11 recipes using tomatoes — Biryani, nihari, haleem, karahi — bold-spiced cuisine from the Indus plains and the Mughal kitchens.
These 11 pakistani tomatoes recipes are ready in about 101 minutes on average, with 380–720 kcal per serving, and 36% 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 frying, simmering, 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, fresh coriander, onion and red chilli powder. The dishes here span pakistani classics ready in as little as 35 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.
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 11 Pakistani tomatoes recipes are ready in around 101 minutes from start to finish. The quickest, Chicken Karahi, takes about 35 minutes, while the slower-cooked dishes run up to 250 minutes.
Across this collection they range from about 380 to 720 kcal per serving, averaging 485 kcal — Dhaba-Style Chicken Karahi is the lightest option at 380 kcal.
Pakistani Daal Makhani is a great place to start — it's rated easy and comes together in about 250 minutes. 36% of the recipes here are beginner-friendly.
In these recipes, tomatoes is most often paired with turmeric, garam masala, ginger-garlic paste, fresh coriander, onion and red chilli powder. Pakistani kitchens also lean on its own regional aromatics, fats and signature spice blends.