Mulligatawny Soup with Chickpeas - SRC

Mmmm Mmmm good!

Welcome to this month's recipe, courtesy of the Secret Recipe Club.  I was given the assignment to select and make a recipe from Healthy. Delicious.  Lauren  specializes in recipes that are ... great tasting yet take no longer than 40 minutes to prepare.  Ha!  Bet you were thinking I was going to go the easy way and say healthy and delicious, weren't you!  Nosirree ...  this is a quality blog, only the freshest descriptions here.  But I digress ...

I was planning to choose a dessert from Lauren's wonderful recipes when I accidentally fell into the soup, so to speak, and came up with her version of Mulligatawny soup.  It looked so delicious that even though the weather was in the 70s with humidity about 150%, I decided to give it a go anyway.

Lauren's recipe omits the chopped chicken and ginger (two classic ingredients), adding coconut milk, chick peas and wild rice.    Since I was going to serve this soup with barbecue, I did some additional subbing, using  olive oil and margarine for the butter, and omitted the yogurt.   When I reached into the apple basket, the macs had magically turned into pears. So I used a pear instead, and no one was wiser.  Until now (oopsie!).

As for the wild rice, it morphed too, but into black rice.  I was going to use the black rice, but the directions call for 50 minutes of cooking (plus water boiling time), so I reached for the Jasmine rice, mostly because it sounded just as exotic.  Jasmine worked beautifully, but I bet even brown or regular ol' classic white would be quite fine.

Don't freak at the amount of curry powder!  It gives taste, not heat.  The cayenne, however, does.  If you are the type who thinks ketchup is way too spicy, use half of the amount called for or omit it completely.

YoungerSon didn't care for the soup.  He said it was "trying to be something but didn't succeed."  But he puts srirarcha sauce in everything (probably even his oatmeal) so what does he know?  TheHubby, on the other hand, said I should make this again after youngerSon heads back to school.  Coming from him, this is a rave worthy of Snuffles when given a biscuit.

And if it helps, I liked it as well.  Next time , though, I think I'll reduce the amount of  lemon juice (the new quantity is below).  Maybe perhaps add a few slivers of fresh ginger?

Regardless, great soup, Lauren!  Thanks!


Mulligatawny Soup with Chickpeas

Slightly adapted from Healthy. Delicious.

Serves 6

1/2 Tbl. olive oil

1/2 Tbl. margarine
1 leek

2 stalks celery
2 carrots
2 (15 oz.) cans chicken broth (low-sodium preferred)
1 (15.5 oz.) can coconut milk (reduced fat preferred)
1 (15.5 oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 apple or pear, peeled and diced
1 Tbl. curry powder
2 Tbl. fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 of a lemon)
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (Optional)
1/2 cup Jasmine or wild rice

kosher salt and ground black pepper (if needed)

Cut off the dark green leaves of the leek.  Slice off the root end, then halve the leek lengthwise.  If it is a very fat leek then quarter it lengthwise.  Rinse the pieces in a bowl of cold water to remove the dirt, then thinly slice.  Peel and chop the carrot.  Rinse off the celery stalks.  Cut and discard the leafy end and the white root end, then chop as well.  The veggies should all be around the same size when you are done.  Set the veggie aside.

Sunny over North America ... no, a centaur carrying a shield ...

Heat the olive oil and margarine in a 4 quart saucepan over medium heat.

Add the chopped leek and cook for 2 minutes, or until just softened.

Add the celery and carrots. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the chicken broth, coconut milk, chickpeas, apple or pear, curry powder, lemon, and cayenne (if using). Simmer for 20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile, cook the rice according to package directions.  Turn off the heat and uncover, to let the steam escape and for the rice to dry out a bit so that it doesn't get mushy when dumped into the soup.

Remove soup from heat. Stir in the rice.  Taste and add salt and pepper if needed. 

Serve hot.

Soup can be made a day or two in advance and reheated.  The veggies will remain nice and crisp.

Okay, okay, I'll pose ... but you gotta remember in the future to keep the lens cap out of the way.

Disclaimer - because this recipe is part of an online cooking group, the linked recipes below might not be kosher.