Indian-style Tomato Soup with Turmeric

Today was an unusually cold day for the Australian summer and, after going for a walk in the morning, I felt that particular feeling which announces the coming of the sore throat. Thankfully an Epiphany came to me presently: I need tomato soup.

I have looked up tomato soups before since I thought it might be a good way to eat turmeric. This difficult to handle spice, with plenty of health benefits, just easily blends in with the flavour of a hearty tomato soup.

With that in mind, I quickly found a few nice recipes: Turmeric Tomato Detox Soup, Indian Tomato Soup and Turmeric-Tomato Black Pepper Soup.

Based on these, I came up with the following:

Ingredients

• 2 chopped tomatos
• 6 chopped cherry tomatos
• 3/4 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1-2 cups of vegetable stock (salt-less, find our recipe for here)
• 3/8 teaspoon of salt (that's our maximum allowed for a dish!)
• 1/4 to 1/3 bottle of Mutti Passata (to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon of dry basil leaves
• 6 cloves of garlic, slice to medium sized slices
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 2 fresh chillies, chopped
• 2 tablespoon of olive oil
• 4 Indian Bay Leaves (Tej Patta)

Preparation

1. In a medium to large size pot, heat some of the olive oil on low heat
2. Add onion
3. After a while, add the Indian Bay Leaves
4. Add the turmeric
5. When the onion have changed, colour add chillies
6. Shortly afterwards, add the garlic and the rest of the oil
7. Fry all this until the garlic looks a slightly yellowish brown (the yellowish is, of course, thanks to the turmeric)
8. Add chopped tomatos
9. Increase to medium heat
10. Fry until the spices and tomatoes have formed a paste
11. Add vegetable stock
12. Add Mutti Passata (not all of it)
13. Cook this for a while
14. Add salt, pepper and basil
15. Add 1 cup of water

Taste it. If it doesn't taste right, add Mutti Passata to give it more of a tangy-tomatoy taste, salt if it just doesn't taste right, pepper to make it more spicy, water to make it more soupy, or oil to make it richer.

Serve with bread or just eat it by itself!