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Curried Tomato and Brown Rice Soup with Fried Paneer

I feel bad for brown rice. With all the grain options in the bulk bins and now main-stream purchases, brown rice gets neglected even trash-talked a bit. But you know what? I still love brown rice, like a lot. There’s something perfect about it’s nutty flavor that is not too overpowering (because let’s be honest, there are a few grains out there that have quite a flavor).

Curried Tomato and Brown Rice Soup with Fried Paneer

This soup is simple. I’ve been hoarding my summer canning like a mad woman. I’ve got one jar of salsa, a jar of pickles, and a few random tomato products. Next summer I’ll be canning a lot more tomatoes- I loved having the stewed tomatoes, salsa, and tomato sauce. The sauce made for a perfect winter’s soup.

Curried Tomato and Brown Rice Soup with Fried Paneer

This soup is simple to throw together and makes for a hearty lunch or dinner. The paneer doesn’t add too much except that it’s fried cheese- I feel like that in itself is good enough reason to include it with this soup. Of course, I think coconut milk would make a great addition swirled in at the end as well.

Curried Tomato and Brown Rice Soup with Fried Paneer

I used a Japanese Curry Powder that I picked up at a local spice shop. This was my first time using this specific curry powder and I really love the flavor. It’s a good curry that’s not too spicy and has a bit of sweetness to it. I found this recipe with the addition of the star anise and fenugreek. I’ve been wanting to start making my own blends and I think this one will be a good place to start!

Curried Tomato and Brown Rice Soup with Fried Paneer

Oh, and if you decide you want a few more recipes for all that brown rice you just bought because of this post, check out my recipes and a few recipes from around the web for brown rice!

 

Curried Tomato and Brown Rice Soup with Fried Paneer
 
Author:

Ingredients
  • Soup
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • ½ medium onion, diced
  • 1-2 tablespoons curry powder
  • ½ cup short-grain brown rice
  • 3 cups tomato sauce
  • 2-3 cups vegetable broth
  • 2-3 ounces paneer, cubed
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions
  1. Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5-6 minutes. Stir in curry powder, then brown rice.
  2. Pour in tomato sauce and 1 cup of vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and let cook until rice is tender; 45-60 minutes. If soup thickens too much, add extra broth.
  3. Towards the end of cooking the soup, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and fry paneer, shaking pan occasionally.
  4. Serve soup with a few cubes of cheese and a sprinkle of cilantro.

 

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  • http://www.ohladycakes.com/ Ashlae W.

    I agree, brown rice is always getting pushed to the back burner – especially in my house. By me. I recently picked up a 10 pound bag and I’m excited to start cooking with it! I’ve always been a quinoa lady.. but it’s time to change things up :)

    Gorgeous photos, woman! I could go for some tomato soup right about now.

    • elalderson

      Thanks, Ashlae and I’m thinking I need to get a 10 pound bag- I think that should last me a couple months ;)

      • Sonja / A Couple Cooks

        We just bought a 12 pound bag! I’m not quite sure how we’ll eat it all, but I think it freezes well? Erin, this looks delicious and I’m excited to see more from you two ladies on uses for brown rice!

  • http://twitter.com/kankanasaxena Sunshine and Smile

    I don’t eat rice a lot but whenever I do, I try to pick the brown one! I love the addition of fried cheese in it!

  • http://www.edibleperspective.com/ Ashley

    I absolutely adore brown rice!! Quinoa is great but brown rice and millet are my favorites. Beautiful photos! I would like this soup for lunch please. :)

  • http://twitter.com/wvanillasugar Warm Vanilla Sugar

    Fried paneer seriously makes me want to swear it’s so good. This sounds awesome!

  • Theresa

    I love your website!!! It has been the best thing ever since I discovered it a few months ago. I have made so many of your recipes and they all come out delicious! I love that your ingredient list is minimal, easy to find, and the recipes don’t take too long to make. Thank you!

    • elalderson

      Thank you so much, Theresa!

  • Shira

    This soup looks absolutely incredible! My family is a massive fan of anything curried – especially with paneer. This looks like an amazing meal in a bowl with the added rice, with or without naan! Yummy!

    • elalderson

      I think I could eat some form of curry every day and I think next time, I’m making naan to go with this soup- that sounds delicious!

  • http://hampiesandwiches.blogspot.com/ Eileen

    Fried paneer sounds like the perfect garnish for a super-vegetably soup like this. Yay! :)

  • Radhika @ Just Homemade

    Ella,

    Love the pictures! So rustic and the mood is just so right..

    I have been a brown rice eater myself for a long while, right now not so much..

    Agree on the nuttiness part of it completely!

  • http://londonbakes.blogspot.com Kathryn

    I love brown rice too – you’re right, it seems to have become very unfashionable these days. This is a lovely recipe that I can imagine making time and time again!

  • Kristie

    This looks fantastic! How many servings does it make?

  • http://twitter.com/IllMakeItMyself I’ll Make It Myself!

    This is great. I never see soup recipes with short-grain brown rice (that isn’t precooked), so this was great. The texture reminded me a little of jambalaya! I also made my own paneer since it’s not available where I live in Japan.

  • Natalie

    I made this for dinner tonight and I loved the flavor! I am a college student, so obviously making my own tomato sauce was out of the question (not enough time!), but it was good with a carton of tomato sauce nonetheless. My only issue with the soup was that the brown rice wasn’t done after 45 minutes. I don’t think that my stove was hot enough, though. Make sure to use more heat than you normally would since you aren’t covering the soup. For me, it made three decent-sized servings. I ended up using two cups of vegetable broth, and I will probably add a bit more when I reheat this soup over the next couple of days. I used a sweet onion because that was all that wasn’t moldy at my local supermarket, but I think a standard yellow would be best. If you use sweet, be sure to add a little salt to the onions to give them some flavor, as they’re a bit too mild for 2 tbsps of (S&B) curry.

    I did change one thing about the recipe to make it vegan: I served it with seared tofu instead of paneer. This has the same pleasantly white appearance and mild flavor associated with paneer from what I can tell, and it’s nice in that you can use 4 oz per person for a complete protein. For a single serving, simply slice the tofu into 1/2 oz cubes (you should get 8 ~1/2 inch cubes) when you start the soup. Let it dry, wrapped in paper towels, until the soup is almost done. Heat 1/2 tsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and fry the tofu for 2 minutes on each side, salting it as you go.

    This soup is easy to make and clean after! I really appreciate this website’s multitude of tasty and fast, natural recipes! Thank you so much!!

    • elalderson

      Thanks for the extra tips! (and as for the rice, did you use short-grain? That will sometimes make a difference!)

      • Natalie

        I did, but it was a new variety for me. Normally, I use brown mochi rice (AKA sweet glutinous rice) which has a much softer, chewier texture. My store was out, so I settled for the best looking short grain, but it will take some getting used to. I probably cooked it right but didn’t anticipate what “right” feels like. Haha!

        If you haven’t tried mochi rice, you really should! It’s quite a treat. It isn’t actually sweet (it’s named that for its common use in asian desserts) and it’s gluten free (the glutinous is a reference to its pleasantly chewy texture, not protein composition). But it’s sticky, shiny, nutty, and has such an incredible texture that it quickly became my favorite grain.

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  • Mary

    Wonderful change to our traditional tomato soup. No paneer, so we are having 101 cookbooks ‘little bread recipe’ on the side. I also had to increase the cook time in order for the rice to soften enough, I used short grain as directed.