Syrwa Tit / Meghalaya Mushroom Soup Recipe

Vidya Narayan

7 years ago

Officially bidding goodbye to winters and the month of February with this soup post. A delicious mini pot of piping hot Mushroom soup recipe called Syrwa Tit from the North Eastern State of India, Meghalaya.

While you must be wondering how North East Cuisine which is predominately non vegetarian delicacies, you would be surprised to know about some really wonderful healthy vegetarian recipes that are easy, light and uses minimal spices. The Mushroom Soup Recipe that I share today, ticks all the boxes of health, minimal spice and vegetarian easy to make soup recipe.

If you recall, last month I had posted a recipe of Green Peas Curry or Uti from Manipur Cuisine which was again from the North East Cuisine and a vegetarian main course dish. There are no masalas or spices used, just a touch of the chillies which the cuisine is well known for and plenty of vegetables and greens used to flavour the food.

Meghalaya cuisine is divided into 3 distinct styles - (1) Garo, (2) Khasi (3) Jaintia. (Source)

The Garo recipes are simple to cook. A Popular dish called Nakham Bitchi is an important Garo dish that is a spicy soup made with a special variety of dry fish known as Nakham.
Khasi recipes include a variety of rice dishes such as Jadoh which is the tourist popular dish too (Rice with Pork). Pork is heavily used in the recipes even in salads too. Same is the case for fermented fish too. Chillies occupy a prime position in their cuisine and there are no heavy masalas or spice blends used.
The Jaintia recipes include Mushrooms as the prime ingredient. They have local wild mushrooms that are used to prepare a variety of dishes. One such variety is the Tit Tung.

When I was deeply researching the cuisine to find some unique vegetarian recipes, I came across this paper from the Department of Bio Technology and Bio Informatics, Shillong, North East.

Since the hilly terrains of Khasi, Garo and Jaintia hills are tribal populated, there are many local wild edible mushroom varieties grown and sold in the markets. While I cannot procure the authentic variety of wild edible mushrooms, I decided to try the recipe anyways which was mentioned in the paper since I did not want to miss the chance of trying out a local, unique, regional and a lesser known recipe.

I have used button mushrooms as against the Wild edible mushrooms of the North East but rest of the recipe remains same including the Lai Patta or Mustard Greens which I could easily procure from the local market. Put together, this is a healthy bowl of goodness. Mildly spiced, flavourful broth that soothes the body and is extremely filling!

This Mushroom Soup is warming to the heart and body. It is not laden with heavy cream or a load of spices etc. It is simple, comforting and made in a jiffy. Narayan has been travelling like a crazy person these past few weeks and this soup recipe was just in time to deal with the cold and headache that normally one faces due to exertion, seasonal change and lack of timely meals. He felt better the next morning and once again I proved him right that consumption of green chillies is excellent to control cold and sinus infection.

Taking this recipe to the Shhh Secretly Cooking Challenge Group where we are paired every month to try regional recipes with secret ingredients assigned to each other. This month we explored Meghalaya and I was able to cook and share the Mushroom Soup Recipe called Syrwa Tit. My partner for this month's challenge is Lathiya S and she blogs at Lathi's Kitchen. Lathiya gave me butter and Mustard greens as my secret ingredient. Please check her blog out for some amazing desserts, bakes and Kerala Recipes.