Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

• neutral oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 1/2 tbsp garam masala
• 2 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 c red lentils
• 8 c chicken stock
• 2 c chicken, cooked (optional)
• 1c chopped cilantro (optional)
• 1 can coconut milk
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1c basmati rice, cooked

At some point while you're making the soup, you can cook the rice: wash 1c of rice, then put it in a pot with 1.25c water.  Bring to a boil, then cover and set to very low heat and cook for about 8 minutes.  Then turn off the heat and let it sit (covered) for another 10 minutes at least.

To make the soup, heat a little oil in a pot, then add the onions and carrots.  When the onions are getting translucent, add the garlic and all the other spices (including the bay leaves) and cook for a minute.  Then add the red lentils and toss to coat.  Then add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes.  Take it off the heat and add the lemon juice and coconut milk, then blend until smooth (we used a stick blender).  Stir in the cooked chicken and cilantro and correct seasoning (we had to add more spices and salt).  To serve, put rice in a bowl and pour soup over the rice.

Thoughts: When we first made the recipe, I tasted it before we added the coconut milk and thought that the flavor was fantastic.  The coconut milk really muted the spices, so we needed to add a lot more.  But it was quite good.  It might be nice to only PARTIALLY blend this but leave some of the lentils whole for texture.  Even so, this was quite good.

Disaster Index: 1/10