Potato Soup With Indian Spices
- Total Time
- About 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2medium onions, diced
- Kosher salt
- 3medium carrots, diced
- 3celery stalks, diced
- 1teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- ¼teaspoon cayenne powder
- ½teaspoon asafetida (optional)
- 2pounds Yukon Gold or other yellow-fleshed potato, in 1-inch chunks
- ¼cup roughly chopped cilantro, for garnish
- Lime wedges, for garnish
- 2tablespoons ghee or neutral oil
- 4garlic cloves, minced
- 1teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½teaspoon black mustard seeds
- 1small green chile, chopped (optional)
For the Soup
For the Tarka
Preparation
- Step 1
Put butter in a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and a little salt and cook, stirring, until softened and just beginning to brown, about 8 minutes. Add carrots and celery and cook for 5 minutes more.
- Step 2
Add turmeric, ginger, cayenne and asafetida, if using. Stir to coat and cook for another minute or so. Add potato chunks and 6 cups water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a brisk simmer. Add a healthy pinch of salt and cook until potatoes are soft when pierced with a skewer, about 15 minutes. Taste broth and adjust salt and heat as necessary: ¼ teaspoon cayenne should suffice to make the soup fairly spicy, but add a touch more if you like.
- Step 3
Use a potato masher to crush some of the potatoes, then continue to cook for another 5 minutes or so. This will help to thicken the soup slightly and give it more body. Turn off the heat.
- Step 4
Make the tarka: Heat ghee in a small skillet over medium, but don’t let it get too hot. Lower heat and add garlic and cumin seeds. Cook, stirring, until garlic is barely colored and cumin seeds have begun to brown, a minute or so. Add mustard seeds and green chile, if using. When mustard seeds begin to pop, after another minute, add the tarka to the soup and stir in.
- Step 5
Ladle soup into low bowls, garnish with cilantro and serve. Pass lime wedges at the table.
- Soup can be refrigerated for up to 3 days, though you may need to add a little water when reheating.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Recipe is good, but the Tarka method is not quite correct. Heat the oil and add mustard seeds first. They take a longish time to crackle and pop and the other spices can burn if you put them in first, especially the garlic. Go in this order: Mustard seed. When one or two just start to pop, add the Cumin. When these sizzle, turn down the heat, then add the Garlic and Green chilli. Saute these on lower heat till golden and done, don't burn the garlic. Then pour the spiced oil onto the soup.
Made it, Delicious. It is important to pay attention to the act of "Use a potato masher to crush some of the potatoes", This determines the body density of the soup which makes or breaks it.
Leave it to David Tanis to land this gem just as I was asking myself what to do with all of these potatoes! So good, comforting, and simple. I didn't have cilantro, but I did have some sweet potatoes to include alongside the yellows. Amazing warm bowls for lunch on an otherwise dreary day. Thank you!
I made this and it's delicious. My husband likes soups rather thick so I used 5 cups of water. Looking forward to leftovers for lunch this week.
This may be the best NYT recipe I have made. It absolutely does improve on the second day--it even improved, somehow, between the stovetop and an accidentally delayed dinner 1.5 hours later. I used the recommended ghee and asafetida and squeezed a whole lime in at the end instead of serving with lime wedges. I used Russet potatoes, subbed homemade broth for the water, and subbed half the dried turmeric for a half inch of fresh, grated.
I liked this soup a lot. However I wish the author would be more realistic about the time it takes to make it. He says about 30 minutes; He has 33 minutes of cook time, but that doesn't include chopping the veggies and making the Tarka. So it's more like an hour. I guess it's my pet peeve; unrealistic prep times.
I can't wait to make this. Asafatida is extremely pungent. Please don't use it as you might a powdered curry, coriander or cardamon.
Luckily had all the spices and ingredients, but just under a 1&1/2 lbs of potatoes. Used a little less water, but kept other ingredients the same. After potatoes and water were added cooked for 5 minutes in pressure cooker with fast release added a bit more salt and cayenne. The soup with the Tarka was fabulous! Used a jalapeno for the tarka, but next time would use a hotter pepper. Nonetheless, it was easy, delicious and will definitely make again!
I found this deeply uninteresting, no real flavor and no oomph. I did follow the recipe, but this must really be for tender foot indian cooks, there was not depth, sorry.
Did i just make this?? Delicious
This was easy and delicious. I used some leftover homemade chicken broth but otherwise made as written. It was a hit with the whole family. I will definitely be making it again!
I liked it a lot, but i burned the cumin the first time. I recommend adding the mustard and garlic first because mustard takes longer to pop. I also made it into a stew by adding split peas which made it nice and beefy
This was so good! And the addition of the tarka just kicked it up a notch more! I didn't have black mustard so just used the regular mustard seed--and those seeds really popped--next time I might try covering the pan to save on cleaning seeds from my stove top. Can't wait to make this for my vegan kids.
Great recipe. The lime juice, cilantro and enough salt are essential to enhance flavor. I agree with another reviewer that in the Tarka prep, the mustard seeds should be added first and cooked until they begin to pop, followed by the cumin seeds and jalapeno.
This was very good! Added curry leaves to tarka. Felt the cilantro and lime were necessary to round out flavors. Salted much more than a healthy pinch in order for flavors to come through
Boring . . . but fixable. Added a garnish of chopped ripe tomatoes which helped. Added a few peas. Was good fix.
made as written without carrots or celery (didn't have) but used mix of vegetable broth and water. Sooooo good.
Added chicken Better than Bouillon to the water, extra cumin seeds in place of a lack of black mustard seeds in the tarka, and used MDH’s Kitchen King spice blend in place of the asafetida since it had it in there. Turned out excellent and very flavorful. Reminds me of potato samosa filling.
Also celery on the bias. And mustard seed before cumin and garlic.
I'm shopping/cooking now, and perplexed by the green chili, there are so many choices. What type of chili peppers have folks used and how much heat? Thank you David and to all for your helpful comments!
It’s great when garnished with a dollop of coconut yogurt and pine nuts, as well!
This was great. Added some cabbage and extra carrots based on what I needed to use up.
This is one of the best recipes ever--thank you, David Tanis. I've made it a dozen times; it's always delicious, but the better the potato the more sublime the soup. I tend to double the tarka now. We eat it with yogurt--and sometimes for breakfast with a poached egg on top.
Delicious, even though I couldnt help myself and also added some leeks in with the onions
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