Wholesome Meat and Veggie Soup

This is my mom's go-to soup. There's just something so comforting about it. It's the perfect winter warmer. 

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 2 hours 

Serving: 6-8 (depending on portion size)

INGREDIENTS:

• Olive oil (enough to coat the pot)
• 600-700g meat (I used lamb knuckles - but beef works just as well)
• 3/4 cup red lentils
• 1/2 cup split peas
• 1/4 cup barley (I always leave this out, coz I find barley way too chewy)
• Whole spices:
• 5 x all spice
• 10 x peppercorns
• 5 x cloves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 3 cups beef stock
• 3 cups chicken stock 
• 4 large carrots
• 1 potato 
• 1 tomato
• 1 turnip
• 1/4 cup chopped leeks
• 2 dessert spoons chopped  parsley
• Extra salt and pepper to taste

METHOD:

Prepare everything first:

1. Very important: rinse the red lentils, split peas and barley; and then throw them into a bowl. Add just enough water to cover it and allow it to soak OVERNIGHT.
2. Grate the carrots, potato, tomato and turnip  - I use my Kenwood electric blender with the grater attachment. I'm very lazy, so the only thing I actually peel is the potato. I wash the carrots and turnip with a brush. And I throw the tomato in with skin and all. 
3. Finely chop up some leeks and parsley. The parsley can be thrown into the electric blender. The leeks tend to get a bit slimy when thrown into the electric blender, so I chop them by hand. I usually buy a bunch of leeks and a bunch of parsley, prepare it all, divide it into portions and then freeze it for later use. You can also freeze the grated turnips in portions.

Let's cook:

1. Use a large pot on high heat. Coat the pot with olive oil. 
2. Add the whole spices, meat, salt and pepper. Braise the meat until all the "rawness" is gone. 
3. Add the stock and all the veggies. Stir it all together.
4. As soon as the soup starts to simmer, turn down to low heat.
5. Cook for about 2 hours, stirring intermittently. I put the timer on 30 minutes intervals, so that I'm forced to get up, stir the soup and reset the timer.
6. Right at the end, taste the soup (don't burn your mouth!) and add extra salt and pepper if necessary.