Brian's thick meat & vegetable soup recipe - Recipes - BBC Good Food

To make the stock, rinse the bones and put them, with their meat, in a large pot with 2 litres water, the onions and carrots. Season. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 hours.

Remove the bones, which should be free of any meat, and discard. Sieve the stock, collecting the liquid in a pan - you'll need 11/2 litres. Coarsely liquidise the meat and veg from the sieve, having removed any skin or gristle.

To make the soup, roughly chop the vegetables in a food processor. Put it all in the large pot, add the stock, the liquidised meat and veg, a pinch of mixed herbs and the minced meat. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes, until the minced meat is cooked through. Before serving, finely liquidise half the soup then add it to the remaining coarse, chunky soup. For extra meat flavour, add 1 tsp meat stock such as Bovril. Season Stock For the stock, use fresh, meaty bones from the butcher. Pork and lamb rib bones are best. Or you could start with 11/2 litres of ready-made stock. Serve the soup with a sprinkling of black pepper and a chunk of crusty, just-baked bread.