Baking
57 recipes
This must be one of the heartiest, filing, tasty soups you can ever make.
I first tried it in a restaurant on the NSW South Coast in Gerringong and searched to replicate it straight away.
What a smart and delicious way to use up left over lamb roast too.
When searching, I quickly realised it was quite a classic combination and a few options popped up easily. The most important thing to note is you can make this soup with any leftover lamb, which makes it a very quick meal – my preference is lamb shanks, preferably well spiced and flavourful. Add the shredded meat after the vegetables have softened and it will only keep enriching the flavor – you can’t over cook lamb as it gets more tender and adds more and more to the soup.
Feel free to swap out the vegetables with your favourites – ie the onions for leeks, the sweet potato for swede, or parsnip, or potato. Just check the cooking times as those will need to be added closer to the beginning as they will like longer cooking.
It is a very flexible soup, working around the beautiful textures of tender lamb and chewy, nutty, golden pearl barley.
Serves 4 – 6. Freezes well. DF.
Pictured: Lamb shank and pearl barley soup
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 lamb shanks, trimmed of excess fat
- 1 onion, finely chopped, or 6 spring onions
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 3 sticks celery, diced
- 10 button mushrooms, diced
- 1 tbsp each - ground cumin and ground coriander
- 400g can of peeled tomatoes
- 2 ltrs chicken stock
- 1 cup pearl barley
- 2 – 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
- salt and pepper
- Optional – washed, shredded beetroot leaves/kale/spinach added in last few minutes
Method
Heat half the oil in a frying pan over medium high heat and brown shanks evenly; remove.
In a large stock or casserole pot - add onion, garlic, carrot, celery and mushrooms and cook for 3-4 minutes or until vegetables have softened. Stir in cumin and coriander and cook for a further minute or until fragrant.
Pour in tomatoes and 1 cup of the stock and the lamb; stir.
Bring to the boil; reduce heat, half cover and simmer for 2 hours or until meat is falling off the shanks. Season well with salt and pepper.
Once the lamb shanks are tender, remove them from soup and shred meat coarsely. Return to soup and mix well. Add the remaining stock and pearl barley and simmer for ½ hour. Add more liquid if the soup is too thick. Add the Sweet potato in the last 10 minutes.
Divide soup amongst four large soup bowls and serve with crusty bread.
Divide soup amongst large bowls and serve with crusty bread.
Dietary preferences
- Dairy-Free with ingredient checks
