Quick Tomato Shorba (Tamatar Ka Shorba)

Tomato Shorba (Tamatar ka Shorba) is a thin Indian-style spiced tomato soup made with ripe tomatoes, aromatic whole spices and finished with coriander. It's perfect as a light starter and can be ready within 15 minutes.

I use my pressure cooker for speediness but you can make it in a saucepan too.

Note – This recipe has been updated from the archives – first published February 2013. I’ve added new images and helpful content, the recipe remains the same.

Funny enough, this recipe actually comes from an Indian restaurant in Switzerland — yes, Switzerland! I was nine, on holiday, and this tomato shorba was the appetiser. Even then, I could tell this wasn’t just any tomato soup - the layers of spicy, tangy and sweet flavour and the light, thin texture were so incredibly warming and comforting that I couldn’t resist going back for another bowl. It was the first time I ever liked something with tomato in it! My mum insists it was the fresh mountain air that made me “hungry,” but I know it was the incredible soup!

I loved it so much that my mum asked the chef for the recipe. He shared the basics, and once we were back home, she looked it up in a cookbook to recreate it. Since then, it’s become our once-a-year winter tradition!

I tend to serve it for light lunch with some crusty toasted tiger rolls but it's usually served as a starter/appetiser for an Indian meal.

The Recipe Details

This tomato shorba really is as quick as it gets! All you do is add the fresh ingredients into a pressure cooker (I use my Instant Pot) along with the whole spices. Let it cook for 1 minute until everything softens, blend it up, and finish with a cumin tempering.

Normally with soups, I sauté the onion and garlic before adding the veggies. That’s the method I use in my others, like my vegan mulligatawny soup. Tamatar shorba though is traditionally made by boiling the aromatics directly with the tomatoes.

It's blended to a broth-like consistency - making it unique from western-style thicker soups. I like to remove the whole spices before doing this so that the soup isn't too strong. After blending, you can either sieve it or leave the tomato bits in. I like it both ways, so it really is down to personal preference.

Ingredients notes

Tomatoes - I use ripe, juicy tomatoes for this recipe. I prefer the lightless and flavour of fresh for tomato shorba rather than using canned tomatoes. If your fresh tomatoes are orange in colour rather than red, then you may want to add some passata or tomato paste. I usually add a little because it deepens the tomato-eyness. (Yes it's a word in my dictionary).

The aromatics - red onion, fresh garlic, fresh ginger and green chillies. Fresh makes all the difference as this soup has few ingredients - much better than using bottled!

Whole spices - cinnamon stick, cloves, black peppercorn, bay leaves, black cardamom pod, green cardamom pod, star anise.

Salt to taste

Sugar - adding a little sugar helps to neutralise the acididic taste from the tomatoes.

Oil - any neutral flavoured oil works

Cumin seeds - these are tempered over the cooked shorba.

Pinch of hing ( asafoetida )

Fresh coriander to garnish - to give freshness and flavour.

As always if you make this recipe, be sure to leave me a comment, rate this recipe and tag me on Instagram @jcookingodyssey or #jcookingodyssey. I love seeing all your photos of my recipe recreations!

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