Turkey Mulligatawny Soup Recipe
By
Kate Ramos
Difficulty: Easy |
Total Time:
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Active Time:
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Makes:
6 to 8 servings
The spices in this mulligatawny, a rich Indian soup flavored with curry and garam masala, will help you wake up from your post-Thanksgiving coma. We substitute leftover turkey for the more traditional chicken and finish the soup with creamy coconut milk and cilantro.
This recipe was featured as part of our Thanksgiving Leftovers photo gallery.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 medium yellow onion, medium dice
- 1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and medium dice
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and medium dice
- 5 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 5 cups turkey stock or low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups diced, cooked turkey
- 1 1/2 cups cooked basmati rice
- 1 (14-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk or light Coconut:coconut milk
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
- 1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems, for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
- Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. When it foams, add onion, season with salt, and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add apple, carrot, and garlic, stir to coat in butter, and season again with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sauté until apple is tender and onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle flour, curry powder, garam masala, cumin, and cloves over vegetables and stir until spices are fragrant and flour has cooked slightly, about 2 minutes.
- Slowly add stock or broth, stirring until flour has dissolved. Bring to a simmer and cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
- Add turkey, rice, coconut milk, and lemon juice and return soup to a simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in lemon zest, if using, and season with additional salt and freshly ground black pepper as desired. Ladle soup into bowls, garnish with cilantro, and serve.
Beverage pairing: Hecht & Bannier Vin de Pays des Côtes de Thau Syrah Rosé, France. Syrah and Indian spices typically go well together, but a deep, red wine would probably overwhelm the soup. The solution is a Syrah rosé, which still possesses some of the savory/sweet fruit of the grape, while delivering it in a rounder, mellower package.
Delightful recipe. We all liked my changes, though. We never eat turkey, so I substituted diced leftover garlicky grilled chicken. Also, I decided that rice would be kind of dull, so I used 1 1/2 cups of boiled chana dal. I also added a teaspoon of turmeric, which was a good move.
Oh. My. God. I have been cooking ever since I was about 5 years old. I am now 28 and I have made a lot of great food in my life so far. But I've got to hand it to you Chow for giving me one of the best if not THE BEST soup recipe that I have ever made. I made it to the letter but I substituted Wondra flour for the regular flour and just sprinkled enough in until I thought it would get thick...+READ
Oh. My. God. I have been cooking ever since I was about 5 years old. I am now 28 and I have made a lot of great food in my life so far. But I've got to hand it to you Chow for giving me one of the best if not THE BEST soup recipe that I have ever made. I made it to the letter but I substituted Wondra flour for the regular flour and just sprinkled enough in until I thought it would get thick enough (to do this though, you must know how to make a good white sauce to gauge how much four will thicken how much liquid you've got), you only need about 1/3 a cup of flour if that. I used turkey drumsticks for the meat, boiling them beforehand to make a wonderful homemade turkey stock that I used in the soup (which I added salt & pepper to taste), they are also a very cheap cut of meat (I got 7 large drumsticks for $4.50 at Fred Myers). Other than those two things I followed the recipe to the letter and had one of the most richest, tastiest, velvety, filling winter hardy soups that I have ever had the pleasure of eating. Bravo Chow, Bravo.-COLLAPSE
I just made this recipe. I omitte the flour though because my bf likes brothier soup and I usually like to cook things down to thicken naturally anyway. Omitted the zest due to laziness and just had no cilantro and garam masala on hand. I did put dollops of scotchbonnet pepper sauce as I felt the lemon juice cut a lot of the spices flavors. Overall pretty good so I will try it again following...+READ
I just made this recipe. I omitte the flour though because my bf likes brothier soup and I usually like to cook things down to thicken naturally anyway. Omitted the zest due to laziness and just had no cilantro and garam masala on hand. I did put dollops of scotchbonnet pepper sauce as I felt the lemon juice cut a lot of the spices flavors. Overall pretty good so I will try it again following chowhound directions.-COLLAPSE
I think the soup is delicious!
It has a kind of exotic flavor to it. Different, but good.
It was too different for my husband, but I love it. I will make it again.
I added some spinach. I may try adding some tofu to my next bowl, just before I heat it up. Thanks for posting it.
I thought this was a great mulligatawny soup and my family and I liked it very much. We ate the whole pot-ful - no leftovers as I had hoped. It was perfectly soupy and not at all stew-like. As another poster mentioned, the recipe calls for cooked rice, so perhaps that was the problem w/ the other reviewers. I didn't feel as though the spices or the lemon was at all overpowering. The subtle...+READ
I thought this was a great mulligatawny soup and my family and I liked it very much. We ate the whole pot-ful - no leftovers as I had hoped. It was perfectly soupy and not at all stew-like. As another poster mentioned, the recipe calls for cooked rice, so perhaps that was the problem w/ the other reviewers. I didn't feel as though the spices or the lemon was at all overpowering. The subtle sweetness given by the apples was lovely and rounded out the soup well. I've emailed the recipe with high recs to many friends and family. This will become my preferred mulli soup. Thanks Chowhound!-COLLAPSE
I just made this following the given directions except I used lite coconut milk rather than full fat. It was absolutely wonderful! I found it soupy but with more body than a brothy soup. I have to believe that folks finding it too thick are either cooking the rice in the soup or not measuring things correctly. This is likely to be a new favorite for post-Thanksgiving leftovers!
Does it really need the flour?
Important to note that you add the "cooked" rice to the pot, not raw rice. So it will not be that thick. I think.
I've made the soup twice and it is stew like. I cut down the amount of rice by half the second time and it was perfect. I think the spices are in balance and the lemon taste is strong, but I like that. I added tofu too, which worked well. My family loves this soup.
JoanN: We tested this recipe a few times and neither found the spices to be overwhelming nor that it was stew-like. Mulligatawny soup is called "pepper water" because it is a highly seasoned dish and we feel this recipe reflects that. Of course, as with all cooking, recipes are subjective to a certain extent and what works for us may not be pleasing to you.
This isn't a soup, it's a stew. The rice absorbs most of the liquid and the flour thickens what little is left so that it's almost the texture of a risotto. The spices are out of balance and the lemon is overpowering. Even adding another 5 cups of turkey/chicken stock didn't help much. I'm tempted to throw it out, but I just hate to do that. I'm praying that an overnight in the fridge will mellow...+READ
This isn't a soup, it's a stew. The rice absorbs most of the liquid and the flour thickens what little is left so that it's almost the texture of a risotto. The spices are out of balance and the lemon is overpowering. Even adding another 5 cups of turkey/chicken stock didn't help much. I'm tempted to throw it out, but I just hate to do that. I'm praying that an overnight in the fridge will mellow it out sufficiently to make it edible, but I don't have much hope.-COLLAPSE