National Dishes of the World

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Cawl
Photo: Worm That Turned, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

soup

Cawl

A hearty Welsh broth of lamb, leeks and root vegetables, eaten with bread and cheese.

Eaten in: United Kingdom

Prep
25 min
Cooking
2 h 30 min
Total
2 h 55 min
Servings
6

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About the dish

Cawl is a Welsh soup-cum-stew that has fed farming and mining families for centuries. It is cooked slowly from lamb or mutton, sometimes with beef or bacon, along with potatoes, carrots, swede, parsnip and leeks, one of the symbols of Wales. Many households eat it in two stages: first the clear broth, then the meat and vegetables. It is traditionally served in wooden bowls and eaten with wooden spoons, with a slice of bread and a piece of hard cheese such as Caerphilly. Every family has its own recipe, and cawl reheated the next day, cawl ail twym, is said to be even better.

Main ingredients

  • lamb
  • leeks
  • potatoes
  • swede
  • carrots
  • parsnip

United Kingdom: Regarded as the national dish of Wales, eaten especially in winter and on St David’s Day, 1 March.

More: Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Cawl

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/cawl

Ingredients

6 servings

6 servings

Method

  1. Put the lamb in a large pot, cover with the cold water, add salt and bring to the boil. Skim off the scum.

  2. Add the thyme and bay leaf and simmer for about an hour, until the meat begins to soften.

  3. Add the onion, carrots, parsnip, swede and the white parts of the leeks and simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Add the potatoes and cook for another 20–25 minutes until tender.

  5. Lift out the meat, take it off the bones and return it to the pot. Skim off excess fat from the surface.

  6. Add the green leek tops and parsley, simmer for 5 minutes more and season with salt and pepper.

  7. Serve in deep bowls with bread and a piece of cheese.

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