Ravinder Bhogal’s spicy winter noodle soups to lift the January blues

Ravinder Bhogal presents a trio of intense, slurpable noodle soup-stews intended to lift deflated spirits in January, favouring heat, texture and sustaining flavours over creamy winter soups. Her khao swe is a Burmese noodle soup built on a hot coconut broth and a fragrant base of cinnamon, star anise, caramelised onions, garlic, ginger, chilli, lemongrass and makrut lime leaves.

The recipe calls for gram flour, chicken stock, coconut milk and chicken thighs, with flat rice or egg noodles and a madness of garnishes such as crisp shallots, roasted peanuts, coriander, spring onions and hard-boiled eggs; Bhogal notes you can swap the poultry for pumpkin, tofu or prawns.

The recipe lists Prep 15 min, Cook 40 min and Serves 4. The sweet-and-sour peanut dal with pappardelle takes inspiration from Gujarati dal dhokla. It starts with toor dal, turmeric, a long red chilli and raw peanuts, then a tempering of coconut oil, mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, cumin, cinnamon and cloves before adding ginger, garlic, chillies, tomato, tamarind and jaggery.

The dal is finished with lime and ladled over cooked pappardelle, with coriander and red onion to garnish; Prep 20 min, Cook 1 hr, Serves 4.