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6 Min
16/02/2026
As British-sounding as Mulligatawny soup is, you might notice a part of its name is similar to the Tamil word for water – ‘thannir’ (tawny). This soup is inherently Tamilian, deriving its flavours from the sour and spicy rasam that already existed among the locals. It was the Indians who created it to please their colonial rulers, who were rigid about their culture and refused to adapt to the local food habits.
As the South Indian, simple pepper‑based broth called milagu thanni, consumed for warmth and digestion by the locals, was met with disdain by the Britishers. That is how Mulligatawny soup began in its story, and why it seems so out of place among British cuisine, who fixate on salt and pepper as the only spices their food needs. The colonial owners had the local staff make a spinoff with meat, lentils, rice, and vegetables, creating a heartier dish that suited their Western dining habits. Over time, this Anglo‑Indian version spread and now exists in a completely different culinary context.
Rasam is a quintessential Tamilian food, a very thin, watery soup eaten with rice. Milagu in Tamil is pepper, which is the main ingredient for this dish. The name mulligatawny comes from the Tamil words ‘milagu’ (black pepper) and ‘thannir’ (water). This original dish was simple pepper water consumed in southern Indian Tamil communities. It was comfort food and used for digestive purposes.
The soup quickly became a common dish among British administrators and merchants living in eighteenth-century India. During the British Raj, between 1858 and 1947, the fussy British colonists and soldiers refused to alter their way of dining, which included a soup course. Indian cuisine had no soup tradition in the European sense.
Servants watered down and modified milagu tannir to create something British palates would recognise as soup.
Indian cooks, under the British Raj, added ingredients to make the ‘soup’ palatable to Britishers and their expectations. They incorporated meat, tomatoes, rice, and other elements. The English added other condiments like cinnamon, ground almond, and fenugreek with other items from around the world. Flour and butter thickened the liquid to match European soup consistency. This modification happened under colonial pressure, as the colonisers deemed their own dining customs superior.
Mulligatawny fitted the needs of the growing, increasingly cosmopolitan English middle class. Recipes mixed their much-loved local foods and flavours like rabbit and thyme with more items from their exploits. The soup was appealing because of its versatility, as cooks could use expensive meats or leftovers.
An 1818 British cookbook, The Cook's Oracle, described ‘Mullaga-tawny’ as a fashionable soup, and a great favourite with “East Indian friends”. By 1845, British cookbook author Eliza Acton included three recipes for mulligatawny. None were listed as foreign dishes – the soup had been absorbed into British cuisine.
Recipes for the soup appeared in many Victorian publications, and The Nabob's Cookbook from 1870 has a recipe featuring 'fowl'. Each cookbook featured different versions. Maria Rundell's cookbook contained three variations. The soup evolved continuously with British modifications. British colonials brought the recipe back to England after service in India. It became a pub menu staple and appeared across British cookbooks throughout the 1800s and beyond.
If British elites in India had to take pains to highlight their European sophistication, their middle-class cousins back home had begun to find a different sort of status in consuming the products that colonialism brought back to them.
British women living in India shaped colonial food culture. They maintained household standards distinguishing elite British families from both lower-ranked colonists and Indian populations. Food became a marker of imperial identity.
This hearty soup is spicy and can include chicken, lamb, or mutton, while the vegetarian versions rely on red lentils for protein. The lentils naturally thicken the soup as they cook, and some variations use other types of lentils or add rice or potatoes for body.
The soup contains a variety of vegetables, such as onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, tomatoes, and sometimes bell peppers. Garlic, fresh ginger, and green chillies provide a distinctive spiced base that gives Mulligatawny its signature flavour.
A combination of spices is central to the soup, typically including cumin, coriander, turmeric, black pepper, chilli powder, mustard seeds, curry leaves, and dried red chillies. Curry powder is often used in British adaptations, while traditional Tamil versions rely on more regional spice blends.
Chicken or vegetable stock forms the liquid base, sometimes improved with coconut milk or cream. Tamarind, lemon, or lime juice adds more flavour, making the soup tangier and lighter that mellows out the richness of the spices and protein.
The soup remains popular in Britain today. It appears on pub menus and in British cookbooks. The modern version bears little resemblance to the original Tamil rasam. Current recipes include numerous variations with meat, vegetables, cream, coconut milk, and spices that would be unfamiliar to the original Tamil dish.
Mulligatawny represents cultural appropriation through colonial power. Indian cooks created it under pressure to serve British occupiers who refused to adapt to local dining customs. The British then claimed the modified dish as their own creation.