Mulligatawny Soup

January 2012 Recipe #1: Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 3 cups chopped onions 
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons garam masala
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups dried red lentils
• 8 cups low-salt chicken broth

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• In Addition:
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• 2 cups diced cooked chicken
• 1 cup canned coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 2 cups cooked basmati rice

I've never been able to take a good photo of soup. It's so blah looking. Anyway, Mulligatawny is one of my favorite soups. Whenever I order it at an indian restaurant I'm never disappointed. It's creamy, spicy and just a dash sexy in my opinion. I wanted to make soup because I'm not feeling 100% and I wanted to give my new mini food processor a test drive. Here's what you need to do.

Steps:

Heat vegetable oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until golden brown, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes. 

Add garlic and sauté 2 minutes. 

Add garam masala and next 4 ingredients; stir 1 minute. 

Add lentils. stir until coated. 

Add chicken broth. Bring soup to boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer until lentils are very tender, about 20 minutes. Discard bay leaves.

Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return to pot. Stir in chicken, coconut milk, and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Divide rice among bowls. Pour soup over. Garnish with lemon wedges; serve.

The above recipe glosses over the chicken portion. Personally, I've never had a mulligatawny soup with chicken before in my life and that was reason enough to give it a try. To cook the chicken all I di was put a tablespoon of butter on a pan, cooked the chicken and then diced the chicken up. Of course, feel free to cook your chicken anyway you know how to. 

Finished Product: Best soup I ever made. The key here is to put the soup in the food processor and then adding the coconut milk. I've made this soup without the food processor in the past and it's subpar. This is restaurant quality soup and I look forward to making this for company one night soon.


5 out of 5 stars


Leftover Test: Reheats just as good as when it was first made.