Curried Tomato Soup

This recipe is slightly adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. As the first thing that I made in my kitchen after 6 weeks away, I may be giving it more credit than necessary. But, this is a really filling and tasty twist on tomato bisque...

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 tablespoons madras curry powder
2 cups chopped tomatoes (i used a large can of whole italian tomatoes)
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 medium boiling potatoes, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
salt
1/4 cup cream or coconut milk
handful of chopped cilantro and fried onion for garnish

- In a soup pot, heat the oil on medium high until HOT. Add the onions and cook until golden brown.
- Add the curry powder and stir with the onions for 10 seconds.
- Add tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, peas, and salt to taste. Saute for 1-2 minutes.
- Add 4 cups of water (I used water and the liquid from the tomato can to add up to 4 cups) and bring the soup to a boil.
Cover and reduce heat to very low. Let simmer for 45 minutes until vegetables begin to break down.
- Remove soup from the heat and puree until smooth. Jaffrey recommends straining the soup through a seive, but I didn't bother and liked the thick quality of the soup. Were I making this for a party, I'd strain it to make it all silky and fancy.
- Once the soup is pureed, add the cream or coconut milk and stir over low heat to combine. (I used coconut milk, but the recipe calls for 1 cup of cream, but 1/4 cup of coconut milk was perfect for my taste.)
- At this point, I felt that the soup needed a little something, so I added about 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar and a pinch of cayenne pepper. I think some whole, popped, mustard seed would have been nice too.
- Serve hot with a healthy garnish of cilantro and fried onion.