Curried Tomato Soup

This particular recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman's Curried Carrot soup that appeared in his Bitten column in NYTimes. I am a huge fan of Mark Bittman, I love his show on PBS , his column Bitten in NYT and also his book "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian". And the book, it' s a bible..no - encyclopedia...oh well... I'll just say its one of the most resourceful books yet in my collection. I have never made a recipe exactly as given in his book but I have used them as a foundation to build my own version. And the result has always been wonderful... Speaking about Bittman, I cant wait to watch the show on PBS "Spain...On the Road Again". Looks like it will be a good show given that it has Mario Batali as well who is yet another of my fav TV chefs .....

Coming back to the soup...the great thing about this soup is that it is simple as well as light. Soup has become an integral part of our eating lifestyle. After a weekend of overloading the digestive system, Mondays are the perfect day to stick to a simple meal of hot soup. It doesn't take too long to cook a pot of soup and what better way to ease into the next few days of grinding work.

To make this soup really light go easy on the coconut milk. I have used half a can, which gives a good flavor without inducing a heaviness to the dish. But if you like the soup to be really heavy on the coconut flavor, go ahead and add a little more....

Ingredients:

3 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, roughly chopped
10-15 cherry tomatoes or 5-6 medium sized tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1" piece ginger, grated
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cayenne pepper, or as required
1 cup vegetable stock or water
1/2 can coconut milk or even less if you prefer
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Cilantro (optional)


Method:

1. Heat oil in a large pan, add cumin seeds, coriander seeds, diced chopped onions, garlic, ginger, cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes, turmeric, salt and let it cook until tomatoes are well cooked.
3. Add cayenne pepper, stock and let it boil 10 min or so. Now add coconut milk.
4. Allow the mixture to cool and puree it in a blender or food processor. Adjust the consistency of the soup by adding more stock.
5. Boil the pureed soup for 5 more minutes, adjust salt and pepper as per taste.
6. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Another version of this soup is to substitute the coconut milk with buttermilk. This version is a bit tangy but still yummy.

And this week's recipe is my entry to the "WYF:Salad/starter/soup" event hosted by EC of Simple Indian Food blog.

Happy Slurping :-)