5 min learnJul 10, 2026 08:00 PM IST
I’m not somebody who has ever been enthusiastic about dwelling outdoors India – however many pangs of envy strike me each time I stroll by means of a Waitrose, an M&S Meals, a Tesco, or perhaps a regular grocery retailer in Europe and America. As somebody who likes cooking, the thought that I can select from a bonanza of tomatoes -– heirloom tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, plum tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, tomatoes on the vine, Roma tomatoes, grape tomatoes – boggles the thoughts and my culinary creativeness. I as soon as loved a memorable salad made with Azoychka tomatoes.
The thoughts—and my culinary creativeness—boggles. I did, nevertheless, as soon as get pleasure from a memorable salad made with Azoychka tomatoes. Inquisitive about their origins, I discovered these tomatoes originated in Russia and are a Russian heirloom selection whose identify interprets to “little doll.” The tomatoes are yellow in color and are medium to large-sized and have a fragile sweetness that made the salad really stand out.
Spanish Alicante closest to Indian variant
In India, most cuisines use tomatoes. I’ve been going by means of every area’s delicacies, and the one area I can consider that makes use of fewer tomatoes is the Northeast. However even the Northeastern delicacies makes use of tomatoes sporadically. I’d say that the Spanish Alicante tomatoes and Adoration Tomatoes are the closest to the tomatoes we get in India. However the place did this vegetable (or is it a fruit?) come to India from? It’s not indigenous to the nation in any case. Which is why it is usually known as “vilayati baningan” – or overseas brinjal!
Like many different greens which have turn out to be commonplace in our pantries, on our plates and in our markets – like chilis, potatoes and lots of different substances – tomatoes are certainly “vilayati”. They’re native to South America, and have been dropped at India within the 1600s by Portuguese explorers. However it’s only when the British entered India that tomatoes began turning into commonplace in our cooking.
Not that the British took to tomatoes with out reservation. For a lot of a long time, the British have been averse to consuming tomatoes provided that they have been categorised underneath nightshades, a lot of which have been thought-about toxic – however we now know they aren’t toxic, however needs to be prevented in case you have a weak autoimmune system. By the 1700s, even in England, the marvel of the tomato had ensured that soups, salads, and stews tasted higher than earlier than. And in India, the British launched these recipes to their Indian cooks.
Many gravies use tomatoes (Photograph: Freepik)
Tomato, an English vegetable grown in India
The primary industrial cultivation of tomatoes in India was first reported in 1832 by Scottish botanist William Roxburgh. He recorded that tomatoes have been being broadly cultivated throughout India. In case you have a look at Anglo-Indian cookbooks from the nineteenth century, together with Wyvern’s Indian Cookery E-book (1840), tomatoes are categorised underneath ‘English greens grown in India’. A number of recipes use them in “bakes” or gratins and gravies and naturally, tomato sauce. Most recipes, although, have been of British or European meals. It’s the Nuskha-i Ni’mat Khān, which is a Persian translation of an English cookbook in 1801 which had been written to introduce British cooking to Indian kitchens. Additionally it is one of many first cookbooks to elucidate how tomatoes can be utilized in shorba and curries. This e-book, in fact, was meant for the kitchens of the Mughals.
It was solely within the twentieth century, although, that tomatoes grew to become accepted as an Indian vegetable. J F Duthie and J B Fuller’s agricultural handbook – Area and Backyard Crops of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh (1889-1893) notes that the tomato is “coming extra into favour with natives as an article of meals on account of its acid style”.
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Tomato ‘effectively suited to Bengali model’
Based on Lizzie Collingham’s Curry, the tomato was “significantly effectively suited to the Bengali model of sweet-and-sour cookery”. In 1914, a diasporic cookbook by Savitri Chowdhuri makes use of tomatoes in lots of gravy-based dishes. In 1926, the Hindi cookbook Pak Chandrika revealed a recipe for tomato chutney.
Right now, tomatoes are so commonplace that there are roughly 1,000 sorts of tomato in India. In fact, China can by no means be left behind, and leads tomato manufacturing on this planet, however is adopted carefully by India and Turkey. I do counsel that in case you are ever on overseas shores, do order a tomato salad or go go to a market to see the sheer vary of obtainable tomatoes. It’s a deal with for the eyes and the palate.
Subsequent week, I’ll be writing on the marvel of gunpowder or podi – that spicy powder which is sprinkled on dosas, idlis, and drizzled with ghee.
