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A hearty and delicious soup that will ‘stick to your ribs’! Grandma’s thick and tasty soup has fresh vegetables plus dried peas, beans, barley and lentils – it’s a meal in a bowl.
My grandma was a great cook. Although like many women of her generation, I never saw her refer to a recipe.
This soup was one of her staples. Sometimes referred to as “peas-beans-barley-and-lentils soup”, it was more usually called “stick to your ribs soup”. It was thick, filling, delicious, and basically a whole meal in a bowl.
On this page...
Peas, beans, barley and lentils
Dried peas, dried beans, barley and lentils were the backbone of Grandma’s soup. There was a large glass jar in her pantry cupboard that contained a prepared mixture of these staple soup ingredients.
I was delighted to find that most packets of “soup mix” contain some or other variation on this combination. Some have split peas, yellow peas, or marrowfat peas. Some have mung beans, some have haricot beans. They may contain pearl barley or pot barley. And some have red, brown or green lentils. But fundamentally, it’s peas, beans, barley and lentils in almost all of them.
Mix it yourself!
Of course, you could buy those things individually and create your own mixture. Honestly, I have no idea whether Grandmas’s soup mix was readymade or her own proprietary mixture. Either way, I’m happy to stick with a readymade soup mixes, as they generally give excellent results.
Stick to your ribs soup
The phrase ‘stick to your ribs soup’ was always used by my family to imply just how thick and hearty Grandma’s soup was. If you couldn’t stand the spoon up in it, then it wasn’t thick enough!
Long, slow cooking means that the lentils, barley and potatoes become fall-apart tender, and their starches thicken the liquid to give a substantial soup. Once Grandma’s soup is cooked and cooled, it will thicken further – or even set into a solid block! It should loosen up on reheating, but you may need to add a little more hot water or stock to get the consistency that you prefer.
Despite its long cooking, the beans and peas retain some ‘bite’ so there is plenty of pleasing texture in this dish.
Meat or vegetarian
Grandma’s soup was definitely a meaty dish. She would cook chunks of beef in with the beans, pulses and vegetables until they were so soft they were almost falling apart. Every bowl of her soup was laced with shreds of meat, together with chunks of carrots and potatoes. You can see why this was a meal in itself!
I haven’t eaten beef for around 30 years! So usually I just make this soup without it, and it’s still really good. This time however, I’ve used Tivall’s beef style pieces as a substitute, and they really aren’t bad! Don’t cook them in the soup though – they’ll just fall apart. Fry them up when you’re ready to serve, and add a few to each bowl, like a protein-packed garnish.
(I’m not in the pay of Tivall or anything like that! I bought this product and really liked it, hence the recommendation.)
Ingredients in Grandma’s soup
This tasty, filling soup has just a handful of ingredients. To make it yourself you will need:
- Onion
- Carrots
- Potato
- Dried soup mix – containing some combination of dried peas, beans, barley and lentils
- Vegetable stock – from a stock cube/powder is fine
- Oil
- Vegetarian meaty chunks – optional, and the soup is great without them
- Salt and pepper to taste
A thrifty dish
This delicious soup is very economical to make. It costs only about 50p per portion without the meaty chunks, or just over £1 per portion with them. Not bad for a meal in a bowl!
Stick to your ribs soup – A meal in a bowl!
I’m sure Grandma would be delighted that we’re still making and enjoying this delicious soup. And that it still ‘sticks to your ribs’!
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Grandma’s stick-to-your-ribs soup
Grandma's thick and tasty soup combines fresh vegetables with dried peas, beans, barley and lentils – it's a meal in a bowl.
4.86 from 14 votes
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Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Cook Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins
soaking time 12 hours hrs
Total Time 13 hours hrs 15 minutes mins
Course Soup
Cuisine British, Jewish
Servings 4
Calories 312 kcal
Ingredients
- 125 g dried 'soup mix' – dried peas, beans, barley and lentils
- 1 medium onion
- 1 large potato (approx. 300g/10½ oz)
- 3 medium carrots (approx. 300g/10½ oz)
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 750 ml hot vegetable stock (from a cube is fine) + additional hot water/stock to achieve desired consistency
- salt and pepper to taste
- 150 g Tivall vegetarian beef style pieces or similar vegetarian/vegan 'chunks' (optional)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
Place the soup mix (peas, beans, barley and lentils) in a bowl and cover with plenty of cold water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a lid, and leave to soak overnight (8-12 hours).
When you're ready to make the soup, drain the water from the soaked soup mix, and rinse well in clean water. Leave in a sieve to drain while you prepare the vegetables.
Peel and dice the onion. Peel the potato and cut into 1cm (⅓ inch) pieces. Peel the carrot, quarter lengthwise and chop into 8-10mm slices.
Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium flame. Add the onions and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add the carrots and potatoes and continue to cook, stirring occasionally for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the drained, soaked soup mix and stir well. Add the stock to the pan – it should cover the vegetables and pulses etc completely + a little bit.
Bring the soup to a simmer, cover the pan, and turn down the heat. The soup needs to cook at a bare simmer for about an hour or possibly a bit longer – until the vegetables are very soft and the beans, peas, pulses etc are completely cooked. Taste as season with salt and pepper as desired.
Fry the beef style pieces in a little olive oil for 7-8 minutes until cooked through. Put a few in each bowl and top with soup before serving.
Notes
This makes about 4 main course servings of hearty soup, or 6-8 smaller starter size servings. Nutritional values are given for main course size servings.
Nutrition
Nutrition Facts
Grandma's stick-to-your-ribs soup
Amount per Serving
Calories
312
% Daily Value*
Fat
7
g
11
%
Saturated Fat
1
g
6
%
Polyunsaturated Fat
1
g
Monounsaturated Fat
Sodium
38
mg
2
%
Potassium
575
mg
16
%
Carbohydrates
43
g
14
%
Fiber
13
g
54
%
Sugar
4
g
4
%
Protein
19
g
38
%
Vitamin A
7645
IU
153
%
Vitamin C
23
mg
28
%
Calcium
33
mg
3
%
Iron
1
mg
6
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Keyword barley, beans, carrot, lentils, onions, potato
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More fantastic hearty soup recipes
If this recipe has got you in the mood for hearty, filling main course type soups, why not try:
- Miso mushroom barley soup
- Sweet and sour cabbage and tomato soup with rice
- Creamy roast cauliflower and vegetable chowder
- Thick onion soup with grains and melty cheese
Or take a look at this list of the best meal-in-a-bowl vegetable soups from family-friends-food and around the web.
Finally, I ended up in a Wikipedia rabbit hole and found this awesome list of soups from around the world!
I’ve linked up this fabulous soup recipe with #CookBlogShare.
