A Deliciously Tasty Indian Tomato Soup Recipe
If you are looking for a recipe that is both vegetarian and packed full of flavor, then the Indian tomato soup recipe derived of all the essential spices should be next on your list to make. These fresh ingredients blend together very well and do not take long at all to make. You can use this dish as an appetizer for your guests when hosting a dinner party or as a dinner time staple when you something to keep warm.
History of Indian Tomato Soup
What you don’t want to do is confuse this Indian recipe with traditional creamy soup. Indian tomato soup has been a part of Indian culture for hundreds of years, with some of the earliest versions dating back to early Persia.
More recently, it has been associated with the Holi Festival in India, as it is a colorful dish and represents the different colors that guests experience at the Holi festival. Part of the experience of the festival is to wear white clothing and then have others smear a variety of colors of your clothing and face. The Indian tomato soup captures that essence, which is why it is included as one of the primary dishes.
Having a dish that embodied all the Indian spices and fresh vegetables at once is important to the Indian culture and one of the main reasons why this dish has been a staple for so long. With canning growing popular in the couple of centuries, this dish has been able to be enjoyed year-round in the country.
As Indian food continued to grow in popularity across the globe, this dish became a staple as an appetizer or as a main dish paired with fresh garlic bread to enjoy.
Gathering Ingredients
On your trip to the supermarket, you will have a handful of ingredients to gather so that you can make this Indian tomato soup that elevates the traditional soup you may be used to making.
- Three cans of diced or stewed tomatoes
- Fresh cinnamon
- Four bay leaves
- Two tablespoons of butter
- Four cups of vegetable stock or broth
- Ground cumin
- Half of a red onion
- Five peppercornsour
- Two tablespoons masala
- 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
If you are not able to secure fresh cinnamon or bay leaves, you can used ground cinnamon and dried bay leaves. Also, you could use fresh tomatoes if you wanted to, but you will have to cook them down longer, adding to the overall time to complete this dish. If you choose to go with fresh tomatoes, six Roma tomatoes or three large tomatoes will be enough to complete this dish.
These ingredients are meant to make between four and six servings, so feel free to reduce it if you are only preparing for yourself, or double it if you are expecting to have a lot of guests or want to meal prep this dish for the week.
Building Your Soup
Once you have collected all the necessary ingredients for your Indian tomato soup recipe, you can begin the preparation and start cooking your soup.
1. Preparing Your Ingredients
Before you start, you wan to make sure you have all your spices measured out to ensure you have enough ready to add at the right step. Also, begin dicing your cinnamon stick and your red onion.
Open the cans of tomatoes you have, or if you opted for fresh tomatoes, dice them up now. Keep the seeds and tomato juice, added the diced tomatoes to a large bowl.
2. Blend Your Ingredients
Once you have prepared all the different herbs, spices and veggies, add them to a blender and begin to pulsing. The only spice you want to leave out is the bay leaves. They are added later.This is essential to ensure that your soup has a smooth texture and consistency. You want all the spices to blend together and cook down evenly.
Slowly mix in your cream to soften the texture and give your Indian tomato soup a creamier taste. This will lighten the color just a bit, making it appear more orange than red but that is okay.
3. Transfer to the Stove
Once you have perfectly blended your soup ingredients, transfer them to your large soup pot and begin cooking on medium-high heat. At this time you add your fresh or dried bay leaves to the soup and mix them well so the flavor gets all the way through the soup.
4. Bring to a Simmer
Keep stirring until you see a slow but steady boil on the tomato soup. Cover your soup and turn your soup down to a simmer on the stove. You want it to cook for about 20 minutes, with you stirring every few minutes.
5. Prepare and Serve
After 20 minutes, your soup is ready to serve. Before you can ladle it into soup bowls, make sure to first fish out the bay leaves you added to the soup and then begin serving your soup. This pairs well with fresh garlic bread and maybe a dollop of cream on top of the soup before serving.
Store Your Leftovers
Any leftovers you have with this soup can be refrigerated for up to four days, just let the leftovers cool down before you put them in the fridge. If you want to make a large batch of this soup and freeze it, it can last in your freezer for up to six months as long as it is sealed properly.
You can either choose to thaw it out when you are ready for it or you can add it to a pot frozen with some fresh better and let it slowly defrost in the pot.
This dish is excellent for any time of the year and is packed full of nutrients if you are sick and need something to help you power through an illness. You can make this dish for the entire family to enjoy and it takes only a half hour to prepare and cook.
