For the original leg of lamb post, please go here.
This soup is a great way to use leg of lamb leftovers. I loved this soup so much I ate it for lunch three days in a row! It's not quite as good as the oxtail barley soup, but close. And a very good use of leftover lamb, because simmering the meat makes it just fall off the bone. The broth is gelatinized and is very nourishing. I topped mine with a dollop of sour cream and a pile of sauerkraut. The combination of sour with the broth and meat goes very well together.
Tips for Leftover Leg of Lamb Soup:
- Use the root vegetables that you have on hand to make the broth. After discarding the vegetables at the end of the broth making, add some new ones to the finished broth [this is not in the recipe]
- If you don't have saffron, go ahead and leave it out, I did not detect a noticeable flavor difference with it in
- Don't forget to add your leftover pan sauce from when you prepared the leg of lamb, it adds great flavor to the broth.
- I would suggest not putting the uncooked rice in the broth as the recipe says, but cook soaked brown rice separately and add to each bowl as you're serving (or freezing) it. That way it won't get mushy over time.
- This soup would also be good with brown rice noodles. Be sure to cook them separately and add right before serving.
- If you don't have time to make this soup after cooking your leg of lamb, just freeze the leftovers with the sauce, the soup will be just as good!
Difficulty:
Easy
Page in NT: 208
Ingredients: [this is the exact recipe from NT – please see above in notes for changes I made]
- 1 leftover leg of lamb
- leftover sauce from leg of lamb
- 1/4 cup vinegar
- 3 onions or leeks, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 3 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 red or green pepper, seeded and chopped (omit to be nightshade free)
- 3 turnips, peeled and chopped
- 3 zucchini, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- filtered water
- several sprigs fresh thyme, tied together
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed dried green peppercorns
- 1/4 teaspoon dried red chile flakes (omit to be nightshade free)
- generous pinch of saffron threads
- optional – 1 cup brown rice (for garnish – add separately after cooking)
- optional – 1/2 cup dried currants
- sea salt or fish sauce
Preparation:
- Place vegetables in a large, stainless steel pot with the lamb, vinegar and leftover sauce. Cover with filtered water and bring to a boil.
- Skim before adding thyme, chile flakes and saffron. Cook gently, covered, about 12 hours or longer.
- At least 1 hour before serving, remove the lamb and strain the sauce into another large pot. Add the optional currants to this broth and simmer one hour or more.
- Meanwhile discard the cooked vegetables and let the meat cool. Remove the meat from the bone and cut across the grain into small pieces. Return the meat to the broth and season to taste.
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I love lamb and any leftovers would be great for soup. I will wait for the cooler weather before making this. 🙂
I tried this soup too. I had leg of lamb roast leftover from a different recipy and used that. Problem was it did not gelatinize. It wasn’t an organic lamb so maybe that was why?
Olivia… I’ve had varied level of gelling myself. It really depends on the animal, it could have been because it wasn’t pasture raised. Try adding some powdered organic gelatin to the broth, or even a few chicken feet next time. Even though it’s lamb, two chicken feet won’t make it taste chickeney and it will give the broth more gelatin.
great ideas. thanks
Wow, really cook for 12 hours? Recipe doesn’t specify amount of water
What are you filtering out of the water?
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