This fragrant Indian Mulligatawny Soup recipe is spiced with curry and made from creamy red lentils, carrots, apples, and coconut milk. Make a double batch and freeze the leftovers!
I want to spend the next month eating nothing but this Indian soup.
I have a terrible habit of over-doing it at the Indian food buffet, to the point where I have to un-do the button on my jeans and pull my shirt down over the top of my pants while I waddle out to the car.
This soup absolutely triggered that same can’t-stop-eating feeling, and I didn’t regret it one bit!
How to Make Mulligatawny Soup
Just look at these beautiful ingredients! Lentils, apples, ginger, garlic, onions, red jalapenos, carrots and fragrant spices.
It’s so thick it’s almost more like a stew.
Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot, and jalapeno, then sauté for 4 to 5 minutes or until the onions have softened.
Add the garlic, ginger, apples, and diced tomatoes to the pot. Sauté for another 3 minutes.
Then add in all of the spices and toss to coat.
Add in the lentils and broth and let the contents come to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
Puree about 75% of the ingredients using either an immersion blender after transferring a portion of the contents to a bowl to not be pureed. If you don’t have an immersion blender, then you can transfer a portion of the contents a standard blender. Leaving some of the chunks whole adds a nice texture and consistency to the soup.
Return the soup to the pot if needed.
Then stir in the coconut milk. Taste, and adjust salt and black pepper as needed.
Serve topped with cashew and scallions along with naan bread for dipping.
It’s a masterpiece! For your mouth!
Vegetarian Mulligatawny soup is a traditional Indian dish and the recipe is really easy to make.
Don’t be intimidated by the ingredient list, it just calls for a bunch of familiar produce and a little digging around in your spice rack.
I used my very favorite cooking pot for this Mulligatawny recipe, but any good-sized pot should do the trick.
Many Mulligatawny Soup recipes call for pureeing all of the ingredients until completely smooth.
I prefer a little more texture than that in my meals, so I left lots of delicious chunks of apples, carrot, onions, and tomatoes to add a bit of interest.
I used my special hand blender for this, but you could also use a regular counter top blender to do the job.
This soup is full of vibrant flavor but is also warm and comforting. Perfect for this time of year, and just insanely delicious with a piece of homemade naan bread.
I used to be so afraid of making soups because I thought they would take all day and require all sorts of crazy steps (I think I get this idea from Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon).
This just takes about 15 minutes of real work.
Well, what are you waiting for?
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Here’s the Recipe!
Indian Mulligatawny Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter - or olive oil for vegan
- 1 yellow onion - chopped
- 1 carrot - peeled and diced
- 1 red jalapeno - seeded and diced
- 3 garlic cloves - minced
- 2 teaspoons peeled and minced ginger root
- 2 small firm apples - peeled, cored and diced
- 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 cup red lentils - uncooked
- 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 2/3 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Roasted cashews for garnish
- Chopped cilantro and/or scallions for garnish
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot, and jalapeno, then saute for 4 to 5 minutes or until the onions have softened.
- Add the garlic, ginger, apples, and diced tomatoes to the pot. Saute for another 3 minutes, then add in all of the spices and toss to coat. Add in the lentils and broth and let the contents come to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
- Puree about 75% of the ingredients using either an immersion blender or by transferring a portion of the contents to the bowl of a standard blender. Leave some of the chunks whole, as it adds a nice texture and consistency to the soup. Return the soup to the pot if needed, then stir in the coconut milk. Taste, and adjust salt and black pepper as needed.
- Serve topped with cashew and scallions along with naan bread for dipping.
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Awesome recipe, and a comment for other users who stumble onto this website. Adblockers are your friend. Turn that on and the 73 annoying popups and banners this place uses will go away so you can focus on the recipe and not have a seizure.
I had this for the first time at my friends house… As soon as I came home from visiting I made it and it is a big hit! I left out the time added a little more tomatoes and always a little more of a spice, it is delicious!
Oh my goodness, this is an amazing recipe. Only changes I made was to leave the peals on the apples and the carrot. I usually share with my sister, maybe next batch. Thanks.
How much does this soup make? What is the serving size? Maybe 2 quarts?
Hi i am hoping to make this recipe but I do not want to make too much how many litres does this make?
It looks really good hopefully you see this and can get back to me!
Hi Indigo, I’m not sure how much it makes in litres, but it serves 6, so that should help. If you don’t need all of that you could half the recipe or freeze the leftovers.
As far as flavour goes, this recipe nailed it, however; I need my mulligatawny soup to have chicken…..LOTS of chicken, and rice.
To my mind, these are two of the main ingredients. All of the aromatics can be played with (and always are).
So I’d say that this is a good jumping off point, but needs those two essential ingredients.
This soup has become our favourite, and it freezes well. When I ask my husband to take some soup out of the freezer he always comes up with Indian Mulligatawny. Thanks so much for the recipe.
A quick and easy to make recipe after all the Holiday cooking, really tasty without any alterations! After pureeing I added chopped up turkey and some cooked rice – just because both needed using up 😉