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Lamb Soup with Green Beans and Tomatoes

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Makes 4 servings 1x

Time 30 minutes

In How to Cook Everything Fast, recipe directions are separated into “prep” and “cook.” Here, we’ve made that distinction with italics for prep-work and plain text for cooking. This reflects the most efficient order and timing of tasks.

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Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for serving
  • 1 medium red onion
  • 1 pound ground lamb
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 large (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
  • 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water
  • 1 pound green beans
  • 1 lemon
  • Several sprigs fresh parsley

Instructions

  1. Put 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
  2. Trim, peel, and chop the onion.
  3. When the oil is hot, add the lamb and the onion, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lamb is browned and the onion is golden, 5 to 10 minutes. Spoon off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat in the pan.
  4. Peel and chop 4 cloves garlic.
  5. Add 1 tablespoon ground cumin to the browned lamb and onion and cook, stirring until fragrant, 30 seconds or so. Add the garlic, cooking and stirring for another 30 seconds.
  6. Add the tomatoes and their juice, scraping any browned bits off the bottom of the pot.
  7. Add 3 cups stock or water. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat so it bubbles steadily. Cook, stirring once in a while, until the tomatoes break up and the liquid thickens, 10 to 15 minutes.
  8. Trim the green beans and chop into 1-inch pieces. If you like your green beans on the silky side, add them to the soup as you chop them.
  9. When the soup has thickened, stir in the green beans if you haven’t already; adjust the heat so that the soup bubbles gently but steadily. Cover and cook undisturbed until the green beans are as tender as you like, 3 to 5 minutes.
  10. Zest the lemon. Refrigerate the fruit for another use.
    Strip the leaves from several parsley sprigs and chop.
  11. When the green beans are ready, taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve sprinkled with the lemon zest and parsley, and pass olive oil at the table for drizzling.

— Recipe from How to Cook Everything Fast

Recipe variations

Lamb Soup with Zucchini and Tomatoes Instead of the green beans, trim 1 pound zucchini and cut them crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Again, if you like the vegetables tender, add as you chop.

Curried Lamb Soup with Green Beans and Potatoes Heartier. Omit the tomatoes. Substitute vegetable oil for olive oil and 2 tablespoons curry powder for the ground cumin. Increase the stock or water to 7 cups. Trim 2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peel them if you like, chop them into 1/2-inch chunks, and add them with the stock in Step 5. Keep the lemon zest; instead of the olive oil and parsley, garnish with plain yogurt and chopped fresh mint.