Slightly more involved--but still pretty easy--pouch curry soup MacGyvering today! Partly because my partner interpreted "pouch curry" a little differently the last time he picked up some groceries. 😅
Under more normal circumstances, I would have been more enthusiastic about trying that earlier. In fact, I spotted some of the same tarka dal and bought another one to try the last time we were at Sainsbury's together, before the swallowing got so bad and I didn't even want to cook. They looked like they might be tasty in a fresher-tasting low effort way, and are actually made in India which generally bodes well.
Those are packaged as a little kit, with the pouch of cooked lentils/chickpeas/etc. and a couple of seasoning packs: in this case, one of whole spices to fry up first, plus one of "tarka sauce" containing the other seasonings to then add to the toasty spices and cook a little before pouring in the lentils to heat. Not exactly hard.
Anyway, I decided to turn that into a half-assed soup with some soft cooked rice added in. (Made in the Instant Pot using a little veggie broth powder for flavor, because logistics. Plus I just wanted to try a minimal effort rice porridge type deal cooked in there.)
Along with some extra fresh frozen chopped garlic fried with the spices, and chopped frozen spinach to round things out some.
Right after I stirred in the precooked rice and spinach, for about 5 minutes' simmering at the end.
It actually ended up smelling and tasting great, when I went to adjust seasoning. With rather South Indian spicing, which is actually a pleasant surprise here. (Cumin, black mustard seed, a couple of whole red chilies, and some dried curry leaves in the spice packet.)
I cooked that a little in advance, and have been letting the stuff sit for a while for the flavors to blend. Plus to cool down enough to blend up if I absolutely have to. 😩 Rather eat some with actual texture, but not sure if I should even try.
It's smelling good enough, and I'm hungry enough, that I may not be waiting for much longer!
There's enough that Mr. C is planning to eat some too, without the help of the blender of course. (And supplemented with whatever else he might want.) It's been at least a week since there was some kind of food we could both eat, other than last night's delivery Ice Cream Splurge. And honestly that's appealing too.
Oh yeah, besides the other pack of tarka dal we already had? He picked up a couple of other varieties at the same time.
Kinda looking forward to trying both, though I am extra reluctant to throw those chickpeas in the blender.