• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Pick a meal
    • One Bowl Meals
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch / Dinner
      • Appetizers
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
    • Snacks
    • Drinks
      • Summer drinks
      • Cold weather drinks
      • Cocktail hour
  • Pick your protein
    • Chicken, duck & turkey
    • Meat
    • Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Vegetables
  • Pick your carb
    • Rice & grains
    • Noodles
    • Bread
  • Newsletter
  • Sidebar
    • Kitchen
    • Dining
    • Edible Garden
    • Food Tales
  • Newsletter sign-up!
  • Recipe index
    • By Meal
      • One Bowl Meals
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / Dinner
        • Appetizers
        • Salads
        • Soups
        • Main Courses
        • Side Dishes
        • Sweets
      • Snacks
      • Drinks
        • Refreshing summer drinks
        • Cold weather drinks
        • Cocktail hour
    • By Main Protein
      • Chicken, duck & turkey
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By Carb
      • Rice & grains
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Sidebar
    • Kitchen
    • Dining
    • Edible Garden
    • Food Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Meat Vegetables Lunch / Dinner Soups Stews

Welsh cawl

Published: 03.25.2022 » Last updated: 10.15.2022

Considered a national dish of Wales, cawl is a soup of meat and vegetables with no strict recipe. A warming dish served during winter, lamb (much older versions use salted pork or beef) is combined with leeks and root vegetables to make cawl.

Welsh cawl with lamb, carrot, potato and celery

We came across Welsh cawl on Tom Norrington-Davies’ Great British Food long ago. My first recipe was based on his but I have since done two tweaks to downplay the strong aroma of lamb. The first tweak is using vegetable broth rather than the liquid in which the lamb was simmered. The second is using finely chopped mint as garnish. Other than those two, my recipe remains the same.

Chopped onion is sauteed in butter and, when soft, celery is added. Sauteeing continues for a minute before the diced carrot is thrown in. The diced potato go in next and, finally, the cabbage. The vegetables are stirred lightly to coat each piece with butter.

If you’re wondering about the logic behind the order by which the vegetables went into the pot, it’s like this: Onion and celery for aroma and flavor so they go in first. Carrot takes longer to cook than potato so it goes in next to give it a headstart.

When the cabbage starts to soften, the vegetable broth is poured in and the diced cooked lamb is added. The cawl is left to simmer until the vegetables are done.

Welsh Cawl

Connie Veneracion
There are two ways to serve Welsh cawl. The first is to ladle the meat and vegetables into bowls, and serve them as a soup or stew with bread (and cheese, in some regions) on the side. The second day is to serve the broth as a first course, and the meat with the vegetables as a second course.
Welsh cawl with lamb, carrot, potato and celery sprinkled with finely chopped mint leaves
Print Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 mins
Cook Time 2 hrs
Total Time 2 hrs 30 mins
Course Soup
Cuisine Welsh
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 400 grams lamb - we used shoulder
  • 2 stalks leek
  • salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 large onion - peeled and roughly chopped
  • 2 stalks celery - cut into one-inch lengths
  • 1 large potato - peeled and diced
  • 1 large carrot - peeled and diced
  • ¼ head white cabbage - cut into one-inch slices
  • 4 to 6 cups vegetable broth
  • chopped mint leaves - to garnish

Instructions
 

  • Place the lamb in a pot and pour in just enough water to cover.
  • Add the leeks and a tablespoon of salt.
  • Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about two hours or until the meat is literally falling off the bones.
  • Scoop out the lamb from the broth and cut into one- to two-inch pieces.
  • Melt the butter in a pot. Add the chopped onion and cook gently until softened a bit.
  • Add the celery. Cook, stirring, for about a minute.
  • Add the carrot, stir, and cook for a minute.
  • Add the potato and cabbage, and stir until the cabbage is starting to soften.
  • Pour in the broth. Season with salt.
  • Add the lamb.
  • Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked and tender.
  • Ladle generous servings into large bowls and garnish with chopped mint leaves.
  • Serve the Welsh cawl hot.
Print Pin Recipe
Keyword Lamb

More Meat, Vegetables

Chinese sausage and egg rice bowl

Chinese sausage and egg rice bowl

Homemade Acharang kabute (pickled mushrooms)

Acharang kabute (pickled mushrooms)

Rolled porkloin with bacon, basil and rosemary

Rolled pork loin with bacon, basil and rosemary

Osso buco served with pasta

Osso buco pasta

A side dish of baby corn and asparagus in serving bowl

Garlic butter asparagus and baby corn

Albongigas (meatballs) and vegetables in rich tomato sauce

Albondigas

Newsletter department

  • #18 Cooking for Lent
    03.23.2023
    A few readers have emailed asking me to post recipes for Lent, and I tell them there is NO need for NEW recipes. Instead, they should try digging into the seafood, mushrooms and tofu recipe archives.

Sidebar

Connie Veneracion, Chiang Mai, 2020

Hi, I’m Connie!

Welcome to Umami Days, a blog that advocates innovative home cooking for pleasurable everyday dining. No trendy diets, no food fads and definitely no ludicrous recipe names like crustless quiche, noodleless pho or chocolate lasagna.

  • About
  • Recipes
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact

Potatoes and green beans salad

Claypot mushroom curry rice

Claypot mushroom curry rice

Macaroni salad with ham and cheese, carrot, celery, crushed pineapple, pickle relish and mayo

Macaroni salad with ham and cheese

Crispy tofu skin fingers with spicy honey lemon ginger sauce

Crispy tofu skin fingers with spicy honey lemon ginger sauce

Chicken, tomatoes and thyme in olive oil, with pot of thyme in background

Chicken, tomatoes and thyme in olive oil

20-minute shrimp curry rice bowl

20-minute shrimp curry rice bowl

Umami Days is powered by Apple, Canon, coffee & one bowl meals · Copyright © 2023 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved