21 recipes using tomatoes — Biryani, nihari, haleem, karahi — bold-spiced cuisine from the Indus plains and the Mughal kitchens.
These 21 pakistani tomatoes recipes are ready in about 77 minutes on average, with 45–720 kcal per serving, and 43% are rated easy enough for a weeknight. Every recipe includes exact ingredient quantities, step-by-step instructions and full nutrition per serving.
Pakistani cuisine — Biryani, nihari, haleem, karahi — bold-spiced cuisine from the Indus plains and the Mughal kitchens — brings its own distinctive techniques and seasonings to every ingredient it touches. When Pakistani cooks work with tomatoes, they reach for its own regional aromatics, fats and signature spice blends, and the techniques that come up most across these recipes are simmering, frying, boiling and searing.
Sweet-acidic fruit that forms the backbone of sauces, stews and salads across nearly every cuisine. In this collection it's most often cooked with turmeric, garam masala, ginger-garlic paste, cilantro, onion and ground coriander. The dishes here span pakistani classics ready in as little as 15 minutes to slower, more involved cooking that rewards a relaxed afternoon.
Reader favourite: Chicken Karahi is the highest-rated dish in this collection at 4.9★ from 3,460 ratings.
Pakistan's rich, slow-cooked black lentil dal — whole urad lentils and kidney beans simmered overnight with butter and cream into a velvety, intensely savoury curry. Lahore's most loved dal.
Pakistan's roadside restaurant classic — bone-in chicken cooked fast in a steel wok with whole tomatoes, green chillies, ginger and very little water. Smoky, bold and intensely flavoured.
Pakistani lamb and potato curry in a rich onion and tomato sauce — a weeknight staple of every Pakistani home.
Fragrant layered spiced rice with marinated beef, fried onions and saffron — the bold Karachi style of Pakistan's most celebrated dish.
Black lentils simmered overnight with butter, cream and tomatoes — one of Pakistan and India's most iconic dishes.
Tomato-rich chicken stir-fried in a wok with ginger, green chillies and crushed coriander — Lahore's most famous restaurant dish, ready in 30 minutes.
Tender chunks of lamb and potatoes braised in a tomato-onion masala — Pakistan's everyday Sunday lunch.
Flat, crispy beef kebabs studded with pomegranate seeds, fresh coriander and crushed coriander seeds — the iconic kebab of Pakistan's Pashtun north.
Fragrant yellow lentil curry with rice — Pakistan's most beloved everyday meal, comforting and complete in one bowl.
Karachi's iconic spicy biryani — basmati layered with mutton, tomato, prunes, mint, green chilies, and dried plum (aloo bukhara).
Pakistani spicy chicken curry cooked in karahi (wok) with tomatoes, ginger, and green chilies — robust and aromatic.
Golden pan-seared fish in a quick ginger-garlic tomato sauce, a simple coastal Pakistani weeknight dinner.
A bright, finely diced tomato-cucumber-onion salad seasoned with lemon and cumin, the classic cooling side of Pakistani meals.
A warmly spiced chickpea stew simmered in a tomato-onion masala, a staple vegetarian dish across Pakistani households.
A fast, tomato-heavy chicken curry finished with a smoky char, cooked the way it's made in a karahi wok on high heat.
Spiced beef meatballs simmered in a tangy tamarind-tomato gravy, a coastal Sindhi twist on classic kofta curry.
Slow-simmered chickpeas in a tomato-onion masala, topped with crisp-fried green chile for a spicy, crunchy finish.
A crunchy chopped salad of cucumber, tomato, onion and lime, tossed with fresh herbs as a cooling side for spicy curries.
Layered basmati rice and spiced chicken masala, finished with a smoky dum steam for real biryani depth.
Layered basmati rice and spiced shrimp curry, steamed together until the grains soak up saffron and fried onion.
A skillet chicken karahi turned into an oven-finished bake, with tomatoes and green chiles cooked down into a thick, ginger-spiked sauce.
Ripe tomatoes smell fragrant at the stem and give slightly to a gentle squeeze. For cooking out of season, good-quality tinned tomatoes often beat pale fresh ones.
Store at room temperature, never the fridge, which kills their flavour and texture. Score and blanch to slip off skins; salting slices draws out excess water for salads.
A low-calorie source of vitamin C, potassium and the antioxidant lycopene — which actually becomes more available when tomatoes are cooked.
Most of these 21 Pakistani tomatoes recipes are ready in around 77 minutes from start to finish. The quickest, Pakistani Kachumber Salad, takes about 15 minutes, while the slower-cooked dishes run up to 250 minutes.
Across this collection they range from about 45 to 720 kcal per serving, averaging 407 kcal — Pakistani Kachumber Salad is the lightest option at 45 kcal.
Pakistani Daal Makhani is a great place to start — it's rated easy and comes together in about 250 minutes. 43% of the recipes here are beginner-friendly.
In these recipes, tomatoes is most often paired with turmeric, garam masala, ginger-garlic paste, cilantro, onion and ground coriander. Pakistani kitchens also lean on its own regional aromatics, fats and signature spice blends.
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