Tomato Soup With Smoked Chilli- Good Bye To The Old One

What does soup mean to you? Boring? Pale? For me, Soup means warmth and comfort. I like the one that is infused with flavours; the one that is hot; the one that calms you and soothes your soul. Weather has been pretty nasty these days and with such gloomy weather I can only think of warm cup of soup. Soup is a lot like a family. Each ingredient enhances the others; each batch has its own characteristics; and it needs time to simmer to reach full flavour. To bring the best outcome in the soup I always prefer roasting some elements, like roasted tomato garlic soup that I prepared during last winter was peppery and aromatic; or the roasted bell pepper basil soup that I posted was mildly sweet with strong flavours.

Roasting is my favorite thing. I have made lemonade with roasted oranges , pasta sauce with roasted bell peppers, fennel seeds roasted cherry tomatoes  and even roasted tomatoes chutney. The fact is, when you roast any fruit or vegetable, it releases its own juice and fragrant due to which the overall profile value of it intensifies. Also, after roasting you are left with strong smoked burnt flavour which is so sharp and intelligent that you will be hooked forever.

So keeping up my love for roasting, I prepared the good old classic tomatoes soup but with the hint of roasted green chilli in it. The tang of tomatoes and charred chillies balances the essence of the soup brilliantly. Perfect makeover to old boring tomato soup because with its each sip, you will get the zest smoked chilli which is amazing.  Serve on a rainy lazy day, or cold winter night with bits of roughly broken toasted bread. Nothing more, make your own batch and thank me later ;-)

Ingredients:

3 large tomatoes

1 clove garlic

Salt to taste

1 tablespoon sugar

1 green chilli

1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder

1 tablespoon corn flour

1 tablespoon butter

Method:

In a pressure cooker, put the tomatoes, salt and garlic with 2 cups water. Cook on high heat till 2 whistles.

Mix corn flour with 5 tablespoons water. Make a paste.

On a low flame, burn/roast the green chilli. Do this till chilli becomes black and smokey.

Blend the corn flour paste, roasted green chilli and pressure cooked tomatoes in the blender well. Sieve.

Heat another pan and add in butter. When butter melts, add the sieved soup. Also throw in sugar and cook on medium heat till the soup begins to boil.

Finally garnish with crushed black pepper.

Notes:

You can also add carrots and capsicum in the pressure cooker with tomatoes to boil.

You make this soup one day in advance before any party and just boil before serving.

It is not compulsory to sieve the soup, but sieving gives rich and smooth finish to the soup

Serving ideas:

Serve with croutons or toasted bread.

You can also serve the soup with crackers or soup sticks.

If you don’t want to serve with bread, throw in some boiled pasta or corn in the soup.