than canned tomato or passata / puree because it yields the best result – fluffiest, most evenly cooked rice.
Canned tomato was all round disappointing – both in rice textures, flavour and look. And though you get slightly better tomato flavour using tomato passata / puree, it’s actually quite difficult to ensure all the rice cooks through evenly.
So after a few instances of unevenly cooked rice, I deemed it “too risky” and defaulted back to tomato paste which works every time. 🙂
BASIL BASIL, BASIL!
Basil is actually quite a delicate herb and a rather fussy one at that – it doesn’t like to be cooked (loss of flavour, turns black, limp and sad) so to get good basil flavour into anything it needs to be used fresh.
So to make a Tomato Basil Rice that actually does taste of basil, I get it in there 3 ways:
Dried Basil sautéed with the onion and garlic;
A generous sprig of basil cooked with the rice; and
A good hit of fresh basil right at the end just before serving.
GOES WITH (almost) ANYTHING!
I probably wouldn’t serve this Tomato Basil Rice with Asian food because basil isn’t really a flavour associated with Asian cuisine. But having said that, if the basil is left out or substituted with chives or green onions, it would be terrific with loads of Asian foods. Various forms of tomato rice is big in Asia!
Other than that, I think it’s the sort of side that will go with almost anything. In addition to which, you should totally feel free to switch the basil with whatever herb you want – just adjust the quantity to taste depending on how strong the flavour of the herb with. – Nagi x
PS In case you’re stuck for ideas:
This will go great with….
Crispy Garlic Chicken Thighs (above) | Honey Garlic Chicken | Crispy Fish with Lemon Butter Sauce | Baked Fish with Lemon Cream Sauce | Garlic Prawns / Shrimp | Rissoles, | Salmon Cakes (or use tuna!)
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Tomato Basil Rice
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil (or butter)
- 2 garlic cloves , finely chopped
- 1/2 brown onion , finely chopped
- 1 1/4 tsp dried basil
- 1 cup (180g) long grain white rice , uncooked (Note 1)
- 1 3/4 cups (435 ml) chicken broth , full salt (or Veg broth)
- 2 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3/4 tsp paprika , sweet or normal (not smoked)
- 1 tsp sugar (any)
- 1 sprig of basil with leaves
- 1/3 cup finely chopped basil
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, cook until translucent, 2 – 3 minutes. Add basil and cook for 20 seconds – don’t let it burn.
- Add remaining ingredients except basil. Mix until tomato paste is dissolved.
- Crush basil sprig in hand, drop on surface then push in (leave on surface, don’t stir).
- Cover and bring to simmer, then immediately turn down heat to medium low (or low if stove is strong) and cook for 15 minutes or until liquid is fully absorbed – tilt saucepan to check.
- Remove from heat and set aside, covered, for 10 minutes.
- Remove basil sprig. Fluff with fork, taste for salt. Then leave to stand for another 5 minutes, uncovered. Stir through fresh basil. Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes:
– A small amount of tomato paste yields the fluffiest rice (compared to canned tomato, passata, puree etc)
– Sugar takes the edge off tomato paste which is a bit sour
– Basil goes black when heated. So the purpose of cooling the rice before adding fresh basil is to reduce this problem and get max basil flavour.
– Use this recipe as a base for any herb you want. Just switch out the dried and fresh basil. Be mindful of herb strength – eg rosemary is very strong. 3. STORAGE – Keeps great in the fridge but benefits greatly from the addition of some fresh basil. 4. Nutrition per serving.
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
🍎🍎🍎He drooled on someone over an apple, so we made him wear an apple sticker Badge of Shame all day. He didn’t even notice….. so much for punishment!
This rice looks so yummy ! Thank you for the great video ! I’m definitely going to try this ! I have a giant basil plant that I was trying to figure out what to do with all of it – this will be so awesome ! Love all your recipes and videos – TFS
And I have a avocado pesto coming up too which uses basil! I’m on a basil bender at the moment! 🙂 N x
Gonna try this tonight, looks great. Also, nothing fazes Dozer lol.
His paws are ticklish and he really hates wind in his eyes / flapping his ears…. 😂
Nagi, this looks so delicious. I LOVE rice. I can’t wait to try this <3
Hope you get a chance to try it Kathleen! It’s sooooo tasty! N xx
Can’t wait to try this!!! One small correction though….in paragraph 2 I think you meant to say you’re “using rice instead of pasta”😬😊
I Love Love Love all your recipes!!💕❤️
Trust me to get a point like that twisted around the wrong way!! Thanks Mary – N x
Hi Nagi. I’m here in the UK and normally you are so good at putting metric weights in your recipes in addition to the cup quantities. Could you add them here please. It looks delicious and I must try it.
Done!! 🙂 N x
Wow that sounds amazing. I have a fresh basil plant growing in a planter outside my door and I feel like it’s under utilized. Well no longer. I can’t wait to add this side dish to future dinners.
Thanks Nagi.
And I have another basil recipe coming up soon too – avocado pesto! 🙂 N x
Yum I’ll definitely be trying this one. Rice is a favourite food in our household so keep the rice recipes coming!
I have soooo many!!! 🙂 N x