While coconut milk is a wonderful substitute for dairy cream, its flavor is noticeably different. You can use coconut milk’s unique nuttiness to your advantage or employ other ingredients to mask its flavor in tomato soup. If you’d rather play down coconut milk’s presence, a squeeze of lemon juice should do the trick. If you’re worried about lemon juice adding too much acidity to the already acidic tomatoes, you can try adding a very small amount of baking soda to your soup.
Coconut milk’s flavor is distinct, but it’s also delicious, complements tomatoes, and provides exciting new opportunities for tomato soup seasonings. You can draw inspiration from Indian curries by frying ginger with garlic and onions for tomato soup and seasoning the soup with garam masala, cumin, coriander, and cardamom. Coconut milk and tomatoes would also work well with spicy seasonings like paprika, cayenne, and chili powder.
You could swap a regular can of tomatoes with fire-roasted tomatoes for a smoky, umami complement to nutty, sweet coconut milk. For a stunning presentation, you can reserve some canned coconut milk for drizzling over a bowl of creamy tomato soup with a garnish of fresh herbs. If you’d rather not use coconut milk, you can thicken your tomato soup with flour, egg yolks, or a cornstarch flurry.
