New Windsor, New York – Heavy weather calls for robust fare. Answering the SOS (“Send Our Soups”!) from winter-weary Americans, Café Spice has whipped up new artisanal soups that will “stick to your ribs” with taste and sustenance.
Ban chills with Mulligatawny. Ladle a bowl of Bombay Lentil. Play a game of Madras Squash. Revel in a colorful bowl of Beetroot Rasam. As you’ve guessed by now, these are not your grandmother’s watery chicken noodle soup.
But these freshly-prepared soups do resemble grandmother’s in several ways. They are not canned, frozen, or boxed, but are ladled into 24-oz. recyclable clear containers and sold in the fresh foods or deli sections of gourmet markets and grocery stores. The soups are also available in bulk for foodservice outlets.
The ingredients are fresh and whole, especially chosen for their lack of additives and contaminants. Even the seasonings are freshly ground for each batch. The recipes, created by Café Spice’s culinary director, Chef Hari Nayak, answer personal tastes, with chicken that is raised humanely without antibiotics and vegetarian fed, vegan, vegetarian and gluten free options as well as spiciness levels ranging from mild to medium and hot.
“My inspiration for these soups arose in my grandmother’s kitchen when I was a little boy in Southern India," says Nayak. “I knew food and everything about it was what made me happy, and sipping a good soup was the very soul of comfort and health.”
Café Spice Chicken Mulligatawny Soup is a mild version of an English recipe adapted from Indian cuisine. It contains antibiotic-free, vegetarian-fed chicken, lentils, yogurt and freshly ground seasonings. Originally, mulligatawny was a sauce served over rice, so this soup can be used in cooking, as well.
Café Spice Madras Squash is a mild vegetarian soup featuring the butternut squash that is so popular today, a rich orange blend of vegetables and coconut milk.
Two vegan soups complete the product line. Café Spice Bombay Lentil Soup contains a blend of several different lentils, with tomato and spinach. A freshly ground spicy garam masala, with ginger, garlic, cumin, turmeric, red chili and fennel seasons the soup. Café Spice Beetroot Rasam pairs colorful pureed beets with a tomato base, with special ingredients such as tamarind to satisfy consumer’s whims for a virtual journey to a tropical destination, if only for the duration of a mealtime.
Café Spice is located in New Windsor, New York, in the beautiful Hudson Valley, according to company President Sameer Malhotra, where “we are proud to be a large employer in an area that needs more jobs.” The company produces several lines of freshly prepared food products for supermarkets, foodservice and its own Cafe Spice quick-service restaurants and kiosks, including the flagship Café Spice Express in New York City's Grand Central Station.
Source: Café Spice
