Mulligatawny Soup is a creamy, curry-flavored soup that originated in southern India.
It became a British-Indian cuisine hybrid when colonizers encountered rasam – a spiced, soupy dish often enriched with lentils. This morphed into Mulligatawny soup when the British made it thick, chunky, and meaty.
This fragrant soup marries both British and Indian ingredients to form a flavor that is a bit spicy, a bit sweet, and oh-so-satisfying. There are many versions of this popular soup; some contain rice, some coconut milk, others are vegetarian while some include meat.
My vegan and oil-free version of Mulligatawny soup is Medical Medium® friendly and packed with healing ingredients. To make my version of Mullugatawny soup, I focused on toasted spices and sweetness – critical elements to the perfect batch.
Toasting, then grinding whole spices, gives this soup depth, while a tablespoon of curry powder finishes the mixture to produce the marriage of sweet and savory that is popular in many Indian-influenced dishes throughout Britain.
Many Mulligatawny soup recipes add a dollop of mango chutney. If you wish to add this, check out my family favorite recipe in my Chutneys & Sauces Recipe eBook.
If you’ve never had or never made Mulligatawny Soup, then add this one to the menu for a cold day. This soup is the ideal type of comfort food for chilly winter days!
And best of all are the beautiful, healing ingredients! Lentils, sweet potato, ginger, garlic, onions, red jalapenos, carrots, fragrant spices, and more.
It’s a masterpiece for your mouth!
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are full of antioxidants such as beta carotene, vitamins C, E, and D, and minerals like manganese and iron.
Additionally, sweet potatoes help relax muscles, steady nerves, and balance cognitive function, making them an incredible anti-stress food.
Furthermore, sweet potatoes are one of the best anti-cancer foods, particularly helpful in the prevention of breast, colon, lung, skin, and oral cancers. They also assist in removing heavy metals. Sweet potatoes contain phytochelatins that bind to heavy metals and safely remove them.
Onions
Onions contain sulfur compounds that strengthen the immune system, brain, and nervous system. These compounds also help to detoxify heavy metals from the body such as mercury, cadmium, and lead.
Furthermore, onions are the highest food source of quercetin, a potent antioxidant that can help prevent blood clots, asthma, sinus infections, bronchitis, atherosclerosis, and diabetes.
Garlic
The addition of garlic, onions, and cilantro to the avocado makes this dish an incredible powerhouse against pathogens. Not to mention, garlic contains impressive antibiotic, anti-fungal, anti-cancer, and anti-viral properties.
“One raw crushed clove of garlic contains the antibiotic equivalent of 100,000 units of penicillin and has been proven to be more effective than both penicillin and tetracycline in suppressing certain types of disease-carrying agents.”
Anthony William,Life-Changing Foods
Ginger
Ginger contains powerful anti-inflammatory compounds called gingerols that reduce pain, inflammation, and swelling. While ginger is an amazing spice that naturally heals both inflammation and infection, ginger is best known for its incredible ability to heal digestive upset and nausea. For centuries, ginger has been used to safely ease indigestion, menstrual cramps, motion sickness, and heartburn. Isn’t it amazing that a spice we take for granted to give a warm, deliciously spicy flavor to our foods can contain so many healing properties?
Carrots
Carrots refuel the liver with the essential glucose and vitamins it needs. They also inhibit the growth of unfriendly microorganisms and rejuvenate your hair, skin, and nails.
Hot Peppers
Hot Peppers are very healing to the body. They are generally high in vitamin C and they help a lot with colds, flus, and bronchitis. They also boost circulation (ever see someone get red in their face after eating a hot pepper?) and helps with the heart as well. Hot peppers can help to create hydrochloric acid in the stomach and can stimulate peristaltic.
Cilantro
Cilantro is an incredible herb! It helps to pull heavy metals and detoxify the liver. Being antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-worm, cilantro helps to suppress the level of pathogens in the body.
Additionally, cilantro can provide significant adrenal support and has been shown to help balance blood glucose levels and stave off weight gain, brain fog, and memory issues.
Cumin
Cumin is an incredible spice to aid with digestive disorders such as indigestion, dyspepsia, stomach cramps, gastritis, bloating, constipation, nausea, and flatulence. Cumin seeds also contain vitamins E, A and B-complex in addition to being abundant in minerals such as zinc, selenium, iron, calcium, and manganese.
Cumin is known to help the body absorb and assimilate nutrients. Furthermore, it contains anti-cancer and anti-tumor properties that have been shown to reduce the risk of stomach, colon, and liver tumors. Cumin is also known to help with colds, flu, insomnia, asthma, pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, muscle spasms, and arthritis.
Vegan & Oil-Free Mulligatawny Soup
Ingredients
- ½ cup red lentils
- 1 sweet potato, cubed
- 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
- ½ tsp whole coriander seeds
- ½ tsp brown mustard seeds
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1 serrano or jalapeño chili, slit in half, leaving the stem intact
- 1 Tbsp curry powder
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 15 oz coconut milk (can be lowered or omitted for low or no fat)
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro- leaves and stems, chopped
- 1-3 tsp fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- To start, you have the option to use freshly roasted cumin powder for enahcned flavor. This is hard to find in stores, so I often make my own. I will dry roast cumin seeds in a sauté pan until they become very fragrant. I will remove them from the heat before they start to burn - and this can happen quite quickly on medium heat.
- Once the cumin seeds are removed from the heat, I will add them to the dry cup blender of my Vitamix or you can use any spice grinder or coffee grinder to turn it into a powder. Then add to other whole toasted spices along with vegetable broth in step 4. This mixture is like gold for flavor in all my Pakistani recipes. I often make this in larger batches, with 1 - 2 cups of cumin seeds. This will last me about a month of cooking! If you choose not to grind your cumin seeds, proceed to step 3 using whole cumin seeds.
- Sauté cumin seeds, mustard seeds and coriander seeds for approximately two minutes dry roasting.
- Then add 1/4 cup of vegetable broth to prevent burning and sticking.
- Next, add garlic, onion, ginger, the slit serrano or jalapeño peppers, and curry powder and sauté them for another 2 - 3 minutes.
- Then Add carrot, sweet potato, the rest of the vegetable broth, red lentils, sea salt, tomato, and coconut milk. Stir well to prevent sticking to the pan.
- If you are omitting the coconut milk to remain fat-free, substitute in about 3 medium cubed potatoes here. They will add a creaminess to this soup that the coconut milk lends it.
- Turn the heat to low and let the soup simmer for approximately 20 - 25 minutes to allow the sweet potatoes and lentils to cook through.
- Once the soup is ready, stir in parsley and cilantro.
- Top with lemon juice to serve! Enjoy while hot!
The mango chutney I reference above is incredible, but if you are a fan of sauces and chutneys, check out my Chutneys and Sauces Recipe eBook for more delicious recipes.
This eBook is filled with my classic family recipes for chutneys and sauces. With a wide variety of mouth-watering recipes, writing this took me right back to my childhood. I was blessed to grow up in a family that shared in the love of traditional cooking and passed these techniques down from generation to generation.
My passion for flavorful cooking is something I wish to share with each one of you!
It is amazing how the addition of a simple sauce can literally transform any recipe. This eBook gives you many options for meal-altering, taste bud tantalizing, and recipe game-changers!
ALL proceeds from this book go to Underdog Warriors, a not-for-profit organization, co-founded by two incredible individuals who recovered from chronic illness using the power of Medical Medium® information, and who decided they wanted to give back. Underdog Warriors support those suffering who have been left without the financial means or professional support they need to heal by providing scholarships to help subsidize the cost of Medical Medium® recommended tools and supplements, as well as health coaching sessions for those in need.
Please leave me a comment below if you make this powerfully healing and core warming, Mulligatawny soup – I would love to hear your feedback.
To your health & happiness,
Muneeza
