Recipe & Images AMBER BREMNER
This is a simple soup recipe that’s ideal to help use up a glut of home grown tomatoes (or cheap seasonal produce from the shops). Soaked cashews blend with roasted tomatoes to create a silky, creamy and perfectly smooth tomato soup. This soup is vibrantly coloured and tastes purely of full flavoured tomatoes—intentionally a blank canvas that can be swung in any direction by adding spices or toppings to your heart’s content. Here I’ve taken inspiration from Indian tadka, serving the soup topped with spices and curry leaves tempered in hot oil.
Soup
1 cup (150g) raw cashews
1.5kg ripe tomatoes (about 12–13 medium sized)
3 cloves garlic, skin on
3 cups vegetable stock
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp white wine vinegar
Spice and curry leaf topping
2 tbsp cooking oil (I used grape seed)
½ tsp black mustard seeds
¼ tsp cumin seeds
¼ tsp fennel seeds
¼ tsp chilli flakes (or more if you like it hot)
20 fresh curry leaves (approx.)
Preheat oven to 180°C. Cover cashews with hot water (from the tap is fine) and set aside to soak.
Halve tomatoes and arrange cut side up on a lined baking tray with a rim. Poke garlic cloves between the tomatoes. Roast for an hour, until the tomatoes lose some of their moisture and start to colour in places. Drain and rinse cashews. Remove skins from garlic cloves, then put the garlic, tomatoes, cashews and vegetable stock into a blender. Blend for a few minutes, until the soup is perfectly smooth and creamy. You may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender. Pour the soup into a saucepan and simmer for 5–10 minutes. Taste and add salt, pepper, sugar and vinegar to balance the flavour of the tomatoes—which will vary depending on their ripeness. Be amazed at how just a little acid (vinegar) can brighten it up, without tasting pickled.
Serve soup topped with a drizzle of the spiced oil and fried curry leaves (pictured) or go your own way with a dollop of basil pesto or yoghurt, some croutons or chopped herbs.
To make the curry leaf topping, just before serving heat oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add spices and cook, stirring, until the spices become fragrant and begin to sizzle and pop a little. Add the curry leaves and fry for another 30 seconds or so, until you can see them change colour and crisp up.
Amber Bremner
Quite Good Food
www.quitegoodfood.co.nz
Amber Bremner is the author of popular plant based food blog Quite Good Food. A champion for cooking and eating food that makes you feel good, she believes small changes in the way we approach food have the power to make a difference.
