Old Fashioned Bone and Barley Soup with Vegetables Just Like Grandma Made

Frugal bone and barley soup is a nourishing and flexible winter-warming soup that can be made on the stove or in the slow cooker.

This bone and barley broth is one of my childhood favourite soups. It is basically a variation of Scotch Broth.

This soup is economical, nutritious, and delicious. And with the barley and vegetables, very filling.

It is also a perfect example of using meat as a flavour enhancer rather than the main attraction to stretch your meat budget as far as possible.

My grandma came out on a boat from Scotland when she was nine years old, so although I’m Aussie, born and bred, I have Highland roots.

This is why I’m throwing my glove down and saying that most ‘traditional’ recipes on the internet that use store-bought stock as the base aren’t so traditional. I was taught to make traditional barley soup using leftover bones to reduce waste and cost.

However…

You can absolutely save time by using premade stock! I do it often to save time, so no shade. But if you have leftover bones, here’s how to make the most of them.

One Roast, Three Meals

One of my favourite money-saving meal-planning formulas is this:

Sunday roast + 2nd meal from the leftovers + 3rd meal: soup from the bone

In the case of lamb, we:

• Start the week with a traditional lamb roast
• Make this bone and barley soup
• Later in the week, we have shepherd’s pie from the leftover lamb, potatoes, and gravy.

We don’t do it all the time, but I’ve found even though a joint of meat can seem expensive up front, when it is stretched over two or three meals, it ends up saving us money.

The thing that makes this process even easier?

A slow cooker.

Cooking the broth in the slow cooker overnight and then either adding the vegetables to the slow cooker or making the soup in a pot on the stove in the evening allows the full flavour to develop with minimal effort on my part.

Lamb and Barley Soup Ingredients

This hearty soup is made with just a few basic ingredients: leftover bone with some meat left on (see picture below), barely for substance, and vegetables for flavour.

Substitutions

Frugal soups like Scotch Broth are easy to make, as you can add just about anything you have on hand.

Don’t have Swedes? Sub in potatoes, turnips, or parsnips.

Like leeks? Throw some of them in.

Instead of cabbage, you can add kale or spinach if you prefer.

Sub the barley with soup mix, split peas or even other grains like millet – the consistency will be a bit different, but the idea of frugal cooking is to use what’s on hand or what’s economical.

Making Bone and Barley Soup

Step 1

Take a leftover lamb or beef bone from a Sunday roast and strip off most of the remaining meat off the bone (if any) for another meal.

Leave on as much meat as you want there to be in your soup. The idea is that it adds flavour without being the main ingredient, but you can add as much or as little as you like or just what’s leftover.

Step 2

Place the bone in a slow cooker and cover with water. Slow cook overnight or for around 8-12 hours (the longer you leave it to cook, the more flavourful the broth).

If you want to make this on the stovetop, place the bone in a large soup pot and cover it with water. Cook on a very low simmer for a couple of hours or until the meat is kind of falling off the bone. Basically, the longer you cook it, the more flavour.

Step 3

Before adding the vegetables, I like to remove the bone and strain the broth to ensure there are no small bones. Even with the big leg joint pictured above, there were a bunch of little knee bones.

Once the bone is cool enough to handle, strip all the remaining meat off and shred it.

Step 4

Add the barley, vegetables, and meat to the broth and cook on low in the slow cooker for 4-6 hours or until the barley is cooked and the vegetables are tender. If you have the time, add the shredded cabbage in later so it retains some of its texture.

Alternatively, add everything back into the pot and cook on the stove for 30-50 minutes until the barley and vegetables are cooked (again, you can add the cabbage in later).

Taste and add salt and pepper. I added about a teaspoon and a half, but add a little at a time and adjust according to your preference. It’s better to add too little than too much—people can always add more salt to their individual bowls.

Frequently Asked Questions

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