Mulligatawny Soup

There are quite a few things that make me feel warm and give me comfort, and not surprisingly quite a few of them belong on the list of food and beverages.

Last evening, both my daughter and I were feeling under the weather, and I wasn't sure what to cook- that would make us all feel nourished and satisfied. My elder daughter would not put up with a meal meant for for a convalescent. 

I quickly glanced through the fridge, and the kitchen cabinets. An apple, chicken breast, carrots, potatoes, masoor dhal, coriander leaves, onions- few of the things that caught my eye. I thought of a recipe that I had years ago, and had cooked just once before, soon after I was married. My husband relished it then and so did I. 

So mulligatawny soup it was then. 

I was introduced to this soup at the establishment that our (extended) family ran years ago, in Bangalore. And we always had it in the non vegetarian form. You would normally not call something like this a soup. A pottage, maybe? It is thick, has a rich colour and flavour, you can taste the pepper and the many flavourful spices, and you would occasionally get a chunk of carrot, chicken or potato to chew on.  We would have this on special days at home, specially ordered from the hotel kitchen. The memory of this soup (which is a meal in itself) warms the cockles of my heart- not just the congregation of so many flavours, but the memory of us all congregating together at meal times along with some aunt, uncle, cousin or grandparent who had come to visit from a (then) distant land.  

So, I got down to work while my daughters sat in their room doing their own thing. Within 50 minutes, I had a yummy pot of mulligatawny soup ready. There were looks of disgust in the kitchen when the girls first saw the bowl. What exactly they expected, nobody knows. But I was the one who was smiling within, when I watched them go for a second and third helping. 

I do not have the same recipe that I used before, but I refreshed my memory and got most of my ideas and the list of ingredients I needed from this site.

 The recipe

And although I did not follow it to the T, it warmed our throats, filled our stomachs and made my heart smile.

I am not sure about the origins of the dish, but from what I have read, it could be from Madras, Sri Lanka or have some Anglo Indian connection. 

Read www.soulorigin.com.au/blog-mulligatawnysoup/ to know about one of the theories about the origin of this dish.