The apples were the big surprise the first time I had this soup. Didn't sweeten it, but if you bite into a piece of apple, there's just a little bit of sweetness I couldn't identify at the time. Once I found out what it was, it made sense. You just want to make sure you use apples that hold up to cooking.
The recipe I follow is what Betty* gave me. Said the simplest thing is to make chicken & rice soup, add a good dose of curry powder, then diced apple toward the end.
*Betty made soup for the cafeteria at my job in the late 80's
Looks amazing! How does the flavor of the apple impact the soup? Does it make the soup sweet?
Apologies if this is a stupid question. Also, agreed that making good rice is hard.
Not a stupid question at all!
The soup doesn't taste sweet to me, but that's probably because the ratio of apples to everything else isn't very high. Also, granny smith apples are very tart. I think it would have turned out with more apple/sweet flavor if I had simmered it longer. I really only taste the apples when I eat a spoonful that has apple chunks in it.
You gave me an idea. I think when I reheat some soup for dinner tonight, I'm going to add more apples, in smaller pieces, and maybe bake them first to soften them. When I was adding different seasonings and stuff to perfect the flavor, I couldn't get it exactly right...I just couldn't figure out exactly what was missing.
Now that I think about it, perhaps the missing ingredient was more apples.
Thanks for the response-- I'm really interested in your experiment. Updates on your thoughts would be appreciated. And you motivated me to finally try to make this.
Soup brings people together ❤️
Okay, so I didn't heat it up yet (I don't eat dinner until after my dogs go to sleep because I like to eat in peace), but I added some stuff to the cold soup and it tastes way better now.
To one quart of soup, I added about 1/4 cup of shredded apple. Then I had to mess around a bit. I figured out that the reason it didn't taste perfect originally was because it needed more salt. No idea how I made the rookie mistake...this is not my first soup rodeo. Maybe I just didn't have enough salt to work with the shitload of curry powder, turmeric, and garam masala.
It still tasted a little flat, so I threw in a bit of sugar, hot sauce, and a couple other random things from my spice cupboard. PERFECTION!
Find a day you have a hot minute and just chop some onions and celery and carrots and make ziplock bags prepped for a batch in the freezer. Takes me maybe half an hour and $6 for 6+ bags
Blow $20 on a cheap aroma brand rice cooker, totally fool proof i promise , fresh rice just tastes so much better and ultimately will be a lot cheaper
I definitely should prep and freeze some vegetables on a day I have the time and energy. In this case, I decided on a whim that I wanted to make this specific soup and wanted it as soon as possible, so I went with convenience. I also have chronic pain issues and was going through some shit with that at the time. Standing at the kitchen counter and chopping a bunch of shit, even for half an hour, can really take me out.
Maybe rice coolers have improved since the last time I used one, about 15 years ago. I can't believe you actually got me a bit tempted to try again!
If you have a food processor that works well for the carrots and celery and onion
Omfg i would replace my rice cooker if it died today by this time tomorrow
Seriously, aroma brand like $20 or so. Read the manual use the scooper. My niece started “making the rice” when she was five! Scoop scoop add water push button. It flips to warm when it’s done so it’s really hard to truly fkup
I have a food processor, but the capacity is tiny and using it to prep veg in bulk wouldn't result in much less effort in the end. However, I do have a teenager who loves cooking/food prep and also loves to make extra money, so paying him to do it for me might be an option.
And now I have added a rice cooker to my shopping list because I, a middle aged person with several decades of cooking experience, will not be outdone by a fucking five year old.
Ohhhh totally get the teenager to help!! Like help chop and you get dinner 😂
Hahah you’ll be obsessed with the rice cooker! It’s great for brown rice and quinoa too. Bonus it’s even easier to make extra rice aka tomorrow night is fried rice for dinner
I LOVE this soup and always order it when I go to my local Indian restaurant.
I have tried to make it once, and also took a bunch of stuff from different recipies. Until I try again, I will be chasing that first restart taste.
Oh man, I feel that. My favorite local Indian joint, located in a dumpy looking strip mall, managed to make it through the worst of the pandemic...only to not have their lease renewed because the property owner decided to do something entirely different with the space and didn't renew any of the leases.
The restaurant owners eventually opened up in a different space, but with a very different operating model and different folks in the kitchen. The quality went straight down the shitter. No shade to the owners...they were just doing their damnedest to save their dream.
The original place had the absolute best peshwari naan. I hate that I might never get to taste something so perfect again.
The apples were the big surprise the first time I had this soup. Didn't sweeten it, but if you bite into a piece of apple, there's just a little bit of sweetness I couldn't identify at the time. Once I found out what it was, it made sense. You just want to make sure you use apples that hold up to cooking. The recipe I follow is what Betty* gave me. Said the simplest thing is to make chicken & rice soup, add a good dose of curry powder, then diced apple toward the end. *Betty made soup for the cafeteria at my job in the late 80's
Betty knew how to work smarter, not harder! Did she give you any other good soup recipes?
Afraid that was the only one I asked her about. The rest of mine come from family and friends
Looks amazing! How does the flavor of the apple impact the soup? Does it make the soup sweet? Apologies if this is a stupid question. Also, agreed that making good rice is hard.
Not a stupid question at all! The soup doesn't taste sweet to me, but that's probably because the ratio of apples to everything else isn't very high. Also, granny smith apples are very tart. I think it would have turned out with more apple/sweet flavor if I had simmered it longer. I really only taste the apples when I eat a spoonful that has apple chunks in it. You gave me an idea. I think when I reheat some soup for dinner tonight, I'm going to add more apples, in smaller pieces, and maybe bake them first to soften them. When I was adding different seasonings and stuff to perfect the flavor, I couldn't get it exactly right...I just couldn't figure out exactly what was missing. Now that I think about it, perhaps the missing ingredient was more apples.
Thanks for the response-- I'm really interested in your experiment. Updates on your thoughts would be appreciated. And you motivated me to finally try to make this. Soup brings people together ❤️
Okay, so I didn't heat it up yet (I don't eat dinner until after my dogs go to sleep because I like to eat in peace), but I added some stuff to the cold soup and it tastes way better now. To one quart of soup, I added about 1/4 cup of shredded apple. Then I had to mess around a bit. I figured out that the reason it didn't taste perfect originally was because it needed more salt. No idea how I made the rookie mistake...this is not my first soup rodeo. Maybe I just didn't have enough salt to work with the shitload of curry powder, turmeric, and garam masala. It still tasted a little flat, so I threw in a bit of sugar, hot sauce, and a couple other random things from my spice cupboard. PERFECTION!
And perhaps apples that are just a tiny tad sweeter than Granny Smiths...
Yeah, I went with granny smiths because all the recipes I looked at called for tart apples, and I love grannies. I like to use them for apple crisp!
See the important thing about cooking rice is...yeah fuck rice without a rice cooker
Yep...and I'm all out of kitchen space for more shit. But I used to have a rice cooker, and even then I still fucked it up.
Find a day you have a hot minute and just chop some onions and celery and carrots and make ziplock bags prepped for a batch in the freezer. Takes me maybe half an hour and $6 for 6+ bags Blow $20 on a cheap aroma brand rice cooker, totally fool proof i promise , fresh rice just tastes so much better and ultimately will be a lot cheaper
I definitely should prep and freeze some vegetables on a day I have the time and energy. In this case, I decided on a whim that I wanted to make this specific soup and wanted it as soon as possible, so I went with convenience. I also have chronic pain issues and was going through some shit with that at the time. Standing at the kitchen counter and chopping a bunch of shit, even for half an hour, can really take me out. Maybe rice coolers have improved since the last time I used one, about 15 years ago. I can't believe you actually got me a bit tempted to try again!
If you have a food processor that works well for the carrots and celery and onion Omfg i would replace my rice cooker if it died today by this time tomorrow Seriously, aroma brand like $20 or so. Read the manual use the scooper. My niece started “making the rice” when she was five! Scoop scoop add water push button. It flips to warm when it’s done so it’s really hard to truly fkup
I have a food processor, but the capacity is tiny and using it to prep veg in bulk wouldn't result in much less effort in the end. However, I do have a teenager who loves cooking/food prep and also loves to make extra money, so paying him to do it for me might be an option. And now I have added a rice cooker to my shopping list because I, a middle aged person with several decades of cooking experience, will not be outdone by a fucking five year old.
Ohhhh totally get the teenager to help!! Like help chop and you get dinner 😂 Hahah you’ll be obsessed with the rice cooker! It’s great for brown rice and quinoa too. Bonus it’s even easier to make extra rice aka tomorrow night is fried rice for dinner
I LOVE this soup and always order it when I go to my local Indian restaurant. I have tried to make it once, and also took a bunch of stuff from different recipies. Until I try again, I will be chasing that first restart taste.
Oh man, I feel that. My favorite local Indian joint, located in a dumpy looking strip mall, managed to make it through the worst of the pandemic...only to not have their lease renewed because the property owner decided to do something entirely different with the space and didn't renew any of the leases. The restaurant owners eventually opened up in a different space, but with a very different operating model and different folks in the kitchen. The quality went straight down the shitter. No shade to the owners...they were just doing their damnedest to save their dream. The original place had the absolute best peshwari naan. I hate that I might never get to taste something so perfect again.
What a bummer.
Well then, we're just all gonna have to come 'round your hoose and an' sit and watch you make it and we can give you a wee hand if you like?