KatrinaLoving.com

Irish Lamb Soup (sort of)

May 7, 2012

So I started to think about what to make for din­ner around 5:00 PM. I wanted some­thing rel­a­tively quick and I hap­pened to have some left­over lamb that I had slow-cooked over the week­end. So I went on the hunt for some­thing to make with the lamb. I found sev­eral inter­est­ing recipes, includ­ing lamb pasties and bub­ble and squeak (both very British). I think I’ll try each of those another time, but for tonight I set­tled on soup. I found a recipe for Irish Lamb Stew fea­tured on Eat­ing Well (see the link for the orig­i­nal recipe at the bot­tom of this post-thanks for a great dish Eat­ing Well!).

It’s been cold and driz­zly today, so soup seemed just the thing. Now to find out what I had in the house that could be used. After a quick perusal of the fridge, this is what I found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had just half a piece of corn and half a baked potato, some car­rot, onion, and a slightly wilted red bell pep­per, but as there are only two of us to feed in my house, these left­overs would work just fine. Besides, I tend to cook the Ital­ian way (i.e. the way my mostly Ital­ian mother and grand­mother taught me), that is, I rarely fol­low a recipe com­pletely, if at all. So, as you’ll see, I make due quite nicely with what­ever I have in the house.

I peeled and sliced the car­rot, chopped some red bell pep­per and onion, sliced the corn off the cob and cubed the potato. I threw the car­rots, bell pep­per, and onion into my handy cast-iron skil­let with a lit­tle olive oil, fresh cracked black pep­per, and some gar­lic pow­der (good in a pinch!). Then I hit the pan with a lit­tle Ital­ian sea­son­ing, dried thyme, and crushed red pep­per. I sauteed these just until soft­ened and then killed the heat because I don’t like mushy veg­gies, even in my soup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mean­while, I had a small pot of water boil­ing on the stove. When I had a nice rolling boil, I added a dol­lop of chicken stock, a bay leaf, some dried pars­ley, and some dried savory. I chopped up the left­over lamb and threw that into the pot, then let it sim­mer while the veg­gies cooked. Then I added the veg­gies that had just been lightly sauteed, along with the corn and potato, to the pot. I cov­ered the pot and let it all sim­mer together for maybe 5 min­utes, maybe 10.

I’d decided I’d like to add some rice, so I was also cook­ing a cup of jas­mine rice. I didn’t add the rice to the soup because it can get a lit­tle mushy, so I just put a scoop of rice into my bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I ladeled the soup over the rice and, Voila, din­ner in about 30 minutes–using up leftovers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luck­ily, I also had some crusty rose­mary bread and a Sauvi­gnon Blanc on hand. The soup was deli­cious, although it needed just a touch of salt. I don’t usu­ally salt soup too heav­ily, espe­cially because the chicken stock is already salty. But, I used a light hand with the stock, trust­ing to the lamb to add some more fla­vor (which it did!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, my din­ner was just a tad nicer laid out on my “new” vin­tage mid-century chrome and turquoise lam­i­nate kitchen table (I am obsessed with mid-century and this was a fab­u­lous find–shout out to Mid-Mod & More in Den­ver). And you can see a set of my owl salt and pep­per shak­ers there watch­ing over my din­ner. Fantastic!

 

Recipe (sort of):

Chicken broth

1 bay leaf

salt, pep­per, and any or all of the fol­low­ing to taste: dried pars­ley, dried savory, gar­lic pow­der, crushed red pep­per, Ital­ian sea­son­ing, dried thyme

Left­over lamb (or chicken or beef roast), chopped

Bell pep­per (any color), chopped

Car­rot, peeled and sliced

Onion, chopped

Cooked potato, cubed

Cooked corn (cut off the cob or use canned or frozen)

and/or throw in what­ever veg­gies you have on hand

 

***Orig­i­nal Irish Lamb Stew recipe at Eat­ing Well: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/irish_lamb_stew.html