Hearty soups for Burns Night

Looking for a hearty meal for a cold winter's evening? These two recipes from the New Covent Garden Soup Co.'s Great British Soups are bursting with flavour and are perfect for your Burns Night supper. Get stuck in!



  • Total time

    1 hour 15 minutes cooking

  • Prep time

    20 minutes preparation

  • Amount

    Serves 6 

  • Ingredients
    • 450g lamb (on the bone for more flavour)
    • 3 litres cold water
    • 3 large carrots - diced
    • 2 medium onions -diced
    • 1 large leek - finely sliced
    • 1 small turnip or swede - diced
    • 300g pearl barley - soaked overnight
    • ½ bunch fresh curly-leaf parsley - chopped
    • 1 clove
    • 1 bay leaf
    • Good pinch salt
    • Good pinch white pepper
  1. Place the lamb in a large saucepan, cover with the water and bring to the boil. Add the carrots, onions, leek and turnip to the pan.
  2. A froth might form on the surface of the water – skim this off every so often. Cook for 15 minutes.
  3. Rinse the barley and add it to the pan, together with the parsley, clove, bay leaf, salt and pepper.
  4. Simmer until the barley is soft and the soup has become thick in consistency, about 50 minutes. Stir the soup as it cooks and skim off any fat with a large spoon.
  5. Remove the lamb 15 minutes from the end of cooking and allow it to cool a little before stripping the meat from the bones. Discard the bones.
  6. Cut the meat into small pieces and return to the soup. The final broth should be thick enough to stand a spoon up in. Remove the clove and bay before serving.

Great British Soups

by New Covent Garden Soup Company

Book cover for Great British Soups

Great British Soups from the New Covent Garden Soup Company is the perfect recipe book for soup lovers!

With classic recipes lovingly sourced from all over the British Isles and further afield, Great British Soups is full of ideas for using local ingredients and regional flavours to create hearty, healthy soups for you and your family.