Scotch Broth is a hearty Scottish soup traditionally made with mutton, barley, dried peas and whatever vegetables were in season, but these would typically include rutabagas, carrots, neeps, leeks, cabbage or kale.

My Scotch Broth recipe contains no meat. It is a vegetarian broth and I make it with vegetable stock. I hope that you will enjoy it.

Ingredients for Vegetarian Scotch Broth

Serves 4-6

2 carrots (100g)
1 white onion (100g)
1 stick of celery (100g)
1 leek (100g)
1 small neep (150g)
110g pearl barley (1/2 cup)
70g split green peas (1/3 cup)
Salt and Pepper to taste
2.5 litres of vegetable stock
30g vegan butter (2 tbsp)
2 tbsp parsley
150g kale (a few handfuls cut into bite size pieces)

Finely chop the onion, leek, and celery. Dice the carrots and peel and dice the neep. Try to keep them all the same size for a nice and even cook.

Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the onion, leek, and celery and allow to sweat for 5 minutes, but not brown.

Add the carrots, neep, barley, split peas, stock and season.

Bring to a boil before turning down to simmer for 1 hour or until the barley and peas are soft.

Add the kale 5 minutes for the end and make sure it is soft before serving.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir through parsley just before serving.

Vegetarian Scotch Broth will last for 3-4 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer. Add a little water when reheating if the broth has thickened up.