Tomato, cumin and coriander soup

Serves 4-6

Winning combination: Tomato, cumin and coriander soup (Jason Lowe)

As you may know, cumin is my all-time favourite spice – it works with all sorts of meats, fish and vegetables and, chilled in this Indian-influenced soup, it's a winner.

If you can get your hands on different colours and varieties of tomatoes for the garnish all the better.

2 red onions, peeled and finely chopped
1tbsp rapeseed oil
2tsp cumin seeds
2tsp ground cumin
500ml vegetable stock
500g ripe tomatoes
A handful of coriander leaves (reserve the stalks)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Gently cook the red onion, half the cumin seeds and ground cumin in the rapeseed oil for 2-3 minutes until soft then add the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer.

Roughly chop two thirds of the tomatoes and add half to the soup, season and simmer for 15 minutes then remove from the heat and leave to cool. Take the remaining tomatoes, squeeze out their seeds and cut f the flesh into rough 1cm dice and put to one side.

Once the soup is cold, blend in a liquidiser until smooth with the rest of the roughly chopped tomatoes and the coriander stalks, then strain into a clean container, season to taste and refrigerate until nice and cold. Alternatively, you can speed up the process by placing it in the freezer and giving it an occasional stir.

Toast the rest of the cumin seeds under a medium grill and roughly chop the coriander. To serve, mix the coriander and tomatoes with the soup and ladle into soup bowls then scatter the cumin seeds on top.