Homemade Mulligatawny Soup
Happy New Year!
The snowy, cold start to 2022 here in Toronto put me in the mood for homemade soup, something satisfying with a bit of a spicy kick to it.
A big pot of homemade Mulligatawny Soup is just the ticket, and a great recipe to kick off the new year with.
What could be better than curling up on the sofa with a bowl of Mulligatawny, a good book, or a favorite old movie on TV. The perfect foil to a cold winter day!
The unusual name for this Anglo-Indian soup is derived from Tamil words words miḷagāy or miḷagu, and taṇṇi. It’s a fragrant curry flavoured soup with lots of fresh ginger, vegetables, lentils and rice.
Like most soup recipes, Mulligatawny is easily adapted to suit your personal taste. Make it quite hot and spicy or reduce the heat level and keep it to a warm and fragrant spiciness.
It’s delicious as a vegetarian soup, with the lentils providing the protein, or can be made with chicken, or some versions use lamb.
My soup is satisfyingly thick with little pieces of chicken, carrot, potato, and celery. Although I’ve used chicken in my recipe, you can easily leave it out for a vegetarian version.
I do like a fair amount of spice, and lots of fresh ginger, plus a little red chili to add a bit of a kick.
I finish the soup with some coconut milk. It softens the flavours and gives the soup a nice silky smoothness.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil or ghee
- 1 stalk celery diced
- 1 small red chili finely diced
- 1 onion peeled and diced
- 1 carrot peeled and diced
- 1 thin skinned potato diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp fresh ginger grated
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- ¼ tsp cayenne
- 400 grams boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breast
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 8 litres vegetable or chicken stock
- 200 grams red lentils
- 100 grams basmati rice
- 250 ml coconut milk
- 1 handful fresh coriander (optional), plus more for garnish
Instructions
- Rinse the rice in cool water 2-3 times to remove excess starch. Place the rice in a pot with 350 ml of water, cover and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let stand while you prepare the soup.
- Using a mortar and pestle, or in a bowl with the back of a spoon, mash together the ginger and garlic to form a paste.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil or ghee in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. add the garlic/ginger paste, cumin, coriander, curry powder and cayenne. cook, stirring continuously for 2 minutes. Note: if making a vegetarian version of the soup omit the next step with the chicken and proceed to step 5 and add the diced onion directly to the spice mixture.
- Add the chicken pieces and stir until the chicken is coated with the spice mixture. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until the chicken pieces become opaque. Add 200 ml of water and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer until chicken is fully cooked, about 3 minutes. Transfer the chicken and liquid from the pot to a bowl and set aside.
- Return the pot to the heat and add the remaining tablespoon of oil or ghee. Add the diced onion and sauté over medium-low heat until translucent, about 2- 3 minutes. Add the turmeric, diced chili, lentils, carrot, celery and potato and stir to mix well. Add the stock, turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the lentils and vegetables are soft, about 10 – 15 minutes.
- Reserve 200 ml of the soup. Working in batches, purée the rest of the soup until smooth. Return the puréed soup along with the reserved amount to the pot. Add the cooked rice, lemon juice and the chicken with it’s liquid. Bring the soup back to a boil. Reduce the heat to med. low, add the coconut milk and stir well to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning. Remove from the heat and stir in the fresh coriander.