A bowl of this Spiced Tomato Soup (or Tomato Shorba) is perfect and delicious to warm up your cold afternoons. It is a warm, nutritious, low calorie and flavor packed recipe with warm spices. To relish most, top it with some cashew cream or vegan butter. Serve it with some crispy garlic bread on the side. Enjoy a soul warming spicy tomato soup, which is almost impossible to resist.
Made with fresh tomatoes, this tomato soup is seasoned with ginger, green chilis, cumin, cilantro stalks, turmeric and black pepper. Added vegetables like onions, carrots and beetroot cut down the acidity of tomatoes and balances flavors in this tomato Shorba recipe. The texture of this soup is light and brothy, which makes it light, but satisfying.
What is Shorba?
The word ‘Shorba’ comes from the Arabic word Shurbah, which means soup. Also in the word Shorba, ‘Shor’ refers to as ‘salty’ and‘Ba‘means a ‘stew dish cooked with water.’ Shorba or Chorba is a lighter version of a hot soup relished across Middle-East Asia, South and Central Asia. Mughals introduced Shorba and many other beautiful aromatic dishes to Indian cuisine during their time.
Shorba is mostly broth based and not heavy cream-based soup. Broth is usually made by boiling seasoned meat and / or vegetables in water. Along with spices, meats and vegetables were flavored with aromatics and herbs as well. Over the years, vegetarian variants of Shorba have become more popular.
What is Tomato Shorba?
Tomato shorba (or spiced Indian tomato soup) is a significantly lighter version of a classic tomato soup recipe. Combinations of herbs and spices in this recipe give Shorba a very unique flavor. The essence of this beautifully aromatic shorba is in the tadka. Tadka is a quick sauté of spices to release their flavor and fragrance before mixing with the core ingredients. This spiced tomato soup is ludicrously easy to make and is ready in just about in 45 minutes in an Instant Pot.
Tips to make Best Spicy Indian Tomato Soup
- Use the ripest and deep red tomatoes for this recipe.
- Add vegetables like onion, carrots and beetroot to balance the acidity of tomatoes.
- Add spices such as ginger, green chilies, black pepper, cumin seeds to lift up the flavor of this dish.
- Cilantro stalk and cumin are must have ingredients for this soup.
- Adjust the spices as per your preference. Tastes best when it is mildly spiced. A little spice goes a long way in this recipe.
- I prefer a thin consistency for Shorba. You can adjust the consistency per your preference.
- This recipe can be done in double batches very easily. It will last about five days in the fridge. The flavors will become more richer and stronger with time.
- This soup freezes perfectly with no change in texture after defrosting. You can keep for several months in the freezer.
- Use half butter and half oil in tadka (tempering) for richer and deeper flavors. Avoid this to keep recipe vegan.
Why you should try Spiced Tomato Soup?
- Super easy and quick to make and comes together in under 45 minutes
- Flavor-packed, wholesome, nutritious
- Mildly spiced and perfect for the whole family
- Filling, yet light on the stomach
How do prepare Spiced Tomato soup or Tomato Shorba?
The process to make spiced tomato soup can be summarized into these easy steps:
- Put washed and quartered tomatoes in the Instant Pot’s inner insert.
- Add roughly chopped carrots, beetroot, onion, spinach, cilantro stalks, ginger and serrano chili pepper.
- Sprinkle salt and whole peppercorns.
- Add water and pressure cook for 6 minutes NPR.
- Blend the boiled tomatoes along with veggies until smooth.
- For extra smooth texture, sieve the tomato puree, which is totally optional.
- In a separate pan prepare tempering and transfer the sieved tomato puree.
- Simmer the shorba in tadka along with all the spices.
- Serve with a drizzle of cashew cream, along with vegan butter (optional) and cilantro.
What are you waiting for, let’s get started…
Spiced Tomato Soup or Tomato Shorba – Instant Pot Recipe
Ingredients
Produce:
- 750 g Tomatoes Tamatar: 7-8 medium size
- 50 g Spinach Palak: ½ cup chopped/ handful
- 100 g Carrots Gajar: ½ cup chopped/ 1 medium size
- 50 g Beetroot Chukandar: ¼ cup chopped/ ½ of small size
- 50 g Onions Pyaaz: ¼ cup chopped/ ¼ of medium size
- 1/4 cup Cilantro Hara Dhaniya: ¼ cup stalks and leaves separated
- 20 g Ginger Root Adrak: 1 inch knob
- 3 g Serrano Pepper Hari Mirch: 1 piece
- 500 cup Water Pani: 2 cups/16 fl. oz
Oil and Spice:
- 2 tbsp Avocado oil or any Vegetable Oil:
- 1/8 tsp Asafetida Hing
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds Jeera
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder Haldi
- 1/2 tsp Black peppercorns Kali Mirch
- 1/2 tsp Roasted cumin powder Bhuna Jeera
- 1 tsp Salt Namak
- 1/2 tsp Black rock salt Kala Namak
- 1/4 tsp Garam masala
- 1 tbsp Sugar Cheeni
- 1/4 cup Cashew Cream check notes
- 2 tbsp Vegan Butter
Instructions
- Wash and quarter the tomatoes. Add the quartered tomatoes to the Instant Pot’s inner insert.
- Add chopped vegetablesspinach, carrots, beetroot, onion, ginger and green chili, to tomatoes.
- Add salt and whole black peppercorns as well.
- Add water and close the lid with valve on sealing position.
- Pressure cooks for 6 minutes on high pressure setting with NPR (natural pressure release). When the pin drops, open the lid. Blend the boiled tomatoes and vegetables until smooth, using an immersion blender or blender.
- For smoother texture, sieve the pureed tomato mixture with a sieve. This step is optional. If you want you can skip it.
- For tempering, heat oil in a separate pan, add hing, cumin seeds to hot oil. Let the cumin seeds splutter then add turmeric powder and stir in oil.
- Now add blended and seived tomato mixture to this tempering. Add rest of the spices, roasted cumin powder, black salt, garam masala and sugar.
- Stir all the spices and let the tomato shorba simmer for 5 minutes. Do a quick taste test and adjust the seasoning. Spiced tomato soup or tomato shorba is ready to serve. Before serving, topped it with some cashew cream, vegan butter and cilantro.
Neha Singhvi
Tried this today Rupali, its was so great!
I love your recipes and the presentation.
Thanks.
Rupali Agarwal
Thank you Neha for sharing your feedback with me! Glad you and your family enjoyed it.
Rupali Agarwal
Rakhi
It’s so delicious, great thing it has veggies that my kids don’t like, they loved it so much. I love cilantro, adding cilantro stalks made it so much flavorful.
Rupali Agarwal
Thank you Rakhi for sharing your feedback with me! Glad you and your family enjoyed it.
Rupali Agarwal