recipes for Indian soups?

Soup was unknown in Indian cuisine, until we British arrived and asked what was for the soup course. The ever-inventive Indian cooks watered down a southern Indian spicy vegetable stew, rasam, and we didn't know any better. It became known as mulligatawny (Tamil for "pepper water) soup.

The "beef curry soup", that we now know as mulligatawny soup is a Western invention, to satisfy the demand in England for anything Indian. It was what people, who had no idea what the real thing was like, expected an Indian soup to be like.

However, there's nothing wrong with mulligatawny soup per se ...

MULLIGATAWNY SOUP

Makes 2 x 250ml servings

INGREDIENTS

1 clove of garlic

2cm (1 inch) piece of fresh ginger

2 onions

1 tablespoon of oil

250g of minced meat

200g (½ a 400g tin) of chopped tomatoes

½ a teaspoon of chilli powder

1 tablespoon of garam masala

½ a teaspoon of ground turmeric

500ml of water

1 portion of boiled rice

METHOD

Peel the garlic and chop it into tiny pieces. Peel the ginger and chop it into tiny pieces. Peel the onions and chop them into tiny pieces.

Put the oil into a saucepan on a low heat. Put the garlic, ginger, meat and onions into the pan and fry for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring all the time, until the meat has broken up and is an even colour, with no pink bits.

Add the tomatoes, chilli powder, garam masala, turmeric, and water. Stir thoroughly.

Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling. Put the lid on the saucepan and cook for 15 minutes. Check the water level from time to time and top up if it starts to dry out.

If you have a food processor, put the soup in it and blend it to the desired consistency. If you have a hand blender, put it in the soup and blend it to the desired consistency. If you don’t have a food processor or hand blender, use a potato masher, press the soup through a sieve with the back of a spoon, or leave it lumpy. If you used a food processor, rinse out the saucepan and put the soup back into the saucepan.

If you want to refrigerate or freeze this soup, allow it to cool and do so now. When you reheat it, resume the recipe from this point.

Add the boiled rice to the soup. Mix thoroughly.

Put the saucepan on a low heat and reheat the soup gently.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use minced beef, lamb, pork or turkey.

The quantity of chilli powder above makes for a medium hot soup. For a hot one, increase this to 1 teaspoon. For a mild one, decrease this to ¼ of a teaspoon.

Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter), or vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

2 green chile peppers, chopped

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons ground coriander seed

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

4 pods cardamom, bruised

1 tablespoon chopped fresh curry

1 carrot, chopped

1 apple - peeled, cored, and chopped

1 large potato, peeled and diced

1 cup Masoor dhal (red lentils), rinsed, drained

8 cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups coconut milk

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Heat ghee or vegetable oil in large pan (use low heat); cook onion, garlic, ginger, chilies, spices and curry leaves, stirring, until onion is browned lightly and mixture is fragrant. Do not over brown the onion or else it will give the soup a burnt taste.

Add carrot, apple, potato, dhal, and chicken stock to pan; simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes or until vegetables are just tender. Discard cardamom pods and curry leaves.

Blend or process soup mixture, in batches, until pureed; return to pan. Add tamarind, lemon juice, coconut milk and fresh coriander leaves; stir until heated through.

I use Davon's ingredients for the soup base and make soup kambing (goat soup) or dalcha (lentil soup) rasam is my other favorite *