Slow-Cooker Mulligatawny Soup

Amarante

Thu, Nov 03 2022, 9:27 am

This was a very satisfying soup for either a hearty lunch or even dinner supplemented with a salad and some good bread.

The ingredient list is long but that is really just spices which you toss in so prep is easy

Slow-Cooker Mulligatawny Soup

Yield: 6 servings

This soup is the result of British colonizers’ encounters with rasam, a souplike dish from Tamil Nadu, a region in southern India, that’s often made with lentils. “Milagu tannir,” or pepper water, evolved into mulligatawny when the British made it thick, chunky and meaty. In her book “From Curries to Kabobs,” the author Madhur Jaffrey wrote that mulligatawny was “an essential part of my childhood,” as she ate it at the homes of Anglo-Indian friends and in hotels on vacation. Mulligatawny now bears no resemblance to rasam and has many variations; it is a dish that was invented and modified for colonizers’ palates, and thus it has few rules. Ms. Jaffrey noted that “some curry powder has to be included for a true East-West flavor,” as curry powder is more British than Indian. This slow-cooker version is thickened with masoor dal and coconut cream, and enriched with chicken thighs and tart apple

INGREDIENTS

¼ cup vegetable oil - I didn't use this much oil - maybe a tablespoon or so
8 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 large apple, preferably Granny Smith, peeled, cored and chopped
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size chunks
1 cup masoor dal (split red lentils)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons minced ginger (from about 2 inches of peeled ginger)
2 teaspoons black or brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon ground cayenne, plus more to taste
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt, plus more to taste
4 cups chicken broth or stock
1 (5-ounce) can coconut cream (about ⅔ cup)
Juice of 1 lime (about 1½ tablespoons)

PREPARATION

Combine all the ingredients except the coconut cream and lime juice in a 6- to 8-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

Stir in the coconut cream and lime juice. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Serve in bowls topped with a dusting of cayenne, if desired.