If you are casting around for a quick and unusual soup and are lucky enough to have plenty of tomatoes – I do, as you can see, a lovely gift from a friend from thetomatostall.co.uk – plus a couple of cans of coconut milk, a pack of silken tofu and a few other bits and pieces, you are in business. I think of it as a store cupboard soup, not quite as store cupboard as Hummus Soup recently posted but it doesn’t rely on stock. In fact it doesn’t require any liquid; that comes from the tomatoes and coconut milk. It ends up a pale, creamy tomato pink, not as dark as our other favourite cream of tomato soup and bobs with Dolly Mixture size tofu dice and lots of chopped coriander. It has a mild Thai curry back kick, sharpened with lemon juice with a salty tang from soy sauce. It might sound odd but it’s my new favourite quick soup and I like it with crusty, hot garlic and coriander naan sometimes available at M&S. Halve the quantities if you want to make this soup for four. It could, incidentally, be made with prawns or cooked chicken added right at the end.
Serves 6
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 30 min
900g vine or cherry tomatoes
2 x 400ml coconut milk
2-3 tsp Thai red curry paste
300g silken tofu
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
pinch of sugar
Core and coarsely chop the tomatoes. Blitz in two or three batches in a food processor until pale and fluffy. Pass through a sieve directly into a saucepan, scraping underneath so nothing is wasted. You should end up with only pips in the sieve. Add the coconut milk, 2 tsp red curry paste, 3 if you like it hot, the tofu cut into Dolly Mixture size dice, soy sauce and lemon juice and bring slowly to the boil. Reduce the heat and cook very gently for 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper adding a little sugar if necessary. Stir in the coriander and serve.