Your love for soups made me think that it is time to deviate a bit from the traditional Greek cuisine and to present to you popular soups from other countries. These soups taste very different from what we’re used in Greece. But they are still satisfying and delicious. I couldn’t help but start with the “mulligatawny”. I fell in love with this soup from the moment I heard its “exotic” name at cooking school and experienced its unique taste…

Mulligatawny, which is thought by many people to be India’s national soup, is a curry soup of an Anglo-Indian origin. The combination of chicken and apples creates a fantastic flavour. Its name comes from the Tamil language in southern India and is a compound word formed from “milagu” meaning pepper and “tanni” meaning water. I hope you get the message. This is a spicy soup that has nothing to do with what we Greeks know as chicken soup. But also it has nothing to do with water because it is so rich and creamy that you will fall in love with it from the first spoon…

For the record, during the British rule in India around 1800 when the British tasted a very popular Indian dish, they fell in love with it and asked for some changes, such as the addition of lamb or chicken. Over the centuries the soup evolved to what we know today, inspired by the Indian cuisine with obvious British influences. We could say that this dish is the perfect example of fusion cuisine that combines recipes from different countries to create a new one.

The first time I made this soup, I considered all this amount of spices an exaggeration and put a much smaller amount. The result was very good. It was extremely tasty but it wasn’t what I expected, after everything I had read about its history. Even in movies and series that we haven’t watched in Greece, the mulligatawny plays a leading role in the main scenes. All the signs implied an incredible flavour which was missing from my version. So I decided to put all the spices… If you remember, as I told you before, the first spoon is love and that’s exactly what happened! The spices that I thought would make the dish heavy, actually flavoured it so fine as each of them made its presence felt discreet. But this combination of spices gave also a depth of flavour and duration to the enjoyment. An exceptionally tasty hearty soup, simply irresistible!

The experience I had with the mulligatawny, makes me want to try other dishes of Indian cuisine. When my Ariadni studied for her master’s degree in England, she and her friends used to gather and cook to each other, representative food of their countries. As for Ariadni, what can we say… As a sample of Greek cuisine, she made tzatziki. One of her friends loved tzatziki so much that she even ate it for breakfast! From all Ariadni’s stories, I distinctly remember her telling me, how delicious were the dishes that her Indian friend Ankita was cooking. My sweet Ankita, because I know you will read this recipe with my Ariadni, I think it’s time to write a recipe for Cook Eat Up! In the photo, Ariadni with Ankita celebrating Bihu (Assamese festival) … Aren’t they gorgeous?

Ingredients

• 4 servings of chicken, thighs or breast but of course the thighs are tastier
• 1/2 cup split peas
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 50 g butter
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 2 sprigs of celery
• 2 tbsp chopped ginger
• 1 tbsp Garam masala
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 apple
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup basmati rice
• Salt
• Coriander for serving and cashew nuts, optionally

Preparation

Put the split lentils in a bowl and cover with cold water. Let them soak for 30 minutes.

Dice the carrots and onion.

In a pot heat the olive oil and melt the butter. Tip in the onion and carrots and stir until translucent, for about 5 minutes.

Chop the celery in small pieces and add it in the pot along with the ginger. Add the spices and the bay leaf and sauté.

Dice the apple and add it to the mixture. Stir for 2 minutes.

Place the chicken on top after removing the skin.

Drain the split peas and add them in the pot. Stir well, pour the broth and season with salt. Simmer until the chicken is tender.

Meanwhile, prepare the rise. In a saucepan boil 2 cups of water with 1/2 tbsp of salt. When the water starts boiling, put the rice in and cook until soft. Drain and set aside.

When the chicken is soft, take it out of the pot, remove the bones and cut it into small pieces. Add the cream to the soup and stir.

If you don’t want to puree the soup in a blender, put the chicken back in the pot along with the rice, stir and serve with a spoonful of yogurt. In fact, in this case, you can omit the cream. You can mix the yogurt in the soup. 

If you want it blended, which is my favourite version, puree the vegetables with the hand blender or in the food chopper and then add the chicken to the soup. Serve on a plate and put a tablespoon of basmati in the middle. Sprinkle with chopped coriander and cashews.

Τips

• Garam masala is a quite hot mixture of spices because it contains a lot of black and white peppercorns. If you intend to serve this dish to small children then avoid this spice mixture. Instead, prepare a tablespoon with the other spices it contains, in equal amounts. The main spices are cumin, clove, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and coriander. If, on the other hand, you want it hot but you don’t have garam masala, prepare the mixture I mentioned previously and add the peppercorns in the pot while sauteing the vegetables. The peppercorns will be ground at the end along with the rest of the ingredients. You can also put one tbsp curry and one tbsp turmeric instead of two tablespoons of curry.
• Muligatani is essentially a blended soup so you don’t have to go through the process of chopping finely the vegetables. But if you don’t blend it then chop them finely to make the soup more presentable.
• As for the apple, you can put either red or green. I have tried both ways and the result is fantastic anyway. Red apples give extra sweetness.
• If you don’t want to use heavy cream then you can replace it with yogurt or coconut milk.
• If you don’t like coriander you can omit it or replace it with parsley.
• Finally, cashew nuts may be optional but it is best not to omit them. They give their sweetness to the soup and a subtle crunchiness that you will love!

Enjoy!

Νanà…