Mulligatawny with Kabocha: Rich and Warming for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays {#12WksWinterSquash}

It's a good bloggy kind of Sunday. The rain is coming down with occasional bursts of thunder and flashes of lightening.  A tea press full of Hazelnut Honeybush tea, "Bringing Up Baby" with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant on AMC, and a big pot of aromatic Mulligatawny Soup is bubbling away on the stove.

This is my third foray into making rich and creamy Mulligatawny for Souper Sundays. (Here are the links to the The Daily Soup Cookbook's and Madhur Jaffrey's versions with their requisite Seinfeld 'Soup Nazi' references.) ;-) This version is adapted from the big, gorgeous, newish Moosewood Restaurant Favorites: The 250 Most-Requested, Naturally Delicious Recipes From One of the World's Best-Loved Restaurants. This is a huge book full of mouthwatering recipes--mostly vegetarian but with some fish. The Mulligatawny is the recipe that cried out first to be made. I adapted the recipe a bit to what I had on hand including adding cubes of kabocha based on my love of the pairing of squash and curry. A perfect soup for a gray rainy day. 

Mulligatawny with Kabocha
Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Favorites by The Moosewood Collective
(Yields 9 Cups)

2 Tbsp vegetable or coconut oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp peeled and grated fresh ginger
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
fresh minced hot pepper, cayenne or red pepper flakes to taste
4 cups water or low-sodium veggie broth
1 large carrot, diced
1 cup potato, diced
1 cup kabocha squash, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup diced fresh tomatoes (or 1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes)
1/2 cup cooked rice, optional (I omitted)
1 cup coconut milk
2 Tbsp fresh lemon or lime juice to taste
3 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (I used to garnish)

Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium-low. Add onions and salt and saute until onions are softened, about 10 minutes. Add ginger, turmeric, coriander and hot pepper and cook for another minute. Add water/broth, carrots, potato and squash and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add bell pepper and tomatoes and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes--until all vegetables are tender. Stir in coconut milk and lime juice to taste and heat through. Taste and add additional seasoning or lime juice if needed.

Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice or naan. 

Notes/Results: Rich, creamy and full of flavor. I like my mulligatawny to be lightly-spiced, with a little kick of heat at the end so I used small pinches of both cayenne and some red pepper flakes. The recipe called for fresh tomatoes but they weren't looking so hot this week so I used a can of diced fire-roasted instead. I also didn't add the rice to the soup as I prefer to have it on the side if I want it. Filling and colorful, this made a hearty but not heavy lunch served with warm garlic naan. I would make it again.

This is my Week 7 dish for the 12 Weeks of Winter Squash Event hosted by my friends Heather and Joanne. Feel free to link up your winter squash dishes during the week at the linky below when it goes live at midnight--or on any one of the other participating blogs.    

Just a couple of friends with soup hanging out in the Souper Sundays kitchen this week--let's take a look.
 

Janet from The Taste Space is here with Brazilian Black Bean Soup and says, "... lots of colourful vegetables superimposed on top of jet black black beans (Rancho Gordo’s Negro de Arbol beans). Bell pepper, carrots and corn with a dash of orange juice, cloves and liquid smoke for a Brazilian flare. The original soup was no-oil, but I opted for the oil-sautéed onion variation."

Tigerfish of Teczcape-An Escape to Food shares this Collard, Pumpkin Bean Soup and says, "I have cooked this bean soup (Tuscan Bean Soup) before, but this time replacing the "greens" from kale to collard. I enjoy making such bean-style soups - warm and wholesome especially towards the last few months of the year when it is typically colder; and this is also the time when I bring in the Immersion Hand Blender to better use - making pureed soups e.g Asparagus Soup, Pumpkin Soup or simply to make soups thicker."

Finally, this was a soupy kind of week for me here at Kahakai Kitchen. In addition to the Mulligatawny, I made this "What's in the Pantry" Garam Masala Red Lentil Stew inspired by the book: "The Seduction of Miriam Cross." Quick, savory and filling. (BTW--You can enter to win a copy of this great mystery/thriller by leaving a comment on the review post.)

Thanks to Janet and Tigerfish for joining in this week. If you have a soup, salad, or sandwich that you would like to share, just click on the Souper Sundays logo for all of the details. 

 12 Weeks of Winter Squash!

Have a happy, healthy week!