Phoodie’s Lamb and Vegetable soup with Barley 7

Go ask the winner of the “2012 Hugger of the year” award for a Hug.

Good, wasn’t it!?

Alternatively, cook this and get the same feeling….several times over, depending on how many bowls you can hog for yourself!

I’m going to keep this post simple, in line with the fact that the recipe is simple……

In basic terms….You WILL.NOT.FIND a soup that warms you to the core more so than this one. Comfort food at it’s best, cheap to make, EASY to prepare and REALLY popular with the little ones! (Even the bubs….simply blitzed it for my 9 month old!) Note: although this dish is VERY VERY VERY simple to prepare, it has a longish cooking time as you want the meat to become like silk!)

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 brown onion chopped

1 clove garlic chopped

4 lamb forequarter chops (or shanks or 2 chops/2shanks)

6 cups chopped veges (I use carrots, swede, parsnip, potato, celery – it’s a winning combination!)

Water

1/2 cup Barley

1 tin Diced tomato

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

1) Add olive oil, onion and garlic to a large pot and fry off. You don’t want caramelisation or colour, just translucency.

2) Chop all vegetables into approx 1cm cubes. DO NOT BE ALARMED if they are not all equal in size. Yes, they all have different cooking times etc but this is NOT A CORDON BLEU final year exam and we are not going to be assessed for perfect “done-ness”!! By the end of it all, the vegetables will all be very soft anyway (STILL retaining good shape, but very soft).

3 ) Add meat in to pot and brown off. Not for long, just toss on all sides for a bit of colour.

4) Cover with water (hot or cold, whatever!)

5) Add Barley and stir. Allow for this to bubble away for about 1/2 hour. (Note: Barley not only adds another texture to the soup but makes it creamy creamy creammmmmmmy too!)

6) Add vegetables

7) Add tomato and stir through.

8) Pop lid back on but leave it ajar and cook for 1000 years. The longer you cook it for the softer and flakier the meat will become. (In reality, cooking for about 2 hours from this point is PLENTY of time, even 1 and a half is fine!)

9) READYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

Enjoy your “hug”!!!! :) Phoodie