Spiced Tomato and Egg Soup
A warm Indian-style tomato soup with toasted cumin, coriander and turmeric, finished with soft-set eggs and torn roti for scooping.
- Total
- 30 min
- Prep 8 · Cook 22
- Serves
- 1
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Blooming spices · Simmering
- Savory
- Indian
- Mild
- Stovetop
- Oven
Instructions
-
Finely chop the onion. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Pick the coriander leaves and chop them, keeping the stems separate.
~6 min
-
Warm the oil in a small pot over medium heat. Add the ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, curry powder and cinnamon and stir for 45 seconds until fragrant and slightly darkened. Do not let them burn.
~2 min
Blooming spices in hot oil dissolves their fat-soluble flavor compounds, deepening aroma; stir constantly and pull off heat the moment they smell nutty to avoid scorching.
Toasting the ground spices in oil for under a minute blooms their oils; the moment they smell nutty, add the onion so they do not scorch.
Blooming spices Bloom ground spices in oil over medium heat for 30-60 seconds until fragrant and slightly darkened. Pull off the heat the instant they smell nutty; burnt spices turn bitter and must be discarded.
-
Add the onion and coriander stems with 0.25 tsp of the salt. Cook over medium heat for 6 minutes until soft and lightly golden.
~6 min
Salting the onion early draws out moisture so it softens and browns evenly instead of steaming.
-
Add the tomatoes and 300 ml water. Bring to a gentle simmer, then cook uncovered for 10 minutes, pressing the tomatoes with the spoon, until they collapse and the liquid thickens slightly.
~10 min
Simmering uncovered evaporates water, concentrating tomato flavor and thickening the soup so it isn't thin.
If the tomatoes are watery, simmer two extra minutes before adding the eggs so the soup is not thin.
Simmering Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer with small bubbles, not a rolling boil. Stir and press the tomatoes occasionally so they collapse evenly and the soup thickens without scorching.
-
Season with the remaining 0.25 tsp salt and the black pepper. Crack the eggs into a bowl, then slide them into the simmering soup. Cover and cook gently for 4 minutes, until the whites are fully set and the yolks are still soft.
~4 min
Cracking eggs into a bowl first lets you check freshness and slide them in gently without breaking the yolks.
Simmering Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer with small bubbles, not a rolling boil. Stir and press the tomatoes occasionally so they collapse evenly and the soup thickens without scorching.
-
Tear the roti into pieces and warm them in a dry pan for 1 minute per side. Ladle the soup and eggs into a bowl, scatter over the coriander leaves and serve with the warm roti.
~2 min