Mary had a little lamb... and it made some darn good soup!

I just might have to give MYSELF a prize for this one. The soup I started yesterday turned out fantastic! I invited my family for dinner this evening because tomorrow is my mom's birthday. I served a full meal--london broil, a side of spaghetti-and-broccoli, and fresh butter & sugar corn from the farmer's market stand--but since I had started that soup yesterday, and the smell was all over the house, I felt it was only right to offer some to my guests.

The rest of the meal was veritably ignored. They just wanted the soup.



It's chock full of low-carb goodies--garbanzo beans, baby spinach, broccoli, squash, zucchini and tomatoes. The lamb was very tender and not at all gamey. If you like lamb--heck, even if you don't like lamb--try this soup.


Chicky-Lamb Soup

In a large crock pot, combine:

1 pound boneless lamb neck meat
1 3-pound can low salt organic chicken broth (or, if you have enough, homemade stock from your freezer)
1 2-inch piece of celery
1 teaspoon salt (you might add more later on to taste)
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Set on low for 8 hours. Strain through a wire mesh strainer into a large bowl. Pick through strained bits to remove chunks of meat; return meat to broth. Discard any remaining strained bits. Refrigerate soup overnight.

In the morning, remove any hardened fat from soup. (My lamb had very little fat so there was almost no fat to skim.) Return broth and meat to crock pot. Add:

1 15.5-ounce can chick peas (also known as garbanzo beans) with liquid
1 28-ounce can peeled whole tomatoes, chopped (or use chopped tomatoes)
about 4 ounces fresh baby spinach, washed

Set crock pot on low. After about 6 hours, add:

1/2 pound bag frozen mixed veggies of your choice (I had some leftover veggies in the freezer from a veggie tray we served at the bridal shower that I used--zucchini, cauliflower and broccoli florets.)

Continue cooking for about 2 hours. Serve hot, with bread for sopping up the delightful broth.


Thankfully they left me some for lunch tomorrow.

Mrs.W