Now, I am a Mary Berry STAN. I love her. I love her recipes, I love seeing her on TV and I stopped watching Bake Off when she left because, truly, what’s the point?
That being said, my vintage Mary Berry cookbook from the 70s is not always... perfect, shall we say.
Take, for example, the tomato soup that I found in there today. It’s a ‘summer’ tomato soup which means it’s eaten cold and not cooked but also... there are... no actual tomatoes that need to be chopped for this recipe?
I swear, I had to keep re-reading because I thought I’d missed a step but apparently I didn’t and neither did Mary herself because this is still an entire soup.
I can only put it down to the 70s being a little weird.
Mary Berry’s Tomato-Less Tomato Soup Recipe
So. If you’re feeling like a yoghurty gazpacho is on your bucket list, you may want to try this vintage recipe. It’s not for me personally but as Mary says in the recipe itself, “it’s very much a sophisticated taste” and what can I say? I’m an uncultured buffoon.
So, for this alternative tomato soup recipe, you’ll need:
- 500ml of natural yoghurt
- 500ml of tomato juice
- The juice and grated rind of a lemon
- 1/2 cucumber, cut into 5cm cubes
- Salt
- Ground black pepper
- Worcester sauce
- Cucumber slices for garnish
... Told you! No tomatoes! Juice tomato juice!
Then you simply:
- Whisk together yoghurt and tomato juice
- Stir in lemon juice, grated lemon rind and cucumber
- Season well and add Worcester sauce
- Serve chilled and garnished with thin slices of cucumber
This comes from a vintage cookbook of Mary’s from 1975: Beating The Cost Of Cooking and while I likely wouldn’t choose this meal, I’ll cherish this throwback cookbook forever.