Thursday, July 19, 2012

Chickpea and Lentil Mulligatawny with Spicy Yoghurt

It's always exciting getting a new soup cookbook. I have so many soup books that sometimes I can find a "new" book on my own shelf....




I don't remember buying this book, but recently I decided to use it for the first time. It has lots of great sounding soups- some classics, some tweaked versions of favourites, some quite novel. Lebanese lentil soup. Roasted sweet potato bisque with avocado and lime salsa. Persian minted onion soup. Beetroot gazpacho with avocado cream.

For my first foray I chose Chickpea and Lentil Mulligatawny with Spicy Yoghurt. I've adapted it a bit.

25gm unsalted butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
125gm chickpeas, soaked in water overnight and then drained
2 tblsp prepared curry paste
1 tblsp gram (chickpea) flour
1 L chicken stock
125gm puy lentils
1 tblsp mango chutney
1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped
400ml can light coconut milk
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cumin yoghurt
1tsp ground cumin
1 small pot of Greek yoghurt

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the onion, garlic and turmeric, cook over a low heat until softened. Add the soaked chickpeas and curry paste and cook for 5 minutes, then sprinkle over the chickpea flour and stir it in. Pour on the stock and bring it to the boil, then simmer for 2 hours topping up with more liquid if it begins to get too dry.

Stir in the lentils and simmer for 30-40 minutes, then add the mango chutney and apple and cook for another 20 minutes.

For the cumin yoghurt, stir the cumin and yoghurt until combined.

Pour the soup into a blender/thermomix, blitz until it is a smooth puree. Return to the pan, add the coconut milk, and reheat. Season to taste. Serve topped with cumin yoghurt.


Notes
Always beware of recipes that aren't photographed in books that have a photo accompanying each recipe. They are usually an unappealing colour.  Especially if the chosen picture is of an ingredient that isn't even in the recipe.



I omitted 1 tsp dried red chilli flakes. The original recipe also included two smoked chicken breasts to be served shredded on top. I never bothered with that.

I used a yellow curry paste.

You can just blitz a few unsoaked chickpeas in a thermomix or fast blender to make the chickpea flour. And then use leftover chickpea flour on parboiled potatoes before roasting them- crispiest roast spuds ever!

3 comments:

  1. I love soup too! Its my favorite, I could eat it every meal. This one sounds awesome!

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  2. Though I love soups I find it hard to make anything too complicated, but I'd love to eat what you make!

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  3. This sounds tasty, I could and often eat soup, everyday..

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