When it comes to easy homemade meals, you don’t need to look much further than former Great British Bake-Off judge Mary Berry. 

We love her fancy fish pie, her delicious cottage pie, and even her simple but delicious sausage casserole.

So, when I was craving tomato soup last weekend, I knew exactly who to turn to. 

Mary’s “unusual” tomato soup recipe ― described as “spicy and fragrant” ― packs a secret punch, too.

I added Thai paste to the soup per the cook’s instructions

Mary Berry’s recipe involves frying off onions with bell peppers and carrots, adding grated ginger and red Thai curry paste after three minutes. 

The smell when the paste and ginger hit the pan was pretty phenomenal ― I’d remake it for that alone. 

Then I added tomato purée, muscovado sugar, chopped tomatoes, a lemongrass stalk, and a can of coconut milk, as per Mary’s advice.

After that had simmered for about 25 minutes, I removed the lemongrass stalk and added some coriander (the chef recommends Thai basil, which I didn’t have ― I’m sure it’s worth it, but I liked it with the alternative too).

Once that was done, I whizzed the lot for a few seconds until smooth-ish. 

I put the blended soup in the pan, watered it down until it thinned out a little (per Mary’s recipe), and placed a couple of sprigs of fresh coriander on top.

Again, I’m sure Thai basil is worth seeking out, but I still liked the mix.

And?

And I’m never going back! 

The spicy, creamy, aromatic soup is addictive (it was meant to serve six, but my partner and I scoffed it over two courses in one day. Oops). 

Not that we’ll ever use the information, but it turns out the food keeps well too.

According to the recipe, you can freeze it for a month or keep it in the fridge for up to two days.

I can imagine the flavour would develop into an even more delicious soup the following day, but for now that remains speculation...