Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Scotch Broth
A thick Scottish one-pot soup of lamb on the bone, pearl barley, split peas, and winter root vegetables, simmered until a spoon can stand in it.
British (Scottish) · easy · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 120 min
~394 cal · 31g protein · 23g carbs · 19g fat · 6g fiber · 5g sugars · 9g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Scotch broth is the everyday soup of inland Scotland, made in kitchens from Dumfries to Thurso out of exactly what a cold country with good grazing and a barley harvest has to hand. A cheap cut of lamb or mutton on the bone is simmered slowly with pearl barley and dried split peas until the barley swells, the peas break down, and the whole pot thickens into something halfway between a soup and a stew.
The bone is the point of it, not the cut: it is what gives the broth its body and depth, which is why a Scots cook reaches for neck or shoulder rather than anything lean. Root vegetables go in small-diced, carrot and swede (the neep, called turnip locally) with onion and leek, and a handful of shredded kale or cabbage is stirred in near the end so it keeps its colour.
It is a soup that improves overnight, as the barley and peas keep drinking the liquid and the flavours settle, so many households make it a day ahead on purpose. Samuel Johnson, no friend of Scotland, ate several bowls on his Highland tour and said he did not care how soon he had it again.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1.5 lb lamb neck or shoulder on the bone
3/4 cup pearl barley
1/2 cup yellow split peas, soaked
2 carrots, small dice
1 cup swede (rutabaga), small dice
1 onion, diced
1 leek, sliced
2 cups kale or savoy cabbage, shredded
2.5 litres water
to taste salt and black pepper
a handful parsley, chopped
Instructions
1
Soak the pearl barley and split peas in cold water for a few hours or overnight, then drain them.
✎ Chef’s note
The soak is what lets the peas break down and thicken the broth rather than sitting whole in it.
2
Put the lamb on the bone into a large pot with the water, bring to the boil, and skim off the pale foam that rises.
3
Add the barley (or brown rice) and split peas, lower to a gentle simmer with the lid ajar, and cook about an hour until the meat is nearly tender.
4
Add the diced carrot, swede, onion, and leek, and simmer another 30 minutes until everything is soft.
5
Lift out the bone, strip off the meat and return it to the pot, then stir in the shredded kale and cook 10 minutes more.
✎ Chef’s note
Small dice is traditional and correct: broth is eaten with a spoon, not a knife.
6
Season well with salt and pepper, scatter with parsley, and serve, better still reheated the next day.
Scottish home-kitchen tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Scotland (Moray Coast). The Moray Coast is Scottish fishing country, where cold-smoking turned haddock into Finnan haddie and the silky soup cullen skink. Oats, root vegetables, dairy, and North Sea fish underpin a kitchen that also gave the world shortbread and, whatever the record says, haggis: the oldest written recipes for it are English, from around 1430, but Scotland adopted it so completely that Burns made it the national dish.
🗺️
United Kingdom. The country's most-cited modern dish carries a claim rather than a fact: chicken tikka masala's invention is attributed to Ali Ahmed Aslam at the Shish Mahal in Glasgow, an origin story that has never been settled. What is beyond argument is the scale of the change, with South Asian cooking now so embedded that its vocabulary is ordinary British English.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a United Kingdom meal
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Cornish PastyDinner
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Scotch Broth?
A thick Scottish one-pot soup of lamb on the bone, pearl barley, split peas, and winter root vegetables, simmered until a spoon can stand in it.
Where does Scotch Broth come from?
Scotch Broth is a British (Scottish) dish from Scotland (Moray Coast), United Kingdom.
Can Scotch Broth be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Scotch Broth recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Scotch Broth safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Scotch Broth take to make?
About 140 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 120 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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