* Rustic Mulligatawny Soup

I remember Mulligatawny Soup as being a 1970's soup. My mum used to eat it all the time when were kids.... Heinz Mulligatawny Soup - I'm pretty sure they still make it now. The smell was always so appetising, but as children my brother and I weren't exactly adventurous when it came to food. If it didn't look like a baked bean, spaghetti hoop, fish finger, sausage or Findus crispy pancake (remember those?)... we didn't eat it.

I think there is some unwritten law that all children believe they will become boring if they eat vegetables and that they have to smother all of the food that they do eat, in ketchup - then not eat it. This used to drive my dad completely nuts. He wouldn't have cared if he'd liked ketchup, but he didn't - and once we'd smothered our food in it, he couldn't eat our leftovers.

Ever seen a grown man cry, at a sausage being thrown in the bin?

I have.

The threat was always "If you put that on your dinner and don't eat it, you will never, ever have another dinner... ever." Yeeeeeaaaaah right. Like mum'd let that happen. We knew who was boss...

.. and it wasn't him.

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Serves 4

Prep time - 10 minutes

Cooking time - 35-40 minutes

You will need

A medium saucepan with lid

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter/vegetable oil

100g uncooked chicken meat (breast/leg/thigh - doesn't matter) - diced

2 carrots - peeled and diced

2 sticks celery - diced

1 onion - diced

1 turnip - peeled and diced

1 apple

50g red lentils

1 tbsp curry powder

1 heaped tbsp mango chutney

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 ltr chicken stock - from a cube is fine

Method

Heat the butter/oil in the saucepan over a medium heat and gently brown the diced chicken meat for a couple of minutes. When no pink is showing, add the carrots, celery, onion and turnip. Stir well, put the lid on and sweat the veg gently for 10 minutes or until softened. Giving it the odd stir to prevent it from sticking on the bottom.

Peel, core and chop the apple - add it to the pan along with the lentils, curry powder, chutney and tomato puree. Cook for 1 minute, then add the chicken stock.

Replace the lid and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer gently for 20 minutes or until the vegetables and lentils are cooked. Serve 'as is' with a dollop of fresh soured cream to garnish.

Or if you prefer - you can process it until smooth... but only if you absolutely can't help yourself.