🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Wales
CawlWelsh lamb and leek soup
Wales's unofficial national dish, a soup of lamb (or bacon and beef) on the bone simmered with leeks, swede, carrots, potatoes and often cabbage, traditionally served as the broth first and the meat and vegetables after.
Origin and history
Cawl is often called the unofficial national dish of Wales, though it has no official status. Food writers describe it as a one-pot meal that grew out of the plain diet of farm workers, slate quarrymen and coal miners. Traditionally the broth was eaten first, then the meat and vegetables. The Welsh scholar Iolo Morganwg is quoted as saying a good cawl should be as good to drink as to eat.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 to 6 servings
- Total time
- 3 h 30 min
- Hands-on
- 40 min
Ingredients
- 1 kg2.2 lb lamb neck, on the bone, cut in thick slices by the butcher; or a mix of lamb and salted bacon
- 1 tbsp lard, dripping or oil, for browning
- 2 onions, diced
- 3 carrots, peeled, cut in thick rounds
- 1 small (about 400 g)1 small (about 14 oz) swede (rutabaga), peeled, diced
- 3 leeks, white and pale green in rounds; dark green tops sliced thin and kept apart
- 500 g1.1 lb potatoes, peeled, cut in large chunks
- 1/4 head green cabbage, optional, shredded
- 1.8 litres7 1/2 cups cold water
- 1 bay leaf and a few thyme sprigs, tied together
- salt and black pepper, to taste
- chopped parsley, crusty bread and Caerphilly cheese, to serve
Method
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1. Heat the fat in a large heavy pot over medium heat and brown the lamb slices on all sides, then lift them out.
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2. Soften the onions in the same fat for about 5 minutes, without letting them colour much.
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3. Return the lamb, add the water and the herb bundle, and bring to a boil. Skim off the grey scum as it rises.
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4. Lower the heat to a bare simmer (about 90 °C / 195 °F), partly cover, and cook for 1 hour 30 minutes.
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5. Season with salt and pepper, then add the carrots and swede and simmer for 30 minutes.
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6. Add the potatoes, the white leek rounds and the cabbage, if using, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes more, until the potatoes break when pressed with a spoon.
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7. Lift out the lamb, pull the meat from the bones in chunks, discard the bones and the herb bundle, and return the meat to the pot.
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8. Stir in the sliced green leek tops and simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
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9. Serve in deep bowls with parsley, bread and a wedge of Caerphilly. For the old two-course way, ladle the broth first and eat the meat and vegetables after.
Notes
- Cawl is made differently in nearly every household: lamb in most modern versions, salted bacon or beef in older ones, with or without cabbage. This one follows the lamb, leek, swede, carrot and potato core that the sources share.
- In North Wales the dish is also called lobsgows (lobscouse). Some cooks add a smoked pork hock for extra flavour and a larger yield.
- Many cooks make cawl a day ahead and lift off the set fat the next day; it improves overnight.
- Swede is hard to find in some places. Turnip is the nearest substitute, slightly sharper and less sweet.
- Welsh restaurants often put cawl on the menu around 1 March, St David's Day.
Adapted from Visit Wales, Cawl recipe, Christian Science Monitor feature on cawl, drawing on Bobby Freeman's Welsh farm recipes, and Wales Guidebook, Welsh cawl.
At the festivals
Served at 1 festival in United Kingdom.
Earlier editions
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February 28, 2026
🇬🇧 Saundersfoot, United Kingdom
Saundersfoot Cawl Trail
By Participating cafés, pubs and restaurants around Saundersfoot