This recipe is our favourite meal in a bowl soup. This recipe calls for 500g (1.1lb) of diced lamb. You can pick a half leg of lamb up from supermarkets at the moment for £8.50 per kilogram and dice your own if they don’t sell it diced. The long, slow cooking of this recipe means that you don’t need to but lean cuts, in fact quite the opposite is needed. Even better, support your local butcher and buy from them.
This serves 4 decent size portions and currently works out at £1.38 a portion. It’s a little on the expensive side but does very well as a main meal served with a chunk of homemade bread.
Ingredients
- 500g diced lamb £4.25
- 2 leeks, sliced and washed (apx 500g) 95p
- 2 decent size carrots, chopped in to coins 5p
- 1 large onion, roughly diced 5p
- 55g pearl barley, rinsed 5p
- 1 litre stock (lamb or whatever you have to hand) 20p
- Herbs such as a bay leaf, fresh parsley – or mixed herbs
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
Using your preferred oil, brown the diced lamb over a high heat for 5-8 minutes.
Add diced onions, sliced leeks and chopped carrots and cook for a few minutes.
Add pearly barley and stir through before adding the stock. Ideally homemade stock but whatever you have to hand will work well. This will thicken.
Pop in the herbs salt and pepper to your preference.
Cook low and slow for up to 12 hours. You can do this in a slow cooker, in which case you can throw it in and go, omitting the browning of the meat stage. I cook mine in the Aga on the hot plate whilst preparing and then in the simmering oven overnight, usually for 10-12 hours.
When it’s done, give it a stir through and taste to check the seasoning. It’s beautiful!
Our Farmhouse Kitchen Table 