Friday, October 06, 2006

Faves on Fridays #1: Curried Tomato Soup

Mark, my husband, tucking into a plate of sweet tomato and baked ricotta pasta: “You should really post on your blog about some of our favorite recipes. You know, like this pasta.”

Mark, a week later, dipping his spoon into a cream-topped serve of fruit crumble: “See, here’s another one – another of our favorite recipes that we make all the time. I’m sure people would like this – you should post the recipe on your blog.”

Mark, just the next day, ladling spicy mushroom and cilantro curry onto a plate of cardamom-scented basmati rice: “Come on, Carolyn! Mushroom and cilantro curry. You’ve got to write about mushroom and cilantro curry!”

Okay, okay. I get the point. And, instead of changing the sub-title of Field to Feast to “Almost-always African-inspired writing, cooking and eating, and with an occasional post inspired by the dog-eared pages of my cookbooks” I have decided to introduce a new, occasional blog feature – Faves on Fridays.

My one reservation in posting this inaugural Fave on Friday is that you might think I am on a liquid diet given the number of drink, soup, stew and chowder recipes I have recently written about. Fear not, I have all my teeth and do eat solid food. However, my first recipe is, indeed, a recipe for soup. A tomato soup in fact. But, once again, fear not: this is not Campbell’s (or your middle-school cafeteria’s) tomato soup. This is curried tomato soup and it is simple to make and simply yummy to eat.

The recipe comes from Madhur Jaffrey, one of my favorite authors, who says it is inspired by an old Anglo-Indian cookbook. This soup also has many features my husband admires – you can be flexible with the veggie proportions, your chopping can be haphazard, and you just throw everything together, go for a jog (do yoga, watch TV, call your Mom, whatever), re-enter the kitchen, blend the now-tender mixture, and eat. Plus, you have leftovers for lunch the next day. Yes, this is truly a Fave.

Curried Tomato Soup
Adapted from World Vegetarian
Serves 6

2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon mild curry powder
1 tablespoon hot curry powder
2 cups (1 pound) chopped tomatoes
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup fresh (or frozen and defrosted) peas
4 cups water
2¼ teaspoons salt
½ cup heavy cream

Heat the oil into a large saucepan, using medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes or so, until the onion is translucent. Stir in the curry powders, and then add the tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, peas, salt and water. Bring to a boil. Cover, turn the heat down to low, and keep at a gentle simmer for 45 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and blend the soup using an immersion blender. Stir in the cream, and serve.

Note that you can use the curry powder judiciously to make the soup as mild or spicy as you would like – we tend to like a lot of heat.

5 comments:

Alanna Kellogg said...

Appreciation at the table goes a long way! And now your readers get the benefit ...

Anonymous said...

I like that...'mostly' about Africa-inspired cooking...Looking forward to lots of Fav Fridays.

Carolyn said...

Hi Alanna,

You are so right - appreciation goes a long way. I think back to my single days (with a scary vision of mac n' cheese embellished with black beans and peas popping up in my head) and realize that the care and time I put into food is oftentimes less for me and more for the people joining me at my table. Thanks for this insight!

Hi Anita,

Don't worry - there are lots of Faves, so there should be many, many Faves on Fridays!

Thanks for reading!
Carolyn

Anonymous said...

I tried your curried tomatoe soup and it was lovely thanks for the recipe i look forward to more great recipes like this one

Anonymous said...

Hi Carolyn, I made this soup last night and it is fabulous!! I only made one change - made a heavy cream from brazil nuts instead of using animal product. Lovely lovely soup. Can't wait to try more of your recipes. xx and happy 2007, Tara (from Duke!)