mulligatawny soup

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Dinners This Week

All our snow is gone. It melted over the rainy weekend. We are getting more sun, more frequently. And it is MARCH. I am GIDDY with the anticipation of spring. Normally, I love winter. And we ended up making the most out of this winter, spending a LOT of time outside and with friends (all masked of course; it’s sad that I still feel the need to add this assurance, but such is life in these mask-divisive days). So I am definitely sad to see it go. BUT I am delighted that spring is around the corner. (My husband, the killjoy realist, advocates caution around getting too excited for spring; it’s only March, he says, very reasonably; we could still have plenty of winter yet.) (Carla and I drove through a brief blizzard on the way home.) (NOTHING STUCK.) Spring means warm weather! It means meeting friends for walks in the park! It means firing up the outdoor heater and having friends OVER TO OUR BACKYARD! It means increasing spans of sunshine. It means increasing numbers of vaccination. It means we are moving ever closer to whatever “normal” will mean once most people are vaccinated. I AM EXCITED. 

My meal plan for this week doesn’t particularly reflect spring, though. It still reflects a person who requires hearty stews and warm bread. That’s okay. We can hold onto the pleasurable bits of winter a bit longer.

Dinners for the Week of March 1-March 8

  • Mulligatawny Soup and Miracle No-Knead Bread: Because I have mirepoix already portioned out and frozen, this meal is SO SIMPLE. And delicious. The only thing I have to think about is mixing the bread ingredients the night before. Everything else is easy peasy.
  • Slow Cooker BBQ Pork Tenderloin with Baked Potato: I guess my theme for the week is Easy Meals? Doesn’t get much simpler than rough-chopping an onion, dumping it into the slow cooker with a pork tenderloin and some BBQ sauce, and letting it cook down into fall-apart perfection. 
  • Chickpea Bowls: We haven’t had these in awhile and these are the perfect intersection of hearty and spicy. I add a bunch of bell peppers and a chicken breast when I make this for dinner. Maybe I will make a double portion so I can have some for lunches as well.
  • Hungarian Mushroom Soup: This is a recipe my husband recommended; he so rarely puts forth a dinner option that I tend to leap on the rare suggestions with great enthusiasm. This soup sounds kind of stroganoff-esque. It does require fresh parsley, though. I ABHOR parsley, but my husband and I talked it out and I am going to BUY PARSLEY and CHOP IT UP and PUT IT VOLUNTARILY into the soup. We’ll see what happens. 
  • Some sort of salad we can dip into all week: Not a whole lot of veggies happening this week, so I think I will get some lettuce and some easy toppings (cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, scallions) so we can have side salads should the mood strike.

What are you eating this first week of March?

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Good Things

We are in the middle of Day 5 of nearly solid rain. Rain is great, don’t get me wrong. And I’ve really leaned into it by making soup and spaghetti sauce for dinners and crawling back into bed with my computer instead of working at my desk in my (chilly) office. But even with these accommodations, it’s not the most uplifting of weather patterns. Plus, you know. There’s all the… You know. * Broad gesture toward the rest of the world. *

Let’s focus on some Good Things, shall we?

  • Questions. Carla has been SO inquisitive lately, like all of a sudden she’s achieved Peak Curiosity, and so we have been investigating some of her queries in the car line in the morning. (While parked. Because of the strict way Carla’s school is controlling crowds and monitoring students’ temperatures, parents cannot release their kids until eight o’clock on the dot, so if we get to school a bit early, we are just sitting in line, waiting.) Yesterday we looked up a.m. and p.m., today we learned the difference between tiaras and crowns. It’s delightful, the things that pop up in her brain to wonder about. I hope she always, always shares her questions with me.
The other day, Carla was so full of questions that I started writing them down so we wouldn’t forget any of them. Just in case you wanted a peek inside a typical morning at my house.

  • Décor. We finally put up our Halloween decorations, and I love them so. I don’t really know what I was waiting for? I adore Halloween – it’s such a low-pressure, high-fun holiday – but I was really resisting the act of decorating for some reason. I think the delay helped build up the anticipation for Carla, though. And then! Joy of joys! She HELPED ME put them up! Like, she was actually helpful and very careful and had Strong Opinions about where to put our collection of glittery pumpkins and how to hang the wall bats. It made the whole process both easier and more enjoyable. 
  • Outdoor explorations. Despite the rain, we went on hikes/walks both Saturday and Sunday of last weekend, and I’m still feeling happy about them. If there’s one good thing to come of this pandemic, it’s that my little family has spent a LOT more time exploring our local park system than we ever have before, and it’s been really fun. A good excuse to get outside in the fresh air, a good excuse to move our bodies, a good excuse to be together. Saturday was sunny and we went on a walk that took us up over a river valley, with some really spectacular views of the river and the fall foliage. Sunday was rainy, and yet we trudged through a deliciously creepy forest until we reached a beach and then walked on the sand and skipped rocks in the pounding surf while the rain pelted us. We got absolutely soaked but I think that made it feel more like an adventure. I’m already looking forward to our next excursion. 
A break in the rain.
  • Target drive up. This continues to be one of the best innovations of the pandemic. It is so easy to order something from the Target app in the morning, and then swing by Target after I pick up Carla from school. They have really fine-tuned the system so that the staff member is walking out of Target with my purchases almost immediately once I’ve arrived. And sometimes lately they have been adding little free samples of things to my bags. It’s very convenient and I love that if they don’t, in fact, have your item in stock, they will ship it to you for free. Do I wish that they offered more food items for drive up? Or anything Lysol-related? Or hand sanitizer or bleach spray or sanitizing wipes? Yes, obviously. But I understand why those things aren’t available, or are so quick to fly off the shelves that they don’t even try. It’s still a very good thing. 
  • A full night’s sleep. I’m in the midst of one of those wake-up-every-morning-at-3:30 sleep patterns. And worse, I have been unable to get back to sleep after I wake up. Sometimes I lie awake for hours, going through all my Get Back to Sleep strategies. There’s nothing worse than finally drifting off to sleep at six, only to have your alarm wake you up thirty minutes later. The whole thing is AWFUL, is what it is. It leaves me bleary and teary and crabby. But! Last night! I fell asleep at about ten o’clock and didn’t wake up until six! (Well, okay, I woke up around one to pee, but I don’t count that because I was able to get back to sleep right away.) One night of solid sleep will do wonders for a person’s soul. 
  • Mums. It seems like all of September I kept seeing mums everywhere. Mums for sale! Mums on porches! Mums hanging from hooks! Mums in fluffy rows outside of grocery stores! So many mums! I got serious mum envy. So a couple of weekends ago, I finally decided that I needed some. I’m not so great at keeping flowers alive; my landscaping preferences tend toward easy and low maintenance. But I found some mums – and, so late in the season, they were HALF OFF – and bought four burgundy mums and two yellow ones PLUS two decorative kale? kales? heads of kale and I am just so PLEASED with them. I have two big planters in the backyard where I planted some as-it-turns-out NOT deer resistant flowers during the summer, and I added one burgundy mum each to those, plus a head of kale. And then I put four smaller planters with one mum each on the front porch – burgundy and yellow – and added a couple of pumpkins. If I were to do it again next year (which, why not?!?!?!), I might try to get some fun fallish grasses or something, to fill out the bigger planters. 
Neither my mums nor my kale; mumspiration
  • Fall toasties.  I made these WONDERFUL fall treats this past weekend: a slice of sourdough bread spread with some apple and onion jam, topped with a slice of apple and a slice of brie, baked until the brie has melted all over the top of the bread and apple. SO GOOD.
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Mulligatawny Soup

My mom used to make this soup for Christmas Eve dinner. It seems like it was something she did every single year of my childhood, and a few years beyond that. So even now that I’ve adapted the recipe and eat it throughout the year, the scent and the flavors still carry a frisson of Christmas.

It’s such a good soup. It’s hearty. It’s adaptable. It’s forgiving. The leftovers are great. And it’s EASY.

Mulligatawny 3

The original recipe comes from Joy of Cooking, which, as you can see from the cover, is a much-loved cookbook in our house.

Mulligatawny 1

My husband and I have tweaked it a bit, over the years, to our liking. I have recently discovered that it works well in the crockpot, but it is also very easy to make on the stove.

Mulligatawny 2

Mulligatawny Soup (adapted from Joy of Cooking)

Servings: 6-8, depending on what you consider a serving

Ingredients:

4 stalks of celery, diced

2 large carrots, diced

1 cup diced onion

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 Tbsp flour

1 1/2 Tbsp curry powder

2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

8 cups low-sodium chicken stock

2 bay leaves

1/4 to 1 cup uncooked or 1/2 to 2 cups cooked long-grain rice, depending on whether you want a more brothy soup or a more stewy soup

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 cup milk, warmed

1/2 cup diced green apple (optional)

Mulligatawny 4

Directions:

Crockpot Version

  1. In a small saucepan on medium heat, melt butter and vegetable oil together.
  2. Add onion, celery, and carrot; sauté lightly until onion is translucent and veggies are slightly softened.
  3. Add flour and curry to the veggies; stir and cook until fragrant, about one minute.
  4. Spray insert of slow cooker with cooking spray.
  5. Add cooked veggies, raw chicken breasts, stock, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and thyme; stir.
  6. Add uncooked rice.
  7. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4 hours. (Check temperature of chicken before eating.)
  8. Before serving, warm the milk and add it to the slow cooker. Add optional diced apples at this point as well.
  9. Remove chicken and shred; return to pot.
  10. Remove bay leaves.
  11. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

Stovetop Version

Note: Ingredients are the same, except the rice and chicken should already be cooked.

  1. In a large stockpot on medium heat, melt butter and vegetable oil together.
  2. Add onion, celery, and carrot; sauté lightly until onion is translucent and veggies are slightly softened.
  3. Add flour and curry to the veggies; stir and cook until fragrant, about one minute.
  4. Add stock, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and thyme; stir.
  5. Bring to a boil; simmer for 15 minutes.
  6. Add shredded cooked chicken, cooked rice, and optional diced apples.
  7. Simmer for 15 minutes.
  8. Immediately before serving, add warmed milk.
  9. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

Notes:

  1. This is a very forgiving and adaptable recipe. You can add more or less chicken, more or less rice, more or less milk. Sometimes I have left out the milk altogether.
  2. You can substitute half and half, heavy cream, or coconut milk for the milk.
  3. You can add a squeeze of lemon to the soup before serving, for a little brightness.
  4. It is very simple to cut this recipe in half, but the leftovers freeze well.
  5. I do not think the apples add anything to the recipe, but my husband likes them.

 

Enjoy!

Mulligatawny 5