Tomato Basil Soup and Garlic Toast

Tomato soup and bread sticks combo is always a popular choice in my house. And we eat it more like main course rather than appetizer. So obviously I need to make one too many servings per person. But the problem with tomato soup is you need way too many tomatoes to get a decent amount of soup. Long time back I had tried using canned tomatoes to simplify the process. The problem there is, if you are using canned paste in any curry or rasam, the (canned) taste is not too prominent as there will be other spices, but if you use it in something like tomato soup, where you taste mostly tomatoes, the canned taste becomes too overwhelming. But recently I got canned organic tomato paste from Costco which surprisingly didn’t have any weird taste in it. I was just about thinking that I should try this in tomato soup sometime, when this recipe popped up on my FB feed. Talk about “law of attraction” or was it just FB reading my mind(like that chappal joke circulating on WhatsApp) 😁

Anyways, two things grabbed my attention in this particular recipe. Firstly the awesome presentation - the blogger served it in bread baskets, how cool is that! 

Secondly, the use of cashew paste. Though we use this a lot in curries, I never ever thought this could be used in soups too! 

Adding this has twofold advantage - 

1. Firstly, it gives a creamy texture to the soup.
2. Secondly and more importantly, it acts like a thickening agent which helps in increasing the quantity of the soup. 

I mostly followed the recipe as it is, only did some minor changes - like I used almond flour instead of cashew paste. Soup turned out very tasty and creamy.

Garlic toast is adapted from Hebbar’s kitchen. 

Enjoy this tasty and healthy soup in this cold weather! 

 

Ingredients(*see notes for original recipe)

Tomatoes - 4

Tomato paste - around 4 tbsp(or more)

Carrot - 1

Potato - 1 (Not in the original)

Onion - 1/2 big(Not in the original)

Garlic - 2 cloves roughly chopped(not in the original)

Celery - 4 medium sticks 

Red chili powder - 1/2 to 1 tsp

Black pepper - 1 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1 tsp(skipped this)

Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp(not in the original)

Sugar - 1 tbsp - do not skip this

Salt

Coriander leaves - skipped this

Fresh basil leaves - 1/2 cup OR Dried Basil - 2 tbsp

Water/ Veg Stock as needed

Almond flour - 1/4 cup (Original recipe uses cashew cream - 1/4 cup - chk Method for more details) 

Garlic toast

Bread

Butter - room temperature

Garlic salt

Cilantro - finely chopped

 

Method

In the original recipe soup is cooked in InstaPot and then blended using a hand mixer. I pressure cooked like how I generally make tomato soup. 

In a pressure cooker, add roughly chopped tomatoes, carrot, potato, onion, garlic, celery and some water and pressure cook for 1-2 whistles.

After the pressure comes down, open the lid and let the contents cool down enough to run in a mixie. If using hand mixer, add fresh basil leaves at this point and blend nicely. 

Grind in a mixie to a smooth paste. Pour it in a deep pot. 

If using cashew cream, soak 12-15 cashews in hot water for half an hour and blend to a smooth paste and add this to the soup mixture. 

If using almond flour, blend this in a mixie with enough water to make a smooth paste and add this to the soup mixture. 

Add remaining ingredients - tomato paste, red chili powder, black pepper powder, cumin powder, cinnamon powder, sugar and salt, dried basil leaves. Adjust water and let it boil. 

Serve with garlic toast.  

Garlic Toast

In a bowl, mix room temperature butter, garlic salt and chopped cilantro. Toast in the oven @350 F until browned, you can even broil in the end for a crusty top. 

Recipe Source - “https://www.aaichisavali.com/2021/01/Tomato-Basil-Soup.html?fbclid=IwAR3pjdr-xeL5FSVb0ejtDJy9A1fwqISSzy48BthjkmkEZxEXMBKwNNp96tw”

Notes - 

• The above quantity makes 8 big (cereal) bowls of soup. 
• If you don’t want to use tomato paste, use more tomatoes instead. 
• Original recipe uses canned tomatoes in basil, fresh basil leaves, 1/4 cup cashew cream and there is no potato, onion. 
• One can easily skip onion and garlic in this recipe.