Perfect Jollof Rice Without Tomato Paste

When cooking Jollof rice, many people believe that, they must use tomato paste to achieve the signature red-ish/orange colour.

That’s not true. In this jollof rice recipe, I will be writing about how to cook a perfect jollof rice without tomato paste.

Try this recipe if you are trying to reduce your consumption of processed foods especially tomato paste.

Where did jollof rice originate from?

Jollof rice is a West African dish. This means that different West African Countries have their own special recipes.

For instance, there is Nigerian jollof rice, Senegalese Jollof, Gambian Jollof, Ghanaian jollof rice and many more.

Although over the years, there seems to be a light-hearted competition between Ghana and Nigeria about which country has the best Jollof rice.

Personally, I believe there is so much to explore when it comes to food and we have to explore with an open mind because Good food should be enjoyed always.

Now, as I continue with this recipe, listed below are the ingredients for party jollof.

Jollof rice Ingredients

2 cups rice
2 cups vegetable oil
Beef
20 cayenne peppers (shombo)
4 bell peppers
8 tomatoes
4 onions
2.5 tablespoon seasoning powder2 tablespoon curry powder
2 table spoon thyme
0.5 table spoon rosemary ( optional)
1 tablespoon salt

Please note that you can use other types of protein such as Chicken, turkey or fish.

For this jollof recipe, I would be cooking with beef. If you would like to cook yours with chicken here is the recipe for you. Jollof Rice Recipe With Nigerian Peppered Chicken

Now the first thing to do is to cook the beef.

Peradventure you forgot to take out your frozen beef from the freezer to defrost and you had to do it in the last minute.

Below is how to cook frozen beef and this includes how to quickly defrost it.

How to cook frozen beef

Put the frozen beef into your pot
Slice one onion into the pot
Add 1 tablespoon curry powder, 1 tablespoon thyme, 1 tablespoon seasoning powder, half table spoon salt and half tablespoon rosemary
Pour 1.5 (one and half) cups of water into the pot
Set cooker to low heat
Place the pot on the cooker
Allow to simmer for 7 minutes
Check the beef cuts to determine if they are thawed and easily separated
Continue to simmer for 7 more minutes if they are not easily separated yet
After the extra 7 minutes the beef should be easily separated with some efforts from you
Please note that – If you use high heat the beef will burn, so you have to allow the beef to simmer on low heat to be able to easily separate the frozen beef.
Turn up the heat to high heat and add more water
Cook for 10 to15 more minutes on high heat
Boiled beef is ready
Remove the pot from the cooker

Fried Beef

After boiling the beef, it is advisable that you fry the beef. The reason is because, frying the beef intensifies the flavour in the jollof rice .

I will further explain more on this as I go further. Follow the simple steps below to fry the boiled beef.

Place basket in a bowl
To get the cooked beef ready for frying, separate the beef from the stock by putting the beef into the basket
Place your frying pan on the cooker
Pour 2 cups of vegetable oil into the frying pan
Let the oil heat up for 1-2 minutes
Gently put the cooked beef into the hot oil
Fry both sides on high heat for about 7 minutes in total
Scoop out the fried beef from the hot oil into a basket to drain excess oil.

This is the part where you have to exercise a high level of discipline so that you don’t finish eating the fried beef before the jollof rice is ready.

You can cook jollof rice with basmati rice or the conventional Nigerian long grain or short grain rice.

Nigerian rice image — Nigerian short grain rice used for this recipe.

For a great outcome, you need to parboil the rice first.

Parboiled Rice

Making parboiled rice is an easy way to reduce the starch in rice while cooking. This helps to stop the rice from being mushy or sticking together after cooking.

Here are the simple steps to reduce the starch in the rice you want to use to cook jollof rice.

Put the raw rice into a bowl
clean the rice multiple times with water
Set your cooker to high heat
Pour the washed rice into your pot and add water
Place the pot on the cooker
Allow the rice to cook until it starts boiling
Immediately it starts boiling take rice off the cooker
Drain rice water by pouring it into a basket
Set parboiled rice aside.

Now it is time to explain how to use the parboiled rice you just made to cook Jollof rice.

How to cook Jollof rice

Start by cleaning the tomatoes, peppers and peeling the onions
Slice one onions and set aside for later
Blend the tomatoes, peppers and onions to a rough texture – do not add too much water.
Set blended peppers aside
Place your clean pot on the cooker
Pour some of the vegetable oil used to fry the beef into the pot – This oil further intensify the beef flavour in the jollof rice.
Add sliced onions and fry for 1 minute
Pour the blended peppers and tomato into the pot
To avoid wastage, rinse out the blender with little water
Add other condiments such as thyme, curry, seasoning and salt
Pour the meat stock earlier set aside after boiling the beef
Mix well then cover the pot
Cook until the mixture begins to boil
Pour the parboiled rice into the boiling mixture
Mix well
Cover the pot and cook on high heat for 10-15 minutes
After 15 minutes taste the rice to ensure that it is has attained the preferred softness
If yes, Mix well
Colourful and delicious jollof rice is ready to be enjoyed.

jollof rice recipe on how to make party jollof rice

The secret to cooking party jollof rice without tomato paste is to use a lot of cayenne peppers.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I do appreciate the time you have spent here today and I hope you would try this recipe.

A video version of this recipe is available on my YouTube channel. Come along to watch by clicking on the video icon below. While you visit my YouTube channel, please subscribe so that you will be notified when I upload new videos.