You need some liquor, some meat and some vegetables. Put it all together and that's soup. Rustic soup.
The catalyst for this soup was a lovely piece of lamb fillet that I found in the reduced section at the supermarket at a seriously knocked down price.
If that's all I had, I could simply pair it with vegetables and make up some stock ...
... but in the freezer, I had gold!
Some weeks ago, we'd had a Lamb Stew with a load of pieces on the bone. The lamb had slow-cooked all day and after serving, we had loads of liquor left over so the bones went back in for a few more hours of cooking. That was frozen.
So, from the freezer, we have some lamb bone broth.
I also collect all sorts of trimmings, stalks and what-not from vegetables to go into soup, which is usually puréed. All I'd collected was some tenderstem broccoli and asparagus stalks so they were easily topped, tailed and cut into small pieces.
Add some onion and garlic to the broth along with a carrot.
The lamb fillet needs almost no time to cook, so just slice it up and drop it in.
Reduce to taste, adding sea salt, black pepper and parsley for aromatics and flavour.
Last minute, brainwave ... it's spring ... Spring Greens! Shred some up and chuck 'em in.
Serve out into a wide bowl and get in there! Seriously nutritious broth full of goodness, full of texture and full of flavour.
Total cost? £1.24 for about half a pound of lamb, some trimmings, some leftover cooking liquor and a few veggies. Now that's good, frugal eating!
