(Chinese recipes, prepare authentic Chinese food now!)
Tomato eggs is a popular Chinese recipe–a humble dish that is often served at home. Called 蕃茄炒蛋 or 西红柿炒蛋 in China, tomato eggs is basically egg omelet with tomatoes. As simple as it sounds, tomato eggs is hard to master. I have seen many tomato eggs that are not properly cooked–too runny, watery, or simply overcooked.
The good news is that I am going to share with you my tomato eggs recipe and the easy way to prepare this Chinese dish. It takes only a few ingredients: eggs, tomatoes, salt and sugar for flavoring, and chopped scallions for garnishing…
Tomato eggs is a great Chinese recipe that you should add to your cooking repertoire. I love it very much. Below is my tomato eggs recipe, try it out and happy cooking!
Ingredients:
4 large eggs
8 oz. fresh tomato (cut into thin wedges)
1 teaspoon shaoxing wine (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 dashes white pepper powder
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons cooking oil
Method:
Break the eggs into a bowl and use chopsticks to beat the eggs until they break thoroughly. Add salt, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, white pepper powder, and lightly beat to blend well. Set aside.
Heat up a wok with 2 tablespoons cooking oil. Add the egg mixture into the wok, and use your spatula to spread the eggs. Keep stirring until the eggs form lumps. Gently break the lumps into smaller pieces. As soon as the eggs are cooked, dish out and set aside.
Clean the wok and heat it up again with 1 tablespoon cooking oil. Drop the tomato wedges into the wok and do a few quick stirs. Add sugar and water into the tomatoes. Cover it with the lid and let it cook for about 30 seconds. Transfer the eggs and chopped scallions into the tomatoes, stir-fry for 30 seconds or so, dish out and serve immediately.
Cook’s Note:
If you like your eggs extra flavorful, add 1/4 teaspoon oyster sauce when you season the eggs.
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{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
This sounds delicious. What would you serve with it?
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Lisaiscooking – check out June and Steph’s complementary suggestions
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thanks for sharing this recipe! i have been looking for this for a long time… i used to eat this with corn kernels and green peas! :)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Steph – tomato eggs with corn kernels and green peas sounds like complete nutrition a person needs. Healthy!
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thanks for the recipe.
now i know what to do with those tomatoes in my fridge.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Calvaryzone – I sure hope there are plenty of ideas what to do with your fridge’s content here :)
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Woops, after watching your cooking method, I realised that how silly I am for this while to just pour tomato source into the egg and stir fried :p Ok, will try this out over the weekend. Thanks for the great recipe and method for such a wonderful dish that everybody loves.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Craft Passion – enjoy!
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I am reminded of my tours around China. Wherever the tour bus stopped for lunch/dinner, a big plate of tomatoes fried with eggs would be among the 6-8 dishes on the table. This simple, humble dish made a refreshing change from the usual oily food there.
lisaiscooking – this dish looks good with rice, porridge and bread :)
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♥ The first dish I ever learned to make. This is the Chinese equivalent of comfort food.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Yin – I believed my first dish also involved eggs and they didn’t turn too good if my memory serves right ;p
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I love 蕃茄炒蛋! Thanks for showing us how to do it right!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Piegirl – you’re most welcome!
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We eat this ALL THE TIME in our home. We never seem to get sick of it too. Some days when we have prawns in the fridge, we add it in too.
(btw, we kinda found out why so many people like this dish or get addicted to it. Tomatoes have lots of natural MSG in it. That’s why it’s so tasty!)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Keropokman – thanks for the idea of adding prawns to the tomato eggs. You know how I love prawns :)
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Though a simple dish, there are many tricks to make it the perfect 蕃茄炒蛋. Yummy. Another home-cook’s (me) favorite.
P.S A really well-written article in KW Chinese paper :D …a nice big pretty smile too.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Tigerfish – I wish my parents were still here to read it :(
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Got to try it one day, love simple yet tasty home cooked food such as this =)
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This is a simple yet delicious and nutritious meal for my family. I also cooked the same dish based on tips from “So Far 苏 Good” cooking show. But your dish looks so great! Hey, I am ready with my rice now, dun mind to serve me some tomato eggs please?
P/S: Congrats for being featured on Kwong Wah Yit Poh 光华日报! Kong Hee! ;)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
LK – kam siah! I am asking my family to save and mail me a copy.
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Just adding one more tip. Eggs from ‘kampung’ chicken cost a lot more but they are very tasty in omelettes, especially the yolk.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
June Ong – agreed!
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You know what? Iv never seen or had this dish. Sounds yummy!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Farina – you don’t know what you’ve been missing :)
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where can i find your’s recipe in chinese languange?
becouse of my mother wanted.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Justine – I am planning one. It may take a while as I juggle around some projects.
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Justine replied:
Thanks a lot. Hope to get it soon
(.^^.)
May I sak about is there any recipe for vegetarian??
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Justine – I don’t think I’d be a good source for vegeterian recipes, ever. But there are some dishes I would love conjure up in my kitchen some day.
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very simple,quick & easy egg recipe..satisfying!served with steamy white rice :) nyummy!
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You make it look so beautiful! I like your blog and am wading through all of the good stuff you have on here. I’m glad you left out the ginger on this one. My MIL puts so much ginger in it that it just overwhelms it.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Shavedicesundays – thanks for the compliments. Ginger never crossed my mind on this one ;P
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Hey, thanks for sharing this! this is the kinda tomato eggs i was looking for all these while.
And guess what, i ran out of rice hence i ate it with macaroni, it was surprisingly good. :)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Pegs – macaroni…hmmm, sounds really interesting. Sure, why not?
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Just cooked this dish for dinner tonite using yr recipe. It turned out great and my family loves it! Thanks for sharing this recipe and looking forward to more of such delicious recipes on your blog. :-)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Dee – great that you and your family loves the eggs. So simple, cheap, and pack with nutrition.
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I love your recipe version of tomato eggs! I will be making this again in the near future. I hope you don’t mind, but I linked to your site from mine. :)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Littlebear – glad that you love the recipe. :)
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love your site and 蕃茄炒蛋 is a family fave, I like to add ketchup to mine. so yummy
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Hi Jill – yes, some people like adding ketchup. It’s all great, it’s a personal preference.
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Thanks for the recipe! I have been cooking Tomato Eggs for ages, and I just found out that I’ve been doing it wrong all along. I would cook the tomato wedges first, and then add the eggs!
I cooked it exactly your way yesterday and it turned out, not only extra delicious, but very pretty too.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Sugarlens – thanks for trying my method. I am so glad you enjoyed.
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Nice..! Just when I was about to look for a 蕃茄炒蛋 recipe, I stumble onto your page and found this :) Thanks for posting this. Great pic!
Hm.. by any chance you have watched the jap movie “Flavor of Happiness” ?
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
foodieBear – thanks for the compliments. I haven’t watched the movie yet? The title of it sounds like a show about cooking. Is it good?
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foodieBear replied:
Yes ! It’s a heart-warming story about cooking and 蕃茄炒蛋 was the main “character” among all the dishes that was featured :) I will recommend it to anyone who loves food to watch this movie.
Here is the link that comes with a trailer:
http://asianmediawiki.com/Flavor_of_Happiness
Enjoy!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Thank you for sharing the trailer link. Surely will keep an eye on this DVD next time I’m at the stores.
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foodieBear replied:
While you’re at it, maybe you can look out for this Japanese drama call “Osen” which is about traditional Japanese food ^o^ quite interesting~
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
OK, but I need to make sure there’s chinese or english subtitles. It’s not easy to find them here.
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Love this recipe! Sometimes I put mushrooms in with mine as well. Thanks!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Ash – thin slices of mushrooms would go quite well with this recipe :)
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Thank you for this recipe.
I have been looking for a good Eggs & Tomatoes recipe for a while (there are about a million variations available online) and this one is absolutely perfect, and even more perfect when served with rice & some soy sauce.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Thank you. Nice of you to leave a comment. I am glad you enjoyed the tomato eggs recipe. Hope there’s more here for your future references.
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My Thai-Chinese grandmother used to make a tomato-egg dish like this all the time, but she would fry the tomatoes first, seasoned with oyster sauce, sugar and salt, until the water in the tomatoes had come out and evaporated, then crack an egg or two into it, and fold the tomato over it without much stirring for another minute or two. It would be another vegetable dish in a meal, but for me, it’s my favourite comfort food just served with rice :)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Kim – yes, correct, I also cook my tomato eggs like that sometimes, either way is fine. :)
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