Spicy Tomato Choka - a Trinidadian side made with roasted tomatoes and garlic, chopped onions, and hot peppers. Serve it with rice or sada roti or enjoy with some Bihari-style litti and baigan Choka. This traditional tomato Choka is the easiest Trinidadian dish to try.
Tomato Choka comes from India, where tomatoes are roasted on hot coal, and mashed with roasted garlic, green chilies, onions, and a drizzle of hot mustard oil. Trinidadian tomato Choka is not very different. Tangy and smoky tomatoes are peeled and mashed with garlic, pepper, and onions. Traditional recipes use locally grown hot chilies, but feel free to use spiciest chilies you have handy.
Roasting can be easily done on your gas stove or in an air fryer and even in an oven. The broiler function works best for roasting tomatoes or charring tomatoes. If you have an outdoor grill or a charcoal grill, you can use that to roast tomatoes too. Make sure to peel the tomatoes after you roast them.
In this particular version, I have used mustard oil. But that’s not used in traditional Trinidadian recipes. You can either use vegetable or olive oil to drizzle over the tomato Choka. I am just a mustard oil addictive, which is why I couldn’t resist adding it. Other toppings are sliced or chopped onions, chopped cilantro, roasted garlic, and hot peppers. I used Thai peppers in this recipe. If you really like a spicy one, use spiciest green peppers and do not discard the seeds for some extra heat.
How To Make Tomato Choka?
Ingredients
5 medium ripe tomatoes, 4 garlic cloves with skin (we will remove skin after roasting), 2 Serrano peppers or any hot peppers or choice (remove seeds if you don’t like a hot Choka), Salt to taste, 1 small onion chopped or thinly sliced, 1 tablespoon mustard oil or olive oil, Freshly chopped cilantro for garnish
Prep Tomatoes:
- Remove the vines from the tomatoes and wash them.
- Wipe them dry and proceed to the next step.
CrispLid/Air-fryer Broil:
- Take the CrispLid basket and line it with aluminum foil.
- Add tomatoes, hot peppers and garlic and spray the veggies lightly with oil.
- Preheat the CrispLid at 350F for 5-minutes.
- Cook the veggies on the basket for 8-minutes and flip and cook for another 6-minutes. The tomatoes, garlic and peppers should look charred.
Stovetop Roasting:
- Place a grill on the gas flames.
Now add tomatoes (with vines removed), garlic, and peppers on it. - Roast the veggies till the outer skin is charred and wrinkled.
Oven Broil:
- Arrange the veggies or a baking sheet and place the sheet on the top rack.
- Lightly spray the veggies with oil and broil them until the skins are charred.
- It takes around 8-12 minutes for all veggies to roast well.
Making Tomato Choka:
- Remove the veggies after roasting and allow them to cool down. When it’s cool enough to handle, peel the tomatoes and discard the skins. Gently, squeeze the garlic and collect the pulp.
- In a large bowl, take peeled roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, chili pepper, and chopped onions. Add salt and crush the tomatoes with other veggies to a smooth pulpy mass.
- There might be some hard mass while mashing tomatoes. You can either remove those or cut the hard mass into small pieces. Mix everything well.
- Now heat a small pan and add oil, and allow it to smoke.
- Once the oil smokes, drizzle it over the tomato Choka and mix well.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve.
NOTE:
- You can use a mortar and pestle to mash the tomatoes with garlic and chili.
- Discard the chili seeds if you don’t want a hot dish.
📖 Recipe
Tomato Choka {Trinidad Style}
Equipment
- Instant pot
Ingredients
- 5 medium ripe tomatoes
- 4 garlic cloves with skin, we will remove skin after roasting
- 2 Serrano peppers or any hot peppers or choice, remove seeds if you don’t like a hot Choka
- Salt to taste
- 1 small onion chopped or thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon mustard oil or olive oil
- Freshly chopped cilantro for garnish
Instructions
Prep Tomatoes
- Remove the vines from the tomatoes and wash them.
- Wipe them dry and proceed to the next step.
CrispLid/Air-fryer Broil
- Take the CrispLid basket and line it with aluminum foil.
- Add tomatoes, hot peppers and garlic and spray the veggies lightly with oil.
- Preheat the CrispLid at 350F for 5-minutes.
- Cook the veggies on the basket for 8-minutes and flip and cook for another 6-minutes. The tomatoes, garlic and peppers should look charred.
Stovetop Roasting
- Place a grill on the gas flames. Now add tomatoes (with vines removed), garlic, and peppers on it. Roast the veggies till the outer skin is charred and wrinkled.
Oven Broil
- Arrange the veggies or a baking sheet and place the sheet on the top rack. Lightly spray the veggies with oil and broil them until the skins are charred. It takes around 8-12 minutes for all veggies to roast well.
- Remove the veggies after roasting and allow them to cool down. When it’s cool enough to handle, peel the tomatoes and discard the skins. Gently, squeeze the garlic and collect the pulp.
- In a large bowl, take peeled roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, chili pepper and chopped onions. Add salt and crush the tomatoes with other veggies to a smooth pulpy mass. There might be some hard mass while mashing tomatoes. You can either remove those or cut the hard mass into small pieces. Mix everything well.
- Now heat a small pan and add oil, and allow it to smoke.
- Once the oil smokes, drizzle it over the tomato Choka and mix well. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve.
rika
This looks incredible! I love tomato flavor. Yum!
Denay DeGuzman
I'm completely infatuated with this spicy tomato choka! It's easy to prepare and so delicious!
Emily Liao
Loved how flavorful this was! And it was so easy to prepare.
Alisa Infanti
This recipe was so amazing! We love our food a bit spicy and I served this with fish the other night and it added the perfect kick!
Priya Lakshminarayan
wow..this recipe is so similar to the Indian one..love your photography as well...will try this for sure