Panang Curry Tomato Bisque Recipe

A sensational fusion of two culinary traditions, this Panang curry tomato bisque brings together East and West in a single bowl of silky, spicy, salty, and slightly sweet soup. The complexity of Thai Panang curry — with its perfectly curated blend of shallot, garlic, lemongrass, and peanuts, among many other ingredients — brings the simple comfort food that is tomato bisque to a new level. Hailing from opposite sides of the world does not prevent these dishes from finding a beautiful harmony, each bringing its own unique savor to the mix and creating a final product that is truly greater than the sum of its parts.

Developed by A.J. Forget, this recipe begins with juicy tomatoes, peeled and sauteed with onion, green bell pepper, and ginger — some of the vegetables you might find in a traditional Thai Panang curry. Augmented with Panang curry paste, the soup takes on a wonderful depth. Thickened with peanut butter and brightened with a touch of lime, this dish becomes a true bisque with the additions of both heavy cream and coconut milk, each providing their own nuances to this delicious, velvety soup.

Using store-bought Panang curry paste for the bulk of the flavor in this recipe means the other aromatics required are minimal; just onion, green bell pepper, garlic, and ginger will do the trick. The other fresh ingredients include Roma tomatoes, butter, lime juice, and heavy cream. From there, you'll just need pantry staples: vegetable broth, coconut milk, peanut butter, and fish sauce.

Add butter to a large pot and set over high heat.

Once butter is melted, toss in the onion, bell pepper, garlic, and ginger and saute for 5-7 minutes, until soft.

Stir in the curry paste and chopped tomatoes, cover, and let cook for 5 minutes.

Add vegetable broth, return mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove soup from heat and stir in the brown sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, peanut butter, cream, and coconut milk.

Using an immersion blender, puree until smooth. Add salt to taste.

Serve hot, garnished with croutons, thinly sliced scallions and basil, chopped peanuts, and extra cream, if desired.

When making soups and sauces out of tomatoes, it's worthwhile to remove the skins for a silky-smooth consistency. Failing to remove the peels before pureeing will leave tough bits of skin throughout your dish — not the end of the world, but not ideal for a creamy bisque. So, how do you peel tomatoes?

Begin by bringing a large pot (one that's big enough to fit all of the tomatoes) of water to a boil. Once it's at a rolling boil, toss the tomatoes in. After a minute or so, you should see the skins beginning to crack. As soon as each tomato skin cracks, scoop it out with a slotted spoon or tongs. If any of the tomatoes seem to be taking a long time, give them a poke; sometimes a little touch is all it takes to break the skin.

Once all the tomatoes are out of the water and cool enough to touch, simply pick them up by a skin-covered portion of the fruit and gently squeeze: The fleshy center should pop right out. Any remaining bits of skin can be easily peeled off. Voila, peeled tomatoes.

If this all seems like a lot of work, whole canned tomatoes are an easy alternative, as they come peeled. Just be sure to double check the authenticity of San Marzano tomatoes before shelling out for the expensive can.

Panang curry paste is a unique and versatile ingredient, but it may be tough to track down if you don't have access to an Asian market. Fortunately, it is not irreplaceable.

If you have eaten your way through the curry menu at your local Thai restaurant, you may have wondered what differentiates Panang curry from red curry. They are very similar dishes, sharing many of the same ingredients. The primary differences between the two are that Panang curry paste includes peanuts, whereas red curry paste is made with a larger proportion of red chiles. For this reason, Panang curries tend to be milder and sweeter than red curries.

As you might've guessed, if you can't find Panang curry paste, the best replacement is going to be red curry paste. Both are traditionally made with shallots, garlic, galangal, lemongrass, makrut lime, and many other identical ingredients. Red curry paste will yield a similar result in this bisque recipe, though you may wish to slightly increase the quantity of peanut butter to account for the lack of peanuts in the paste.