Mulligatawny or Curried Sweet Vegetable Soup with Lamb

Mulligatawny soup popped onto my radar at some point last year when I watched the Hairy Biker's make it.  As my children like curry, and curried vegetable soup, I thought I would give it a try but never got round to it until my local greengrocer suggested it as a possible soup for this week's Country Market.

I looked at various recipes, but as ever, ended up taking ideas from several.  And this is what I came up with, with links to my inspiration below.

The kids pulled faces when it was put in front of them, but wolfed it down for lunch on Saturday.

Mulligatawny or Curried Sweet Vegetable Soup with Lamb

Serves 3-4 

100g lamb mince or chicken or leftover roast
1 large onion, peeled & roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1cm piece of root ginger, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, washed & roughly chopped
1 stick of celery, roughly chopped
1 small sweet potato, parsnip or apple, washed & roughly chopped
1 tbsp sunflower oil
2-3 tbsp medium curry powder
1 litre boiled water
1 handful red lentils
1 chicken stock cube

Fry the  onion and garlic in a sauce pan with the sunflower oil over a medium heat until just starting to brown.  Add the lamb mince and ginger and fry for a few minutes whilst you chop the rest of the vegetables.  Don't worry about peeling the vegetables and apples, unless the skin is tough, as it is all going to be liquidised. Stir in the curry powder, then the rest of the vegetables.  Add the water, lentils, and crumbled stock cube and simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on.

Liquidise in a blender or with a stick blender.  Great on yet another snowy day!

With thanks to:
Hairy Bikers
Madhur Jaffrey
Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall